Sheryl Swoopes

Sheryl Swoopes was a small forward who was considered one of the greatest female hoopsters ever. Swoopes played in college at Texas Tech University. She won the Honda Award for basketball in her senior year and also was named Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year in 1993. Swoopes played for the US at the 1996, 2000, and 2004 Olympics, winning three gold medals. Internationally she also won gold medals at the 1998 and 2002 World Championships (now World Cup) and the 1994 Goodwill Games.

Swoopes was selected by the Houston Comets in the 1997 WNBA Draft and played with the Comets from 1997-2007. She seemingly finished her career in 2008 after a year with the year Seattle Storm but she returned in 2011 and played parts of one season with the Tulsa Shock.

Swoopes led the Comets to four consecutive WNBA titles in 1997-2000, and a WNBA All-Star in 1999-2000, 2002-03, and 2005-06. She was the league MVP in 2000, 2002, and 2005, and was first-team All-WNBA in 1998-2000, 2002, and 2005. Swoopes led the league in scoring in 2000 and 2005 and was defensive player of the year in 2000 and 2002-03. She was a six-time WNBA All-Star and was named the All-Star Game MVP in 2005.

Swoopes played professionally in Europe for several years, starting with Basket Bari in Italy in 1993-94. She played in Russia in 2004-05 with VBM-SGAU Samara, was back in Italy in 2005-06 with Cras Basket. Near the end of her career she played one season in 2010 with Esperides Kallitheas in Greece.

Swoopes went into coaching, first at Mercer Island High School in 2009-10, and then was head coach at Loyola of Illinois from 2013-16. She later was named director of player development at Texas Tech and in 2018 became an assistant coach there. Swoopes is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame and the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.