Former WNBA Star, Woman Vols Hooper Nikki McCray-Penson Lifeless At 51

Former WNBA star and ex-Tennessee Woman Volunteers hooper Nikki McCray-Penson has tragically handed away at 51 years outdated.

The heartbreaking information was confirmed to The Tennesean on Friday by Rutgers College, the place McCray-Penson had been working as an assistant coach for the ladies’s basketball staff.

The varsity didn’t present a reason behind dying … however Univ. of Tenn. reporter Maria Cornelius stated McCray-Penson handed away after battling breast most cancers for a second time.

The previous guard starred at Tennessee within the Nineteen Nineties … successful SEC Participant of the Yr twice (1994, 1995) — in addition to incomes Kodak All-American honors twice.

Following her stint with the Vols, she went on to grow to be a three-time WNBA All-Star … whereas enjoying eight seasons for the Mystics, Fever, Mercury, Silver Stars and Sky.

She additionally received two gold Olympic medals with Group USA in her profession … and was inducted into the Girls’s Basketball Corridor of Fame in 2012.

Her teaching tenure started in 2006 … when she was employed to be an assistant on Western Kentucky’s workers. She later grew to become a head coach for Outdated Dominion, the place she received C-USA Coach of the Yr in 2019-2020. She then had a stint as Mississippi State’s head coach … earlier than she started her profession at Rutgers in 2022.

McCray-Penson additionally had a big impression off the court docket … she was chosen by Invoice Clinton to be a member of the President’s Council on Bodily Health and Sports activities. She was additionally picked by the Library of Congress as a speaker for the Girls’s Historical past Month Handle in 1999.

Information of the dying has rocked the basketball world … with many stars remembering her fondly after studying of her passing.

“Nikki McCray : Candy individual and chilly hooper!,” ex-NBA star Chris Webber wrote. “Relaxation in Peace.”

Added Dick Vitale, “I’m so heartbroken listening to this information a couple of minutes in the past about Nikki McCray – Penson . Cherished every thing about Nikki – she was a Corridor of Famer as a participant & as an individual . Might Nikki RIP.”

Woman Vols senior Rickea Jackson, who performed underneath McCray-Penson at Mississippi St., additionally tweeted her condolences to the McCray-Penson household.

“One of the crucial lovely souls I’ve ever met,” Jackson stated. “The one who genuinely went out their strategy to perceive me after I was so misunderstood. The one who was all the time there.”

“You fought so lengthy and arduous and I’m grateful to have recognized you. I like you. Relaxation straightforward.”