Yolanda Griffith

Yolanda Griffith was a basketball player who won gold medals at the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games. Playing the 5 spot, she is considered one of the greatest rebounders and basket defenders in women’s basketball history.

Griffith started at Palm Beach Junior College but eventually played at then D-2 Florida Atlantic University. She graduated in 1993, also being named the D-2 Player of the Year. After college she initially played in Germany with the DJK Wildcats Aschaffenburg, where she was the top scorer and rebounder in the 1997 Euroleague Women, averaging 24.7 points and 16.0 rebounds per game.

In 1997 she joined the Long Beach Stingrays of the American Basketball League (ABL). Long Beach folded after that year, so Griffith was assigned to the Chicago Condors, with whom she earned All-ABL First-Team honors and was named the league’s Defensive Player of the Year.

In 1999 Griffith moved to the WNBA, where she played with the Sacramento Monarchs from 1999-2007. She finished her WNBA career with stints with the Seattle Storm (2008) and Indiana Fever (2009). She also continued to play overseas, from 2000-02 with Lavezzini Basket Parma in Italy, and in 2003/04 and 2005/06 with Russia’s UMMC Ekaterinburg.

After her playing career ended Griffith became a coach. She was an assistant coach at Dartmouth University in 2011-12, and then the head assistant at Lafayette College, the University of Albany, and Boston College.

Griffith earned numerous honors in her playing days. She led the Sacramento Monarchs to the 2005 WNBA title, and was named the league MVP and MVP of the finals that year. She was an eight-time WNBA All-Star (1999-2001, 2003-07), was twice named to the All-WNBA First Team (1999, 2005), and three times to the Second Team (2000-01, 2004). She was the 1999 WNBA Defensive Player of the Year and twice led the WNBA in rebounding, in 1999 and 2001. In the Russian League she was Player of the Year in 2005.

Griffith was named to the WNBA 10th Anniversary Team in 2006, their 15th Anniversary Team in 2011, their 20th Anniversary Team in 2016, and their 25th Anniversary Team in 2021. In 2014 she was named to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in her first year of eligibility and was also inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.