Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard are one step closer to going into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

If all goes well, they might get in twice.

Anthony and Howard were among the finalists announced Friday by the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame for enshrinement as part of the class of 2025. They both made it as individuals — and for their roles on the 2008 U.S. Olympic team that won gold at the Beijing Games, the so-called “Redeem Team” that also is now one step from induction.

“I think any time you have an association with a group of people that come together for a common cause and good, you see a lot of good things happen,” said Hall of Fame chairman Jerry Colangelo, who also was managing director of the 2008 Olympic team. “I’ve said some things about that experience ... ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ being played, the flag being raised, it was a moment of total completion.”

Also announced as finalists on Friday: women’s basketball greats and Olympic gold medalists Sue Bird, Sylvia Fowles, Maya Moore and Jennifer Azzi. Bird won five Olympic golds, Fowles won four, Moore won two, and Azzi was part of the team that won gold at Atlanta in 1996.

“You look at the accomplishments for each of them in terms of championships, in terms of winning gold, in terms of being the players they were for as long as they were, it’s a real tribute to the game of basketball and women’s basketball in particular,” Colangelo said.

The other finalists as picked by the North American committee were Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovan (a two-time NCAA champion coach at Florida); Gonzaga coach Mark Few; retired NBA referee Danny Crawford; NBA legends Marques Johnson and Buck Williams; and Jerry Welsh — who coached Potsdam in upstate New York to NCAA Division III titles in 1981 and 1986.

“I tell everybody he’s not really a coach,” said Steve Babiarz, who played on Welsh’s 1986 national championship team. “He’s everybody’s mentor, a second father. Coaching was secondary. He brought student-athletes there to be successful and his personality, his character, the way he’s about family, I mean, I played for him 40 years ago and I talk to him every single month since I left Potsdam. He’s my hero.”

Miami Heat managing general partner Micky Arison is also a finalist for enshrinement. Arison was put forward by the Contributors Committee, as was longtime Maccabi Tel Aviv star Tal Brody.

“He’s just a great owner,” Heat President Pat Riley, a 2008 Hall of Fame inductee, said of Arison. “It’s a family organization.”

The Women’s Veteran Committee put forward Molly Bolin, who was the first player signed by the Women’s Professional Basketball League. And the International Committee selected as a finalist former Serbian professional player and longtime coach Dusan Ivkovic — already a FIBA Hall of Famer.

The finalists have one more step to go: the Hall’s Honors Committee will meet in the coming weeks, with 18 votes from that 24-person panel needed for election. The class will be unveiled at the NCAA men’s Final Four in San Antonio on April 5.

Enshrinement weekend is Sept. 5-6 at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut, and the Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.

TENNIS

Jelena Ostapenko ended Iga Swiatek’s three-year reign of the Qatar Open in the semifinals on Friday and will play Amanda Anisimova of the U.S. for the title.

No. 37-ranked Ostapenko won 6-3, 6-1 and improved her record against No. 2 Swiatek to 5-0. The Latvian is the only active player to have faced Swiatek at least twice and kept a winning record.

The former French Open champion will play for her ninth career WTA title, and first in a year.

Anisimova, ranked 41st, will try to win her third career title. Her previous two were in 2022.

OLYMPICS

If they run as fast as they talk, this could be a doozy. Yes, sprint and football fans, Noah Lyles and Tyreek Hill have moved one step closer to settling things on the track.

When, where and at what distance? All still TBD.

The reigning 100-meter Olympic champion and the fleet-footed NFL receiver conducted a joint interview/trash-talk session this week with People magazine, which pronounced they “will officially race each other” but did not offer any details beyond that.

“This has been an ongoing thing for quite some time now, and I mean, everybody’s seen the back and forth on social media,” said Hill, who last summer declared he could beat Lyles in a race. “I’ve been very adamant to show people what real, true speed looks like.”

Lyles accepted Hill’s challenge earlier this month after winning a 60-meter indoor race, then flashing a piece of paper that said “Tyreek Could Never.”

“I think it speaks for itself,” Lyles said of the sign. “Everybody says that they’re gonna be the world’s fastest, but when it comes down to it, you gotta be the winner every time, each and every time, and every time I show up to the biggest moments, I win.”

Hill has run a 40-yard dash at an NFL workout in 4.29 seconds. Lyles won the 100 meters at the Olympics last year in 9.784.

Most likely, they’ll race at a distance in between.

People said the race will happen sometime before the national championships in July.

TRACK AND FIELD

Grant Fisher broke his second world indoor record within a week when he shattered a 21-year-old mark in the 5,000 meters on Friday at the BU David Hemery Valentine Invitational in Boston.

The American crossed the finish line in 12 minutes, 44.09 seconds to eclipse the mark that Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele set on Feb. 20, 2004, by 5.51 seconds.

Last Saturday at the Millrose Games, Fisher broke the indoor world record in the 3,000 meters when he finished in 7:22.91. That broke the record of 7:23.81 set by Ethiopia’s Lamecha Girma two years ago.

NFL

Raheem Mostert was released by the Miami Dolphins on Friday.

The team announced the veteran running back’s release, along with cornerback Kendall Fuller and tight end Durham Smythe.

Mostert finished the 2024 season with his fewest games played (13), rushing yards (278) and attempts (85) since he joined the team ahead of the 2022 season.

Fuller had 50 tackles (37 solo), seven passes defensed and one fumble recovery, but two concussions limited him to 11 games.

Smythe was a fourth-round draft pick by Miami in 2018 and played in 112 games with 74 starts over the past seven seasons. He had 132 receptions for 1,228 yards and three receiving touchdowns for the Dolphins.

Mostert had one year left on his contract after signing an extension last March, coming off a highly productive season in 2023 in which he ran for a career-high 1,012 yards and 18 touchdowns.