Teresa Edwards reeled off the names of several players in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame -- Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Charles Barkley and "my first hero" Julius Erving -- and marveled, "Now I'm among them. It's something I really can't [get] my thoughts around at the moment."
Edwards, the former University of Georgia and Olympics star, will be enshrined at the hall's annual induction ceremony Aug. 12 in Springfield, Mass., it was announced Monday. She will join 2006 inductee Dominique Wilkins as the only former UGA players enshrined.
Recalling her basketball introduction against older boys on the playgrounds of Cairo, Ga., Edwards, 46, attached special significance to being elected to a hall of fame that includes the best players from both the men's and women's games.
"This all started with the boys in Cairo letting a girl play basketball with them," Edwards said. "I feel like this time I get to share the spotlight with the biggest boys in the world. It's a basketball heaven for me."
Andy Landers, the Georgia women's basketball coach since 1979, described himself as "thrilled but not surprised" by Edwards' election.
"The only question any of us really had was when this would happen," Landers said. "There isn't another women's basketball player who has accomplished what Teresa has accomplished. ... It's crazy, what all she did and how successful she was."
Edwards left Cairo for UGA in 1982 and put Lady Bulldogs basketball on the map. During her four collegiate seasons, Georgia compiled a 116-17 record, won three SEC championships and twice reached the Final Four. She was a two-time All-American.
Her Olympics career touched three decades, from 1984 in Los Angeles to 2000 in Sydney. She is the only U.S. basketball player, male or female, to compete in five Olympic Games, playing on teams that won four gold medals and a bronze. She has the distinction of being the youngest and oldest women's basketball player to win Olympic gold.
Edwards also played professionally in six countries -- Italy, Japan, Spain, France, Russia and the U.S. -- and wrapped up her playing career with the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx in 2004.
She is currently director of player personnel and an assistant coach with the WNBA's Tulsa Shock.
Edwards is among 10 members of the Naismith's 2011 class -- the latest addition to a long list of honors that commemorate her career. She already is in the UGA all-sports circle of honor, the Georgia sports hall of fame, the national high school sports hall of fame, the Grady County sports hall of fame, the U.S. Olympic hall of fame and the women's basketball hall of fame.
"All of them feel very special, but I don't think you can get more special than this one," Edwards said. "You're talking about Naismith here."
