The 1996 USA Olympic team put women’s basketball on the hoops map. Their cards and collectibles are in demand after the team’s Hall of Fame induction.
By Robert Kunz⋅
AUG 18, 2026
On their 30th anniversary, the 1996 USA Women’s Olympic basketball team was enshrined into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame as one member of the Class of 2026.
The 1996 USA Women’s team finished 8-0, outscoring their opponents by an average of over 30 points per game to capture the gold medal. The team featured Hall of Famers Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoopes, Rebecca Lobo, Theresa Edwards, Katrina McClain, Dawn Staley, and Coach Tara VanDerveer. The team also included Jennifer Azzi, Ruthie Bolton-Holifield, Venus Lacy, Nikki McCray, Carla McGhee, and Katy Steding. All 11 living players from the 1996 roster attended the enshrinement weekend Aug 14-15 in Springfield, Mass.
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The popularity of the 1996 USA Women’s team, along with the 34-0 undefeated run of the Connecticut Huskies women’s team in 1994-95, sparked the creation of the WNBA in 1997. The founding pillars of the new league were Leslie, Swoopes and Lobo.
The initial assignment of players that first season was comprised of a regional player allocation of 16 players over the eight teams, and two separate player drafts. Only four players of the 1996 USA Women’s team entered the WNBA in that inaugural season. Ruthie Bolton-Holifield was drafted 13th in 1997 to join Leslie, Swoopes and Lobo. Eleven of the twelve 1996 USA team members played a portion of their careers in the WNBA.
The NBA approved the financial backing of the WNBA in April 1996. This was ahead of the USA team’s gold medal dominance in Atlanta in the summer of 1996. The late David Stern envisioned the potential of the WNBA.
In 1996, Topps and Upper Deck released USA National Team sets of the USA Women’s team. The 24-card Topps set can be found in the $25 range, and the 62-card Upper Deck set of die-cut cards featuring both the men’s and women’s teams can be found for under $75. eBay sellers offer just a base 12-card women’s set for under $10.
This was only the second time a major card company produced any women’s Olympic cards. The first was the 1992 Impel US Olympicards set, which featured earlier cards of 1996 USA players Edwards and McClain.
Although not a summer Olympic year, in 1994 Upper Deck produced six cards of Leslie, McClain, Swoopes, Azzi, Dedra Charles, and Dawn Staley. With today’s popularity of women’s basketball these are sleeper cards of Leslie, Swoopes and Staley.
Also in 1994, Fleer Flair produced a USA Basketball six-card set #113-118 of Lynette Woodard, Pat Summit, Ann Meyers, Nancy Lieberman-Cline, Theresa Edwards, and Carol Blazejowski.
The first ever WNBA cards were produced by Pinnacle Inside in 1997. Card # 1 in the set is Leslie, and I guess you could say it is the first WNBA card ever made. The 81-card base set features eight future Hall of Famers and sells for $60-$80.
Key first WNBA cards of those who did not play on the 1996 USA Olympic team would be Tina Thompson (#1 draft pick), Cynthia Cooper, and Theresa Weatherspoon. I could not find the exact production run, but based on the affordability of the set and the Leslie card, runs had to be much higher than the 2005-2018 Rittenhouse productions.
1996 OLYMPIC TICKETS
I chose 1996 Olympic basketball tickets as my main collectible for the USA Women’s team. I was able to obtain signatures of 11 of the 12 team members (Nikki McCray passed in 2023) and Coach VanDerveer on first-round game tickets. Olympic tickets and 11-by-17 team photos were the most popular items of the other collectors around me on Hall of Fame weekend. When looking for these 1996 Olympic tickets make sure you do research on the games that the Women’s USA team played in.
Another popular USA Women’s Olympic Basketball item is the Sports Illustrated cover from July 22, 1996. This foldout cover features Swoopes, McClain, Bolton, Leslie, Edwards, and VanDerveer. A fully signed copy in near-mint condition has an expected value of $250-$300.
Cheryl Miller was the first female basketball player featured on a Sports Illustrated cover in 1985; a few years later the Sports Illustrated cover would feature Pat Summitt, and then the 1996 USA Team.
This year also marks the 10th anniversary of the passing of legendary Tennessee Women’s Coach Pat Summitt (1952-2016). Two of Summitt’s greatest players, Candace Parker and Chamique Holdsclaw, were also enshrined as members of the Class of 2026. Joining Parker and Holdsclaw as a presenter was Tennessee basketball great Tamika Catchings. The three Tennessee players amassed a record of 296-34 and captured five national championships over nine seasons.
Finding a signed piece of memorabilia from these four Tennessee legends is rare. I wanted a piece of history and took a past mini-basketball signed by Summitt with her win total of 1,098 wins and had it signed by Parker, Holdsclaw and Catchings.
Parker also holds the distinction as the first and only WNBA Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same season in 2008. She had a stellar 16-year WNBA career and played in seven WNBA All-Star games. Parker also was featured on the cover of the April 2007 Sports Illustrated. An autographed copy of that issue has an expected value of $175-$250.
The class of 2026 also included 2013 Rookie of the Year, two-time WNBA MVP and WNBA champion Elena Delle Donne, the first WNBA player to achieve a rare 50-40-90 shooting percentage during the 2019 season.
Parker and Delle Donne rookie cards are in the low-production run years of Rittenhouse. Parker’s 2008 rookie Rittenhouse card had a production run of only 444 cards and card # 1 sells for over $1,000. Delle Donne’s 2013 Rittenhouse rookie card run was only 500 cards, and card #12 is much more reasonable at $100-$300. Those looking for less expensive rookie cards may want to check out the first cards of these players on Sports Illustrated For Kids cards.
The men’s 2026 inductees included: 2003 NBA Rookie of the Year and six-time All-Star Amar’e Stoudemire; Doc Rivers, the sixth winningest NBA coach with 1,194 wins; NCAA men’s coach Mark Few (750 wins), NBA official Joey Crawford (over 2,500 games); and head coach Mike D’Antoni.
Some notable NBA greats who attended the Hall of Fame enshrinement weekend were Patrick Ewing, Earl Monroe, Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, John Stockton, Paul Pierce, Jerry Lucas, Bernard King, Ralph Sampson, Rick Barry, and James Harden.
1996 USA Women’s Basketball teambasketball hall of fameCandace ParkerPat SummittRebecca LoboSheryl SwoopesSports Memorabilia
Robert KunzAuthor
Robert Kunz covers the Pro Football Hall of Fame and Pro Basketball Hall of Fame for Sports Collectors Digest.
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