WNBA: Seimone Augustus, Michelle Timms are headed into the Corridor of Fame

Two of the best gamers in ladies’s basketball historical past will enter the Naismith Basketball Corridor of Fame on Sunday, Oct. 13: Michelle Timms and Seimone Augustus

In a sport that lengthy tended to encourage conformity, Timms and Augustus have been forward of their time in providing distinctive, particular person manufacturers. With quick, spiky bleached-blonde hair, Timms intrigued as a member of the inaugural class of WNBA gamers in 1997, arriving as an already-established Australian nice who shortly grew to become the face of the Phoenix Mercury. From the time she was on the duvet of Sports activities Illustrated from Girls at age 14 in 1999, Augustus exuded easy cool, and, along with her dreadlocked and headband model, would proceed to take action as she suited up for the LSU Tigers and Minnesota Lynx.

And whereas their vibes are usually not why Timms and Augustus are being honored, their personas did prolong into their enjoying types, shaping their Corridor-of-Fame-worthy affect on the game. Right here’s extra on why Timms and Augustus on headed into basketball’s most hallowed Corridor:

Michelle Timms inaugurated Australia’s WNBA affect

Photograph by Barry Gossage/NBAE through Getty Pictures

Michelle Timms’ Corridor of Fame resume begins and extends past the borders of the WNBA.

In 1984, at age 19, she debuted within the WNBL for the Bulleen Boomers, starting an expert basketball profession that might span 15 years and a number of continents. She would change into a five-time WNBL champion (1986-89, 1992), serving as captain of the 1992 Perth Breakers group that captured the WNBL crown. She was a seven-time WNBL All-Star and two-time WNBL Participant of the Yr (1995, 1996). Concurrently, Timms was establishing herself as a mainstay for the Australian Girls’s Nationwide Basketball Group, with the 1986 World Championships serving as her first main worldwide match with the Opals. She subsequently would compete in three extra World Championships and three Olympic Video games. Timms and the Aussies received bronze on the 1996 and 2000 Video games; additionally they completed third on the 1988 World Championships.

Her worldwide accomplishments, which additionally included quick stints enjoying in Germany and Italy, made her one of many preliminary gamers allotted to a WNBA group in 1997, with Timms assigned to the Phoenix Mercury. 32 years previous for the WNBA’s inaugural season, Timms helped the Mercury completed first within the Western Convention, averaging 12.1 factors, 5.0 assists and a couple of.6 steals as she performed practically 36 minutes per recreation. In 1998, Timms and the Mercury reached the WNBA Finals, stealing the primary recreation of the WNBA Finals off the eventual champion Houston Comets. In Recreation 2, Timms busted out her highest-scoring effort of the season, and of her playoff profession, main the Mercury with 21 factors. On the finish of regulation, Timms missed a 3-pointer that might have received the sport, and the title, for Phoenix.

All through her remaining three seasons within the WNBA, Timms would see a diminished minute and scoring load, though, in 1999, she was an inaugural WNBA All-Star, posting averages of 6.8 factors and 5.0 assists. After harm restricted her to eight video games in 2000, she returned for a ultimate season in 2001.

Greater than her play within the league, Timms’ presence within the WNBA helped set up it as a worldwide league, the place not simply one of the best ladies’s basketball gamers in the US, however from around the globe, would ply their commerce. Extra notably, she additionally launched the significance of Australian gamers to league and its progress, a family tree that continues into the current with the likes of the Minnesota Lynx’s Alanna Smith, Seattle Storm’s Ezi Magbegor and Washington Mystics’ Jade Melbourne.

Seimone Augustus was a candy scorer and authorized winner

Photograph By David Sherman/NBAE through Getty Pictures

If there’s one thing that may be executed in ladies’s basketball, it’s protected to say that Seimone Augustus has most likely executed it.

As a collegian, she steered LSU to three-straight Remaining Fours (2004-06), amassing a cache of particular person awards alongside the way in which, together with twice sweeping nationwide participant of the yr honors (2005, 2006). Throughout her 4 years in Baton Rouge (2003-06), she averaged 19.3 factors, 5.2 rebounds and a couple of.0 assists per recreation. She, unquestionably, was the No. 1 decide within the 2006 WNBA Draft, the savior of a so far wayward Minnesota Lynx franchise. In her first season in Minnesota, the Lynx nonetheless struggled, however Augustus was incredible, along with her silky handles, clean jumper and excellent scoring bundle immediately translating to the WNBA as she averaged nearly 22 factors per recreation, successful Rookie of the Yr, incomes the primary of eight All-Star honors and being named to an All-WNBA Group for the primary of six instances.

After 5 seasons as the only real star for slowly bettering Lynx squads, Augustus lastly acquired some assist in 2011, with the arrivals of Lindsay Whalen and Maya Moore. Minnesota shortly would change into one of many league’s greatest groups, successful the primary of 4 championships (2011, 2013, 2015, 2017), with Augustus taking Finals MVP honors. Recreation 2 of the Lynx’s three-game sweep of the Atlanta Dream was Augustus’ masterpiece, when she scored a playoff career-high 36 factors, going 11-for-14 from the sphere and sinking 13-of-16 free throws. She additionally had eight boards and three assists within the Lynx’s 101-95 victory.

Together with serving because the foundational piece for the dynastic Lynx, Augustus was a fixture for the much more dominant USA Basketball Girls’s Nationwide Group, successful gold with Group USA on the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympics. Augustus’ successful methods additionally prolonged additional abroad, as she spent 10 WNBA offseasons enjoying in Russia and Turkey. Suiting up for Galatasaray in 2008 and 2009, she received a pair of EuroCup Girls titles, additionally taking the EuroCup MVP in 2009.

As a second-generation WNBA participant, Augustus had entry to a extra wide-open ladies’s basketball world, the place one confidently might know that collegiate success might translate right into a profitable skilled profession, each domestically and internationally. Augustus not solely took full benefit of this chance, however she excelled each time and wherever she hooped. And by doing so, she helped increase the game’s boundaries, not simply geographically however culturally, along with her particular person talent, group successes and total model contributing to the circumstances which have allowed for the sport’s latest, fast progress.