Zheng Haixia, former center of the Chinese women's national basketball team. /CFP
Nine players and three coaches were on the list for the FIBA Hall of Fame Class of 2021, announced by the world basketball governing body on Thursday. The former center of the Chinese women's national basketball team, Zheng Haixia, was one of them.
The full list comes as following:
Players
Mathieu Faye (Senegal)
Hana Horakova (Czech Republic)
Stanislav Kropilak (Slovakia)
Oscar Moglia (Uruguay – posthumously)
Detlef Schrempf (Germany)
Penka Stoyanova (Bulgaria – posthumously)
Sergey Tarakanov (Russia)
Panagiotis Giannakis (Greece)
Zheng Haixia (China)
Coaches
Chuck Daly (USA – posthumously)
Tom Maher (Australia)
Ettore Messina (Italy)
Zheng Haixia (#11) of China in the game against Team USA at the Palestra in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., April 13, 1996. /CFP
"These 12 basketball legends that hail from 12 different countries across six continents collectively captured nine Olympic medals, achieved six World Cup and 23 Continental Cup podium finishes. They also accounted for 75 club competition championships and 12 international club competition titles," said FIBA in the announcement.
Zheng, Faye, Kropilak and Schrempf are the first players of their countries to enter the FIBA Hall of Fame. Back in 2019, Chinese basketball legend Mou Zuoyun was inducted as a coach.
Zheng has played four Summer Olympics, four World Championships, eight Asian Games, and eight Asia Cups representing China. She and her teammates won the Olympic bronze medal in Los Angeles in 1984 and the Olympic silver in Barcelona in 1992.
China made the World Championship Final in Australia in 1994 and played against Brazil. Zheng dropped 27 points and 11 rebounds in the game for her country. Though China lost 96-87 in the end, Zheng was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.
Chuck Daly (C), head coach of Team USA, poses for a team portrait with his players and working staff in Barcelona, Spain, July 25, 1992. /CFP
Other names on the list also represent the greatest icons in the international basketball world. For example, Daly was the head coach of Team USA, or "Dream Team," in the Summer Olympics in Barcelona in 1992. Giannakis was the point guard of Greece when they upset the defending champions Soviet Union to win the title at FIBA EuroBasket in 1987. He had been head coach of China's men's national team between 2013 and 2014.
The Class of 2021 will be enshrined into the Hall of Fame together with the Class of 2020 at a digital ceremony on June 18. The list for the Class of 2020 was announced on Tuesday, a year later, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.