The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame announced its 12 finalists for 2023 on Friday evening, and what a star-studded list it is.
Here are the 12 finalists:
- Gregg Popovich – Winningest coach in NBA history, five-time NBA champion
- Dirk Nowitzki – 14-time All-Star, 12-time All-NBA, 2006/07 MVP, 2011 NBA champion and Finals MVP
- Dwyane Wade – 13-time All-Star, eight-time All-NBA, three-time NBA champion, 2006 Finals MVP
- Tony Parker – Six-time All-Star, four-time All-NBA, four-time NBA champion, 2007 Finals MVP
- Pau Gasol – Six-time All-Star, four-time All-NBA, two-time NBA champion, 2002 Rookie of the Year
- Becky Hammon – Six-time WNBA All-Star, two-time first-team All-WNBA
- Jennifer Azzi – 1990 Naismith Player of the Year, 1990 national champion with Stanford; 1996 Olympic gold medal
- Gene Bess – All-time winningest college coach (1,300) across all levels in 50 years at Three Rivers Community College in Missouri (men’s)
- Gene Keady – Seven-time Big Ten Coach of the Year, six-time National Coach of the Year with Purdue (men’s)
- David Hixon – 826 wins, two-time Division III national champion and Coach of the Year with Amherst College (men’s)
- Gary Blair – 852 wins, 2011 national champion with Texas A&M (women’s)
- Marian Washington – 560 wins, 11 NCAA appearances with Kansas (women’s)
According to the Hall of Fame, the entire class of 2023 will be announced in Houston, on April 1 at the NCAA Men’s Final Four at 11:00 AM ET. Potential enshrinees from the Direct Elect Committees may also be recognized at the NCAA Men’s Final Four.
The class of 2023 will be enshrined during festivities in Springfield, Mass., on August 11-12.
In addition to the aforementioned nominees, the Hall of Fame also announced that legendary high school scout Tom Konchalski was honored as the 2023 John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award winner. Konchalski unfortunately passed away a couple of years ago. You can read more about him here.
Marc J. Spears and Holly Rowe of ESPN were named the 2023 Curt Gowdy Media Award winners for print and electronic, respectively, while CBS Sports won the award for the transformative category.
Pop & Dirk unanimous.
Wade too
Dirk, Wade, Parker, Hammon, Bess, Keady.
Why does Pop get put in the HOF if hes still coaching?
I was wondering the same thing?
Stacked
What’s the argument against any of them? They all seem pretty worthy and the Basketball Hall of Fame is pretty wide open about their inductees. They put in 10+ people in a year pretty regularly.
Announcing it on April fools is a really odd choice by Silver. Feels disrespectful if someone is excited but they think it’s just a gag. Smdh…
Silver has nothing to do with it. It’s timed to be done at the college final. I’ve been to the Hall of Fame and I love it but they put WAY too much emphasis on college stuff. That’s just a footnote in a player’s career, although the Hall does honor coaches and contributors too.
Amazing class— Pop’s speech will be great. Lots of Spurs connections in this one, and of course Dirk and Wade headlining is awesome.
Tom Konchalski, RIP. Hard to explain to anyone not around at the time how impactful this guy’s voice was across the northeast HS and college basketball scenes since the early 1980’s. You wouldn’t know it by looking at him or talking to him. Just another unassuming guy at the game, except he had a notepad.
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What is it gonna take for Michael Cooper to get in.
Doubt it’ll ever happen but would love to see the NBA go away from the Basketball ball of fame and do it’s own NBA hall of fame.
So many randoms make it in. Should be like 5 max added per year and really exclusive
Agreed. Although it’s not Pc to say that
It has nothing to do with “PC”. The Hall of Fame is a museum. They sell tickets. What financial incentive is there for anyone to open an even smaller museum that appeals to even less people?
Not to mention the award is arbitrary and subjective. There is no criteria to get in. It’s based on people’s opinions.
As such, you’re entitled to your own opinions, but opening a separate Hall of Fame for only the NBA is an objectively dumb idea. Next.
Why not just put everyone in them, the more the merrier. I just think bring a hall of damper should carry a little more weight
Yes a separate WNBA one but no limit because MLB has one maybe.
It doesn’t seem like Dirk has been retired as long as he has been. Seems like yesterday I saw him play. The voting should be unanimous for him.
Nowitzki, D-Wade & Pau for sure…
Parker & Pop… probably as well, why not if you need to pad the numbers, right?
Dirk, Wade, Parker, Gasol, Hammon, Pop, and maybe another coach.
Popovich most overrated coach in the history of the game.