Sad News : Former WNBA All-Star has died at the age of 51 

Former WNBA All-Star Nikki McCray-Penson has died at the age of 51

JULIUS STUMBAUGH

Two-time Olympic gold medalist, three-time WNBA All-Star and Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer Nikki McCray-Penson has died. He was 51 years old.

McCray-Penson was an assistant coach at Rutgers last season. The school confirmed his death, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel and ESPN.

Rutgers has not released a cause of death, but University of South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley, a former Olympic teammate, said in a tribute shared on social media that McCray-Penson had cancer.

McCray-Penson was diagnosed with breast cancer while working with Staley in South Carolina in 2013, but recovered later that year. He cited health issues in October 2021 after resigning as Mississippi State’s head coach.

McCray-Penson rose to stardom at the University of Tennessee from 1991-95 on a dominant Lady Vols team that went 122-11 and won three straight SEC regular-season titles during her tenure. A two-time SEC Player of the Year, he remains in the school’s top 20 and all-time leading scorer.

After leading the Columbus Quest to the American Basketball League championship with an MVP season in 1996-97, McCray-Penson entered the WNBA for eight seasons. He played for the Washington Mystics, Indiana Fever,

Phoenix Mercury, San Antonio Stars and Chicago Sky and was named an All-Star in 1999, 2000 and 2001 as one of the league’s top defenders and number 039. She finished her WNBA career with 2,528 points

McCray-Penson represented the United States at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney and the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where the national team became so popular that it helped launch the WNBA the following year.

After his playing career, McCray-Penson served as an assistant coach at Western Kentucky and South Carolina. He was the head coach at Old Dominion from 2017-20,

where he earned Conference USA Coach of the Year honors, and then took the helm at Mississippi State in 2020-21. McCray-Penson most recently served as an assistant coach at Rutgers in 2022-23. His death prompted several tributes from the teams, leagues and programs he impacted.

McCray-Penson also received heartfelt

tributes from the players he worked with as

a coach and mentor.

McCray-Penson’s career was honored at the

Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in

Knoxville, Tennessee. He was elected to that

position in 2012.