The former UConn stars are on the ballot for the first time.
Former UConn greats Sue Bird and Maya Moore are finalists for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame’s class of 2025. They’re each on the ballot for the first time and should be shoe-ins.
Bird played for the Huskies from 1998-2002, winning two national championships (2000, 2002) while also earning First Team All-American and national player of the year honors as a senior.
She arguably made a bigger impact as a pro, where she spent her entire 21-year career with the Seattle Storm. In that time, Bird won four titles (2004, 2010, 2018, 2022) and earned eight All-WNBA selections. The only player in league history to appear in 550 games, she’s also the all-time assists leader. The Syosset, New York native retired following the 2022 season.
On the international stage, Bird won five Olympic gold medals and four World Cups with Team USA. All in all, she’s regarded as the greatest point guard in women’s basketball history.
As for Moore, she played at UConn from 2007-11 and also won a pair of titles in 2009 and 2010. She graduated as the program’s only 3,000-point scorer with 3,036 in her career and became the second player in women’s basketball history to be a four-time All-American. Moore also nabbed national player of the year honors in three seasons.
The No. 1 pick in the 2011 WNBA Draft by the Minnesota Lynx, Moore went on to win four titles and also claimed the MVP in 2014. Internationally, she won two Olympic gold medals.
In 2019, Moore stepped away from basketball to help fight for the release of Jonathan Irons, a family friend who was wrongfully imprisoned for over 20 years. His conviction was overturned in March 2020 and he walked free that July. Moore and Irons married soon after and eventually welcomed their first child in 2022.
She officially retired from basketball in Jan. 2023.
When they’re inevitably inducted — whether this year or in the near future — they’ll join Geno Auriemma, Rebecca Lobo and Swin Cash as the other members of the UConn women’s basketball program in the Naismith Hall of Fame.
Bird’s No. 10 and Moore’s No. 23 will then be retired alongside Lobo’s No. 50 and Cash’s No. 23 in the rafters at Gampel Pavilion.
Bird and Moore are among 17 finalists for the class of 2025 and one of four presented by the women’s committee alongside Jennifer Azzi (who Azzi Fudd is named after) and Sylvia Fowles.