Sheryl Swoopes: She was a basketball assassin with a deadly jumper and a cutthroat will to win which brought the WBNA and college legend inevitable comparisons to the incomparable Michael Jordan. She shot to the pinnacle of her sport when she scored a record 47 points to lead Texas Tech to the 1993 national championship game. After college, Swoopes competed internationally, according to infoplease.com and in 1996 she won an Olympic gold medal as part of the U.S. team (she also won gold medals in 2000 and 2004). She was the first women drafted in 1997 to play professional basketball for the WNBA, and helped make the Houston Comets the first WNBA dynasty as she led them to a “fourpeat” of consecutive championships in 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000. Swoopes was also voted the league’s Most Valuable Player in 2000, 2002 and 2005.
