Jennifer Azzi, who played five seasons in the WNBA, won a national championship and gold medal.

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Basketball will bring Jennifer Azzi back to Knoxville next year for another memorable visit.

The former Oak Ridge High School star will be one of six inductees to the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. The Class of 2009, which also includes Cynthia Cooper-Dyke, Jennifer Gillom, Sonja Hogg, Ora Washington and Jill Hutchison, will be announced during today's Washington-Connecticut WNBA game (TV: WATE, 3:30 p.m.).

The induction ceremony will be next June, 19 years after Azzi, an All-American at Stanford, won a national championship with the Cardinal at Thompson-Boling Arena.

Azzi's basketball journey has taken her far from East Tennessee. Along with playing at Stanford, she was a two-time Olympian and played for the 1996 gold medal team. She also played professionally everywhere from Europe to five seasons in the WNBA.

She has parlayed her basketball success into a motivational speaking career that has her traveling throughout the country.

Yet Knoxville remains a special place for her. The 1990 championship capped her senior season, during which she also received the Wade Trophy and the Naismith player of the year award. The Hall of Fame induction will reinforce the city's basketball distinction for her.

Azzi will be part of a class that is deep in both players and coaches:

-- Cooper-Dyke: She played for two national collegiate championship teams at Southern California (1983, '84) and four WNBA championship teams at Houston (1997-2000). The two-time Olympian was the first WNBA player to reach 2,500 career points. She is head coach at Prairie View A&M.

-- Gillom: The sports complex at Ole Miss is named the "Gillom Sports Center" after the former Lady Rebels star and her sister, Peggie. A member of the 1988 gold medal Olympic team, Jennifer played seven seasons in the WNBA and is an assistant coach with the Minnesota Lynx.

-- Hogg: She started the women's basketball program at Louisiana Tech and directed the team to 307 victories, six Final Fours and two national championships in 11 seasons. She also coached for five seasons at Baylor. In 17 years of collegiate coaching and three years at the high school level, Hogg amassed a cumulative record of 464-163.

-- Washington: She played center for the Philadelphia Tribune for 18 years and was considered the greatest black female player of the pre-World War II era. Washington was inducted into the Black Athletes Hall of Fame in 1975.

-- Hutchison: She was the head coach at Illinois State for 28 seasons, recording 428 victories and guiding her teams to three NCAA appearances. She was the first president of the Women Basketball Coaches Association (1982) and chaired the organization's five-year planning committee.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.