Nikki McCray-Penson

Nikki McCray-Penson, a star of the WNBA who won Olympic gold on the U.S. women’s basketball team in 1996 and 2000, died July 7, 2023, of complications from breast cancer at the age of 51.

McCray-Penson made a name for herself at the University of Tennessee, where she helped lead the Lady Vols to two conference championships. She graduated with a degree in education and joined the U.S. head heading for the Summer Olympics in Atlanta in 1996. The team won gold, and they returned to take Olympic gold again in 2000 in Sydney. In between, they won gold at the 1998 World Championship.

In 1996, McCray-Penson joined the American Basketball League (ABL), a short-lived league that briefly competed with the WNBA. She played for the Columbus Quest for a single season, becoming the team’s MVP as she led them to the 1997 championship. McCray-Penson then moved on to the WNBA’s Washington Mystics, where she was a three-time All-Star in four seasons. She later played for the Indiana Fever, Phoenix Mercury, San Antonio Stars, and Chicago Sky before her 2006 retirement as a player.

After she retired, McCray-Penson began her coaching career at Western Kentucky University, later spending several years as an assistant coach at the University of South Carolina. She was head coach at Old Dominion University and Mississippi State University before stepping back for health reasons, ending her coaching career as an assistant at Rutgers University. McCray-Penson also served on the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, appointed by President Bill Clinton. In 2013, she fought breast cancer, the disease that took her mother’s life. She went into remission later that year.

By Linnea Crowther

(Image: Darren McNamara/Getty Images)