Reigning WNBA MVP and former South Carolina Gamecocks star A'ja Wilson memorialized late women's basketball legend Nikki McCray-Penson in a heartfelt post on social media. McCray-Penson, 51, passed away on Friday.

A two-time Olympic gold medalist and three-time WNBA All-Star, McCray-Penson first rose to prominence at the University of Tennessee in the mid-1990s. She won MVP of the now-defunct American Basketball League in 1996-97 before joining the WNBA for its second season the following year, where McCray-Penson quickly cemented herself as among the league's best players while starring for the Washington Mystics.

The 5'11 guard retired in 2006, immediately transitioning to coaching. McCray-Penson began her career on the sidelines as an assistant at Western Kentucky, then joined the South Carolina staff in 2008, where she was an assistant under longtime friend Dawn Staley. In 2017, McCray-Penson's last season in Columbia, Wilson led the Gamecocks to the program's first ever national championship.

McCray-Penson was head coach at Old Dominion from 2017 to 2020, when she won Conference USA Coach of the Year honors, then took the reins at Mississippi State before resigning in October 2021 due to health reasons. She returned to coaching for the 2022-23 season, joining Coquese Washington's staff at Rutgers.

McCray-Penson was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013, though her cause of death has yet to be clarified. She is survived by her husband, Thomas, and 10-year-old son Thomas Jr.