Longtime Celtics forward Paul Pierce and former NBA player and head coach Doug Collins are among those eligible for the first time to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, writes ESPN’s Royce Young.
Pierce and Collins are joined as this year’s first-time nominees by former Defensive Player of the Year Michael Cooper and three-time WNBA Most Valuable Player Lauren Jackson, along with Howard Garfinkel, Lou Henson, Val Ackerman, and Yolanda Griffith. Those new nominees will be added to a list of returning candidates that includes Chauncey Billups, Chris Bosh, and Becky Hammon, among others.
While the 2020 Hall of Fame class – headlined by Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, and Kevin Garnett – won’t be enshrined until May due to coronavirus-related delays, the 2021 class is scheduled to be unveiled in early April, with a September induction ceremony to follow.
Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News (Twitter link) hears from a source that the NBA G League may be targeting February 8 for the start of its shortened season. Training camps would begin at a bubble site – possibly in Atlanta – on January 29 in that scenario, Bondy adds.
- ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Insider link) examines what’s next for the players who didn’t sign rookie scale extensions on Monday and takes a look at some players who will still be candidates for veteran extensions during the season, including new Bucks guard Jrue Holiday and Rockets forward P.J. Tucker.
- The NBA’s decision to rescind the Bucks‘ 2022 second-round pick after finding evidence that they jumped the gun on negotiations with Bogdan Bogdanovic last month is a relative slap on the wrist, but still represents a noticeable step up over past penalties for tampering, Jared Weiss writes for The Athletic. The league made it a priority starting in 2019 to crack down on such violations.
- Basketball junkies will enjoy the 2020/21 version of Niku Mistry’s annual NBA Almanac, a 300-page guide that recaps last season’s results – along with each offseason transaction – and includes team-by-team breakdowns for the coming year.
Thank you for recognition Hoops Rumours – its goes without saying this site was an invaluable resource for me when compiling this Almanac every year. And for that I am eternally grateful. Enjoy the season!
Not a very exciting 2021 HoF class (at least compared to the very impressive 2020 class). Though as a big time Celtics fan that grew up watching Paul Pierce I will be happy for him when he makes it into the HoF (hopefully this year but even if not, I think he definitely deserves to make it at some point)
That’s the truth!
Exciting? Doug Collins in 1968 was involved with more excitement than I could handle. Darn Russkys.
He’s like Rudy Tomjanovic, another good player & HC. Every time I see them I feel some pity, totally unfair. Nothing they could do
I like Pierce for his efforts to best Lebron. He was like DeShawn Stephenson except good.
Cooper also coached in the WNBA, which I do not follow much, but was just a cohort as a player.
IDK Garfinkel.
Henson coached the great 1989 Illinios BB team; I’ve never seen he like; they were all about the same height, and they had basically a power sweep play. Very good at being messy.