Phoenix Mercury legend Diana Taurasi, two-time MLB All-Star J.J. Hardy and five-time NFL Pro Bowler Michael Bates will likely be half of the seven-member class of inductees for the 2025 Arizona Sports Hall of Fame that was announced on Wednesday.
Taurasi spent her complete 20-year WNBA profession with the Mercury. She gained three championships, was named a league MVP, a two-time finals MVP, an 11-time All-Star and gained six Olympic gold medals as a member of the U.S. ladies’s nationwide basketball workforce.
Taurasi is the third member of the Mercury group to be inducted into the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame. Former Phoenix common supervisor Ann Meyers Drysdale and former participant Jennifer Gillom had been inducted in 2020 and 2023, respectively.
Members of the 2025 Arizona Sports Hall of Fame Class will likely be formally inducted on April 9.
Members in 2025 Arizona Sports Hall of Fame class
Diana Taurasi: Taurasi retired in February 2025 and is the all-time main scorer in WNBA historical past.
Michael Bates: A multi-sport athlete at Arizona, Bates gained a bronze medal within the 200-meter sprint on the 1992 Summer Olympics. Bates later performed 11 years within the NFL as a return specialist and was a five-time Pro Bowler and five-time All-Pro.
Frank Busch: Busch served as the top coach for the Wildcats’ males’s and ladies’s swimming groups from 1989 to 2011. He led the boys’s and ladies’s groups to an NCAA championship in 2008.
Craig Girard: Girard, who was born in Tempe, is an eight-time world champion in skydiving.
J.J. Hardy: A standout at Sabino High School in Tucson, Hardy performed 13 MLB seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins and Baltimore Orioles. He was a two-time All-Star, a Silver Slugger Award winner and gained three Gold Glove awards.
Michael Pantalione: Pantalione was the inaugural males’s soccer coach at Yavapai College who gained seven nationwide titles and has the very best profitable share in collegiate soccer historical past (.893) with an all-time report of 636-63-30.
George Young: An Arizona alumnus, Young competed in 4 Olympic Games and earned a bronze medal within the steeplechase on the 1968 Summer Olympics.
