Basketball
Of the four Halls of Fame comprising the “Big Four” of the North American sports, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame is the one that is the hardest for many casual fans to figure out.Established in 1959, though there was no physical building for a decade, the Basketball Hall of Fame would take root in Springfield, Massachusetts. While the popularity of Basketball has skyrocketed over the past 20 years, the Hall of Fame has not grown nearly at the same pace.
Why is that?
It is because the very thing that was designed to make it special is what makes it convoluted.
The Baseball Hall of Fame, with the primary exception of the Negro Leagues, focuses only on those who participated in Major League Baseball.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame only looks at the National Football League.
The Hockey Hall of Fame does look at International contributions but with the exception of two players who played their career in the Soviet Red Army, all players had at one time plied their trade in the National Hockey League.
The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame looks at everything. This includes College, International, Women and in some cases High School.
Every year, there are finalists where even the most devote basketball fans are trying to figure out who those people are, and when that happens, the cache value of the Hall naturally shrinks.
For our purposes, we will only look at those who were in the National Basketball Association as let’s face it…that is what most of us care about the most!
Until then, go for the three!
Sincerely,
The Notinhalloffame.com Committee
The second best player ever to come from Louisville, Darrell Griffith led Coach Denny Crum’s Cardinals to their first National Title and was the National Player of the Year in 1980. Griffith had incredible leaping ability and used this to finish plays with style. He also was a potent jump shooter though he never became the superstar many thought he would be out of college. Griffith still had a very solid NBA career but was…
Like Christian Laettner, Danny Manning is one of the great college players ever, almost singlehandedly carrying Kansas to a national title in 1988. His pro career was marked with frequent injuries and playing on some bad teams. He was a two time All-Star and if anyone could get in for one remarkable month of basketball it would be Manning. Manning was also elected to the college hall in 2008 thus greatly reducing his chances of…
One of the great power forwards of the 70’s and 80’s. Dan Roundfield could rebound and score but is most famous for his ability to defend. One of the best shot blockers at his position, Roundfield earned first team All-NBA honors in 1980 and made three All-Star teams as well as being a perennial member of the All-Defensive team. Underrated and playing in the obscurity of Atlanta, only his peers really knew how good he…
Len “Truck” Robinson fit his nickname and could very well be the very definition of a power forward. He was a “truck” underneath, using his incredible strength to dominate. A great rebounder Truck also had the ability to score and developed a great mid range game. Injuries limited his career totals and this will hurt his chances, however fans of the NBA before the Bird-Magic liftoff remember how dominant he could be.
With his year of eligibility pushed back from his attempts to get back in the big time through the D-League, Antoine Walker is sadly best known for his financial woes more than anything he did on the court. In his playing career, his best seasons were with Boston, where along with Paul Pierce his three pointers excited crowds (though he probably took too many) and he was a member of three All Star squads. In…
The first incarnation of the Charlotte Hornets had some good moments and memorable players, but they had an athletic Point Guard named Baron Davis, whose career and contributions to the sport are yet to receive their proper due. A Pac-10 Freshman of the Year at UCLA, Davis was the third overall pick in199y by the Charlotte Hornets, and he was their starting Point Guard as an NBA sophomore. Davis blossomed over the next five years,…
So where do we start? Is it at Ron Artest or at World Metta Peace? Or, who knows?
Mike Gminski's chances of being in the Hall of Fame are primarily due to his college accomplishments. Gminski did have a nice NBA career, where he exceeded 10,000 Points and 6,000 Rebounds, but as we often state, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame looks at all levels of the sport. Collegiately, Gminski had one of the best careers in Duke Blue Devil history, and how impactful is that! Gminski was a three-time All-ACC Selection where…
The X-Man was the first player in NCAA history to lead the country in both scoring and rebounding; McDaniel was a stud at Wichita State. His pro career was solid as a forward who used his emotions to his advantage and was as tough as he looked. A legend in Seattle especially after his wonderful cameo in the Grunge movie Singles where during a fantasy sequence, one of the male leads (played by Campbell Scott)…
If you can forget how he flamed out in the NBA and his disastrous marriage to Khloe Kardashian, Lamar Odom had some very good years, specifically with the Los Angeles Lakers whom he helped to win two NBA Championships. Odom put up some solid defensive rebound stats and owns a respectable 13.3 Points per Game Average and a career PER of 16.5. Odom also won the prestigious NBA 6th Man of the Year Award in…
The image most of us have of Big Bill is getting an entry pass from the wing and throwing his turnaround jumper over some defender and watching it bounce around four or five times and go in; or of course elbowing someone in the face (inadvertently of course) while going for the rebound. Bill Cartwright was the very definition of old school 70’s and 80’s basketball which carried over to the next decade. It was…
Don Otten’s career might seem pedestrian when you look at just the stats from Basketball Reference, but his Hall of Fame case is much stronger than at first glance. A two-time All-American at Bowling Green, Otten turned pro with the Tri-Cities Blackhawks in 1946, where he was named the league MVP and scoring champion (14.0) in 1948-49, the last year of the NBL’s existence. The Blackhawks would join the NBA in 1949, but by this…
Andre Miller is one of the best professional basketball players who was never was chosen for the All Star Game. Miller was a former WAC Player of the Year (1999) and as an NBA player the former 8th overall Draft Pick of 1999 would later win the NBA Assists title in the 2001-02 season and was in the top ten in that stat seven other times. The Guard would have four NBA seasons where he…
A two-time NBA All-Star, Caron Butler garnered significant attention when in 2002 he led UConn to an Elite 8 appearance and was named the co-Big East Player of the Year. He would be selected by the Miami Heat as a lottery pick but it was when he moved to the Washington Wizards where he would have his greatest individual success. The Small Forward would have a pair of 20 Points per Game seasons (2006-07 &…
Steve Kerr will be a Hall of Fame lock…but that is as a Coach. …and he should be. As a Head Coach, Kerr captained the Golden State Warriors to four NBA Championships, was a two-time Coach of the Year, and was named to the top 15 NBA Coaches in NBA History. That places him in Hall of Fame air, but this list is about what you do as a player, and nobody understood his role…
Drafted by the Indiana Pacers in 2005 off of a solid collegiate run with both Bradley and New Mexico, Danny Granger would have three seasons in the National Basketball Association where he exceeded 20 Points per Game, and two of them had a PPG over 24. The Small Forward holds the distinction of being the only player in NBA history to grow his PPG by 5 or more annually three years in a row. He…
A two-time All-Star with the Chicago Bulls, Luol Deng was born in Sudan, moved to England as a child, and immigrated to the United States as a teen. It was the latter move that allowed him to hone in skills in the game of basketball, and become the best player to come out of what is now South Sudan.
David West is arguably one of the best (if not the best) players that Xavier ever had. As a Musketeer, the Power Forward was named the Atlantic 10 Player of the Year three times (2001-03) and was also named the AP National Player of the Year in 2003.
A powerful force in the paint, Antonio McDyess had a very good career going until 2001 when a severe knee injury rendered him only part of the player he used to be. Prior to that, he was really coming into his own with capable blocking and boarding skills and was rewarded with his first All Star appearance and a spot on the American Dream Team. He would rehab himself back into the rotation by totally…
A 25th Overall Draft Pick in 2001, Gerald Wallace did not see much playing time in his first few seasons as a Sacramento King, but he would be chosen by the Charlotte Bobcats in the Expansion Draft where he won a starting job and proved to be one of the more intense players in the NBA. Wallace was a ferocious defender who was unafraid to go after every ball that ventured near him and from…