On Friday, Rutgers University announced that assistant coach Nikki McCray-Penson died. No cause of death was announced. She was 51 years old. While McCray-Penson has coached for over a decade, she is best known as an ABL and WNBA player from 1996-2006, including for the Washington Mystics from 1998-2001.
While on the Mystics, McCray-Penson was on three WNBA All-Star teams from 1999-2001 and was also a member of the USA Basketball women’s national team that won the gold medal in the 2000 Olympics; she also was part of the 1996 Olympic team.