Sheryl Denise Swoopes (born March 25, 1971) is a three-time WNBA MVP, and was named one of the league's Top 15 Players of All Time at the 2011 WNBA All-Star Game. Swoopes has won three Olympic gold medals and is one of eleven women's basketball players to have won an Olympic gold medal, an NCAA Championship, a FIBA World Cup gold, and a WNBA title. She was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016. In 2017, she was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.

Early life

Born in Brownfield, Texas, Swoopes was raised by her mother, Louise Swoopes, and played basketball with her three older brothers. She began competing at age seven in a local children's league called Little Dribblers. She played basketball at Brownfield High School.

College career

Initially recruited by the University of Texas, Swoopes left the school shortly after her arrival, without playing a game, and enrolled at South Plains College. After playing at South Plains for two years, Swoopes transferred to Texas Tech.

In 1993, Swoopes won the NCAA women's basketball championship with the Texas Tech Lady Raiders during her senior season. Her jersey was retired by the school the following year, making her one of only three Lady Raiders to be honored in this way. The others are Carolyn Thompson and Krista Kirkland, Swoopes' teammate from the 1993 championship team.

As of 2010, Swoopes was still a part of the women's basketball record books in many categories, including single-game scoring record (53 points on March 13, 1993, vs. Texas, tied for tenth place), single-season scoring (955 points in the 1993 season, fourth place), highest championship tournament scoring average (35.4 in the 1993 tournament, second place), best single-game championship scoring performance (47 points vs. Ohio State, 1993 championship), which broke Bill Walton's record,

Swoopes was the 1993 winner of the Naismith College Player of the Year award at the age of 22, the Honda Sports Award, was selected as that year's WBCA Player of the Year, and was chosen to the Division I All-American squad in both 1992 and 1993. Swoopes was named the 1993 Sportswoman of the Year (in the team category) by the Women's Sports Foundation.

USA Basketball

Swoopes was named to the USA national team and competed in the 1994 World Championships, held in June 1994 in Sydney, Australia.

As a 11 year member of the Houston Comets, she accumulated over 2,000 career points, 500 career rebounds, 300 career assists, and 200 career steals. Her extraordinary scoring and defensive ability made her the first three-time WNBA MVP (2000, 2002, and 2005) and the first three-time WNBA Defensive Player of the Year (2000, 2002, and 2003). Swoopes is also a four-time WNBA champion as the Comets won the first 4 championships in WNBA history from 1997 to 2000.

Swoopes is the second player in WNBA history to win both the regular season MVP award and the All-Star Game MVP award in the same season. The first player to accomplish this was Lisa Leslie. Swoopes is also the first player in WNBA history to record a triple-double in both the regular season and the playoffs.

Swoopes gained national prominence when she won the gold medal with the USA Basketball Women's National Team <!-- (WNT) --> at the 1996 Olympic Games and became a focal point of the fledgling WNBA. The 1996 Olympic win over Brazil (117–87) is considered by some to be the "best woman's basketball game they'd ever seen."

Two days after her 40th birthday in 2011, sources for the Associated Press claimed that Swoopes was preparing to return to the WNBA in anticipation of an official signing announcement from the Tulsa Shock. At the 2011 WNBA All-Star Game, she was announced as one of the top 15 players in the 15-year history of the WNBA.

On August 26, 2011, the 40-year-old Swoopes hit a buzzer-beating shot to edge the Los Angeles Sparks 77–75 and end the Shock's WNBA-record 20-game losing streak.

Swoopes' final WNBA game was played on September 11, 2011, a 94–102 loss to the San Antonio Silver Stars, where she recorded 20 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists. After the 2011 season, on February 12, 2012, Tulsa Shock owner Steve Swetoha announced that the team did not intend to offer Swoopes a new contract and she became an unrestricted free agent.

In 2016, she was voted into the WNBA Top 20@20, in celebration of the league's 20th anniversary, and in 2021 to The W25, a celebration of the league's 25th anniversary.

International career

Europe

  • 1993–1994: Basket Bari
  • 2004–2005: VBM-SGAU Samara
  • 2005–2006: Taranto Cras Basket
  • 2010: Esperides Kallitheas

Awards and honors

Swoopes won the female Associated Press Athlete of the Year award in 1993. The same year, she also won the Honda Sports Award for basketball and the WBCA Player of the Year award. In 2026, Swoopes was ranked on the Forbes "Self-Made 250: The Greatest Living Self-Made Americans" list.

Post-playing career

In 2008, Sheryl Swoopes made an appearance on Shirts & Skins, a reality series on Logo TV. Swoopes mentored the San Francisco Rockdogs, a gay basketball team, and shared her experiences on basketball, family, faith, and coming out.

In 2010, Swoopes was an assistant basketball coach at Mercer Island High School in Washington.

In 2013, Swoopes became head coach of the Loyola University Chicago women's basketball team. In April 2016, Loyola announced that it was investigating Swoopes for alleged mistreatment, after the school newspaper reported that 10 of the team's players had either transferred or wanted a release from their scholarships. On July 4, 2016, Loyola announced it had fired Swoopes as a result of the investigation but declined to say what it had found.

In July 2017, Swoopes returned to her alma mater, Texas Tech, as the women's basketball Director of Player Development, where her job included resuming work as color analysis for broadcast Lady Raiders games. Following the firing of head coach Candi Whitaker on January 1, 2018, Swoopes was promoted to regular assistant coach under interim head coach Shimmy Gray-Miller. In October 2024, Swoopes and Jordan Robinson, journalist and podcaster, began a weekly podcast titled Queens of the Court.

Personal life

Swoopes was married from June 1995 to 1999 to her high-school sweetheart, Eric Jackson. The two have a son, Jordan Eric Jackson (b. 1997), named after Michael Jordan.

In October 2005, Swoopes announced she was gay, becoming one of the highest-profile athletes in a team sport to do so publicly. Swoopes stated<blockquote>It doesn't change who I am. I can't help who I fall in love with. No one can. Discovering I'm gay just sort of happened much later in life. Being intimate with [Alisa] or any other woman never entered my mind. At the same time, I'm a firm believer that when you fall in love with somebody, you can't control that."</blockquote>

In 2016, she was named an LGBT History Month Icon by the Equality Forum. She and her partner, former basketball player and Houston Comets assistant coach Alisa Scott, together raised Swoopes' son.

The couple separated in 2011. Later that year, Swoopes got engaged to Chris Unclesho, a longtime male friend. After a long engagement, the couple wed on July 21, 2017.

Swoopes is an honorary member of Sigma Gamma Rho sorority; she was inducted on July 5, 2025.

WNBA career statistics

{| class="wikitable"

|-

|style="background:#afe6ba; width:3em;"|†

|Denotes seasons in which Swoopes won a WNBA championship

|}

Regular season

|-

|style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;"| 1997<sup>†</sup>

| style="text-align:left;"| Houston

| 9 || 0 || 14.3 || .472 || .250 || .714 || 1.7 || 0.8 || 0.8 || 0.4 || 0.44 || 7.1

|-

|style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;"| 1998<sup>†</sup>

| style="text-align:left;"| Houston

| 29 || 29 || 32.3 || .427 || .360 || .826 || 5.1 || 2.1 || 2.5 || 0.5 || 2.00 || 15.6

|-

|style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;"| 1999<sup>†</sup>

| style="text-align:left;"| Houston

| 32 || 32 || 34.4 || .462 || .337 || .820 || 6.3 || 4.0 || 2.4 || 1.4 || 2.59 || 18.3

|-

|style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;"| 2000<sup>†</sup>

| style="text-align:left;"| Houston

| 31 || 31 || 35.2 || .506 || .374 || .821 || 6.3 || 3.8 || style="background:#D3D3D3"|2.8° || 1.1 || 2.65 || style="background:#D3D3D3"|20.7°

|-

| style="text-align:left;"| 2002

| style="text-align:left;"| Houston

| 32 || 32 || 36.1 || .434 || .288 || .825 || 4.9 || 3.3 || 2.8 || 0.7 || 2.72 || 18.5

|-

| style="text-align:left;"| 2003

| style="text-align:left;"| Houston

| 31 || 30 || 35.0 || .406 || .304 || .887 || 4.6 || 3.9 || style="background:#D3D3D3"|2.5° || 0.8 || 2.35 || 15.6

|-

| style="text-align:left;"| 2004

| style="text-align:left;"| Houston

| 31 || 31 || 34.5 || .422 || .308 || .856 || 4.9 || 2.9 || 1.5 || 0.5 || 1.90 || 14.8

|-

| style="text-align:left;"| 2005

| style="text-align:left;"| Houston

| 33 || 33 || style="background:#D3D3D3"|37.1° || .447 || .360 || .850 || 3.6 || 4.3 || 2.0 || 0.8 || 2.18 || style="background:#D3D3D3"|18.6°

|-

| style="text-align:left;"| 2006

| style="text-align:left;"| Houston

| 31 || 31 || style="background:#D3D3D3"|35.8° || .413 || .278 || .764 || 5.9 || 3.7 || 2.1 || 0.3 || 2.39 || 15.5

|-

| style="text-align:left;"| 2007

| style="text-align:left;"| Houston

| 3 || 3 || 35.3 || .360 || .143 || 1.000 || 5.7 || 3.7 || 1.7 || 0.3 || 3.00 || 7.7

|-

| style="text-align:left;"| 2008

| style="text-align:left;"| Seattle

| 29 || 25 || 24.3 || .391 || .222 || .695 || 4.3 || 2.1 || 1.5 || 0.3 || 1.07 || 7.1

|-

| style="text-align:left;"| 2011

| style="text-align:left;"| Tulsa

| 33 || 28 || 29.9 || .398 || .319 || .870 || 4.1 || 2.3 || 0.8 || 0.3 || 1.36 || 8.2

|-

| style="text-align:left;"| Career

| style="text-align:left;"|12 years, 3 teams

| 324 || 205 || 32.7 || .436 || .316 || .825 || 4.9 || 3.2 || 2.0 || 0.7 || 2.09 || 15.0

Postseason

|-

|style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;"| 1997<sup>†</sup>

| style="text-align:left;"| Houston

| 2 || 0 || 7.0 || .000 || .000 || .000 || 1.5 || 0.0 || 0.0 || 0.5 || 0.00 || 0.0

|-

|style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;"| 1998<sup>†</sup>

| style="text-align:left;"| Houston

| 5 || 5 || 37.6 || .443 || .278 || .933 || 10.0 || 5.2 || 1.8 || 1.4 || 3.20 || 14.6

|-

|style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;"| 1999<sup>†</sup>

| style="text-align:left;"| Houston

| 6 || 6 || 36.0 || .358 || .308 || .929 || 3.7 || 1.2 || 2.3 || 0.5 || 2.00 || 14.7

|-

|style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;"| 2000<sup>†</sup>

| style="text-align:left;"| Houston

| 6 || 6 || 36.7 || .471 || .471 || .793 || 5.7 || 3.2 || 2.8 || 0.0 || 2.00 || 18.8

|-

| style="text-align:left;"| 2002

| style="text-align:left;"| Houston

| 3 || 3 || style="background:#D3D3D3"|42.3° || .397 || .333 || .800 || 7.3 || 5.7 || 4.0 || 0.7 || 2.67 || style="background:#D3D3D3"|24.3

|-

| style="text-align:left;"| 2003

| style="text-align:left;"| Houston

| 3 || 3 || 36.7 || .435 || .100 || .938 || 6.3 || 4.3 || 1.3 || 0.7 || 1.67 || 18.7

|-

| style="text-align:left;"| 2005

| style="text-align:left;"| Houston

| 5 || 5 || 37.8 || .402 || .357 || .810 || 5.6 || 3.8 || 1.4 || 0.4 || 3.00 || 18.4

|-

| style="text-align:left;"| 2006

| style="text-align:left;"| Houston

| 2 || 2 || 31.0 || .389 || .167 || .875 || 2.5 || 1.5 || 1.0 || 1.0 || 1.00 || 11.0

|-

| style="text-align:left;"| 2008

| style="text-align:left;"| Seattle

| 3 || 2 || 24.0 || .320 || .200 || .889 || 3.3 || 1.0 || 2.0 || 0.0 || 1.67 || 8.7

|-

| style="text-align:left;"| Career

| style="text-align:left;"|9 years, 2 teams

| 35 || 32 || 34.3 || .406 || .293 || .861 || 5.5 || 3.1 || 2.0 || 0.5 || 2.14 || 15.5

Head coaching record

See also

  • List of WNBA players

References

Further reading

  • Loyola bio
  • WNBA listing