Tulsa Shock’s coach Teresa Edwards to be Inducted into Hall Of Fame by Charles Barkley - NBA News
The current Tulsa Shock coach and ex-WNBA star, Teresa Edwards, is scheduled to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, come August 12. Her induction will be carried out by former NBA legend Sir Charles Barkley and former Olympic superstar Ann Meyers.
Charles Barkley, who is himself one of the all time greats of NBA, recently termed Teresa Edwards as the best Women’s basketball player ever to have played the game. Barkley himself was an outstanding asset to the game and as a centre, he averaged 22.1 points per game, 11.7 rebounds per game and 3.9 assists per game.
Meyers on the other hand is a former UCLA and Olympic star, who is acting president of the Phoenix Mercury.
This will be Edwards’ seventh Hall of Fame induction and last week she stated that this might be the most important of them all. She showed very high regard for both Barkley and Meyers, and described it as a truly special moment in her life.
However, Edwards is currently facing a dilemma as to whether she should attend the awards on August 12 or attend her team’s (Tulsa Shock) game in Seattle on August 11. It is highly unlikely that she will be able to make a journey 2489 miles, from Seattle to Washington, overnight. This complemented by the fact that her team is on a 12 game losing streak makes her departure even more difficult.
"The most glaring thing on my mind is leaving my team," Edwards said during an interview last month. "I know the Hall of Fame people don't want to hear that, but I don't want to leave my girls for a game” she stated.
Edwards also expressed great joy at the thought of being in close company of other to-be-inducted Hall of Famers.
"I"m excited to be going in and meeting some of the guys, Dennis (Rodman) and the cats ... (Stanford coach) Tara (VanDerveer) is going in ... it's just a special honour to be in the same company as them."
Edwards has truly been a legend in women basketball and her record speaks for itself. She is the only player in the history of US basketball to have competed in five Olympics and won medals in all of them. She earned four gold medals to go along with one bronze. Moreover, she also holds the honour of being the youngest as well as the oldest player to win a gold medal at the Olympics.
In early 2000, the magazine ‘Sports Illustrated’, ranked her at the 22nd position on the "100 Greatest Female Athletes of the 20th Century" list. Initially, Edwards refused to play in the WNBA due to the minimum salary that she would have received on account of having a WNBA ‘rookie’ status. However, she did eventually join the Minnesota Lynx in 2003.
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