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2017 Basketball Hall Of Fame Class Announced

April 1st, 2017 at 12:44pm CST by Milo Taibi

The 2017 Basketball Hall of Fame class was announced this afternoon on ESPN2 (link). Tracy McGrady, Rebecca Lobo, Bill Self, Muffet McGraw, Robert Hughes, Jerry Krause, George McGinnis, Tom Jernstedt, Nikos Galis, Zack Clayton and Mannie Jackson all made the cut as inductees.

A seven-time All-Star whose career spanned 17 seasons, McGrady received the HoF nod in his first year on the ballot. T-Mac, who battled injuries throughout his career, announced his retirement following the 2012/13 season, in which he made six postseason appearances with the Spurs.

Dikembe Mutombo, a Hall-of-Famer and former teammate of McGrady’s, was overjoyed to see Tracy’s selection.

“To have two of my friends, Tracy and Yao [Ming], who competed with me for the Houston Rockets, one of the great organizations, to see them in the Hall of Fame, that means a lot,” Mutombo told Mark Berman of Fox 26. “It’s something I can sit down with my kids and tell them I was not the only Hall of Famer out there with the Houston Rockets. I was lucky and fortunate to play with the other two.”

A pioneer of the WNBA, Lobo had been inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010. Following a successful career with the UConn Huskies, Lobo played for the New York Liberty in the WNBA’s inaugural season. Lobo would play in parts of six WNBA seasons, playing for the Houston Comets and Connecticut Sun following her time in New York.

Krause, the former Bulls’ GM, was inducted posthumously, as the former executive passed away on March 21. Serving as the Bulls’ GM for over 18 seasons, Krause is credited as the architect of Chicago’s roster during Michael Jordan’s tenure.

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Lakers Notes: Pelinka, West, Kobe, Walton

March 11th, 2017 at 9:30pm CST by ChrisCrouse

New Lakers GM Rob Pelinka vows to be aggressive in his attempts to get the franchise back on the winning path, as Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News relays. “We have to get better talent for [Luke Walton] to coach. We have to develop our young players. Our timeline is to be aggressive and to grow with quality players,” Pelinka said. “All of these things are like a chess game. You’ve got to start moving pieces around the board before you can win the game.”

The former agent wouldn’t commit to a timeline regarding a turnaround, adding that “it’s impossible to predict.” He said the front office will put in the necessary hard work and it will be “committed to excellence every day.” Team president Magic Johnson didn’t commit to a timeline either, but he also took accountability for the team’s future.

“If we can’t do our job, then I’m going to hand the keys back to Jeanie and step aside,” Johnson said. “If I see I can’t do it, I’ll gladly step aside.”

Here’s more from Los Angeles:

  • Jerry West was interested in returning to the Lakers, but he didn’t match owner Jeanie Buss‘ “vision for the future,” sources tell Kevin Ding of Bleacher Report. West’s son, Ryan, currently works for the Lakers and is expected to remain with the team.
  • Ding adds (same piece) that while Kobe Bryant remains “loyal” to Pelinka, though the future Hall of Famer is sticking to his plan of pursuing business ventures rather than chasing a front office role.
  • Despite the down season, both Pelinka and Johnson support Walton as the team’s coach, Medina adds in the aforementioned piece. Johnson recently referred to Walton as “the right man for the job.”
  • Pelinka believes in the Lakers‘ young talent, though he admits to being unsure about the team’s title chances with its existing core, Medina passes along in that same piece. “I don’t know,” Pelinka said in response to a question about the team’s ability to win a title with its core players. “But I do know this. We have a championship coach and Earvin and I are going to put in a championship accountability system to make sure any player that has the honor to put that jersey on is striving for greatness, is working hard and is a person of integrity.”
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And-Ones: Cavs, Bogut, Barnes, Holiday

February 23rd, 2017 at 12:30pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Cavs won’t make a decision on Larry Sanders until after the trade deadline, Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com passes along (ESPN Now link). Cleveland is also keeping an eye on the Andrew Bogut situation. The Cavs would like to bring the center aboard and they’re expected to be in the mix for him.

Here’s more from around the league:

  • Several teams have expressed interest in Matt Barnes, Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com tweets. Sources tell Shelburne that he’s waiting until after the trade deadline to make a decision.
  • Jarrett Jack will audition for the Pelicans, Marc Stein of ESPN.com tweets. New Orleans is pursuing backcourt help after trading away several players in the DeMarcus Cousins deal.
  • Point guard and pending free agent Jrue Holiday said the Pelicans “see me as a part of [the future],” the team tweets. The organization is calling Holiday, DeMarcus Cousins and Anthony Davis their version of a Big Three.
  • Mike Bibby and Ricky Davis will be the co-captains of the Ghost Ballers, the fourth official team in the new 3-on-3 league, according to a press release on BIG3.com.
  • Thunder center Enes Kanter returned to practice on Wednesday for the first time since undergoing arm surgery, Royce Young of ESPN.com reports. It’s uncertain whether Kanter, who suffered a broken arm punching a chair on the bench on January 26th, will return to action on Friday against the Lakers.
  • Former Rockets center Yao Ming, who was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame last year, has been appointed as president of the Chinese Basketball Association, according to an ESPN.com report. He gave up ownership of the league’s Shanghai Sharks in order to take over his new role.

Chris Crouse contributed to this post

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Kevin Garnett To Retire?

July 16th, 2016 at 10:50pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Kevin Garnett would like to play one more season, but he is unsure whether his body can endure the grind of the 82-game schedule, Steve Aschburner of NBA.com writes. “Yes, theoretically, he’d like to play. But he has some doubts of his knees holding up,” owner Glen Taylor said. “I think he’s worried if he can play. I worry about that too. When I talked to him last year, I said, ‘Is it your knees or what?’ He said, ‘It’s my whole leg.’ ” Garnett also told Taylor that he’d really like to play next year because he expects Minnesota to make the playoffs.

New president of basketball operations Tom Thibodeau said earlier in the week that he is giving Garnett as much time as he needs to make a decision because “the great ones deserve time.” Garnett has $8MM and one season remaining on his current deal and Aschburner notes that the team likely won’t use that cap space if he does retire, so it can wait on the big man’s decision.

Garnett’s agent, Andy Miller, told Aschburner that he hasn’t heard anything that would make him believe Garnett would not return. Aschburner notes that one of the reasons Garnett was willing to waive his no trade clause back in 2015 to come back to the Wolves was because the late Flip Saunders pitched Garnett with the idea of buying an ownership share of the franchise.

Taylor recently sold 15% of the franchise and he said he never had conversations with Garnett about a potential ownership stake. “I never participated in that. Kevin said it to some reporter and it got into the paper. I thought it was inappropriate for me to talk to him about it because he was a player. I never had that discussion with Kevin at all. But I sort of believed it because I assumed he was saying, that was his goal,” Taylor said. However, Taylor did not rule out the possibility. “I’m always open to something like that,” Taylor said, “because he would kind of represent a Minnesota owner.”

Taylor also insinuated that if Garnett decided to retire, a good portion of his $8MM salary would be made available to him via a buyout, so that the future Hall of Famer wouldn’t have to return for the money, Aschburner adds. Taylor knows retirement will be difficult for the power forward. “When he retires, he’s got to figure out a nice way to do it. I don’t know what it is, but I want to help him,” Taylor added. “The transition won’t be easy.”

Garnett saw only 14.6 minutes per contest over 38 games last season. The team went 14-24 in games he played and 15-29 in games he did not.

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Hoops Rumors Community Shootaround 9/12/15

September 12th, 2015 at 6:38pm CST by ChrisCrouse

On Friday evening, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame welcomed 11 new members, including NBA stars Spencer Haywood, Jo Jo White and Dikembe Mutombo. Kentucky coach John Calipari was one of four coaches to be inducted. Tom Heinsohn was inducted as a coach as well as George Raveling and Australia’s Lindsay Gaze. ABA star Louis Dampier, early African-American player John Isaacs, women’s basketball great Lisa Leslie and referee Dick Bavetta were all enshrined as well.

The Hall of Fame, located in Springfield, Massachusetts, includes greats from many walks of basketball life. The NBA is represented in the Hall, as is the WNBA, the international ranks and collegiate ranks. The Hall even has a section for the Harlem Globetrotters.

Members are enshrined for their entire body of work. If an NBA player played in the Olympics or had a stellar college career, those experiences are considered in the selection process. It’s a nice way to appreciate what a player has done in basketball across all venues in his career, but in some cases it doesn’t exactly display who the best NBA players are. It doesn’t have a single set of standards that applies to all potential inductees the way Hall of Fames for other sports do.

So the topic tonight is a simple one: Should the NBA have its own Hall of Fame? Or should the current Hall of Fame remain and be celebrated for its uniqueness?

Take to the comments to share your thoughts and opinions on this topic. We look forward to what you have to say.

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2013 NBA Hall Of Fame Inductee Notes

September 7th, 2013 at 9:50pm CST by Spencer Lund

This weekend will see 12 new members inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame: 6 players (including one international star, Oscar Schmidt,  and one woman, Dawn Staley), 2 contributors and 4 coaches (including one female coach, Sylvia Hatchell) will be enshrined in the Springfield, Massachusetts Hall. Here are a few links surrounding three of the 2013 inductees.

  • Tim Bontemps of the New York Post details the posthumous election of former NYC playground legend Roger Brown. Brown was a go-to scorer for three Indiana Pacers ABA championship teams, a four-time ABA All-Star and three-time All-ABA selection as well as a member of the All-Time ABA Team.
  • Pacers.com's Mark Montieth also wrote a two-part tribute to Brown's legacy as a Pacers great [Part 1; Part 2]
  • Despite never playing professionally in the NBA or ABA, Brazil's 6'9" scoring forward, Oscar Schmidt, appeared in five Olympics for Brazil and was elected to the Hall by the International committee. 
  • Scott Howard-Cooper talked with Schmidt for the NBA.com's Hang Time Blog and Schmidt tells him he would have been one of the 10 best players in NBA history if he'd gotten a chance to play in the NBA.
  • After leading the NBA in scoring during the 1984-85 season, forward Bernard King suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament, torn knee cartilage and a broken leg towards the end of his most dominating season as a pro. Doctors said he'd never play again, but King made the All-Star team for the fourth time in his career during his last full season with the Bullets in 1990/91. 
  • Andrew MacDougall details at Newsday how – of all his accomplishments – King is most proud of his grueling comeback from that knee injury.
  • Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News also contributed a piece about King's induction this weekend.
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Gary Payton On The End In Seattle

September 7th, 2013 at 6:25pm CST by Spencer Lund

The now-defunct Seattle SuperSonics team of the 1990s featured a dynamic point guard out of Oregon State University named Gary Payton. "The Glove" played his first 13 seasons with the Sonics, ending, during the only losing season while he was featured on the roster, mid-way through the 2002/03 season.

During that final half-year in Seattle, Payton was traded to the Bucks at the February deadline and went on to play for four more teams in the NBA before retiring in 2007 after capturing a championship with the Heat the year before.

Tonight Payton will be officially inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA as part of the class of 2013. Payton sat down with the Sporting News' Sean Deveney to talk about the end of his tenure in Seattle and the conclusion of pro basketball in the state of Washington, at least until the NBA decides to return to a city itching for a professional basketball team.

On being inducted as a SuperSonic:

"This will smooth a little bit off of it," Payton revealed. "A lot of Seattle fans traveled up here, I am seeing a lot of stuff on Twitter and Instagram and all that stuff. It has really helped me. And then people had the galls to ask me what I am going to in as. I said, 'Really? You got the galls to ask me that?' Like I would go in as a Laker? How many All-Stars did I make as a Laker? You see me, 13 years, playing for them Seattle SuperSonics. You didn't see nothing else, you just seen that Sonic on my jersey. So it is really gratifying for Seattle. I can't disrespect that."

On the beginning of the end in Seattle when Barry Ackerley sold the team in 2001:

"When the Ackerleys sold the team, it went from being a family team to being a business then. The people who took over the team ran their team like a business, like how they made their money. And you can't do that. The Ackerleys ran the team like a family. When we had problems, they would call us in and talk to us. They would call us in and ask us, 'What's the problem?' Not try to trade you, not act like, 'No, you don't need a new contract.' They would work it out. They would call you and say let's work it out this summer, come to my home in the summer, we will go on a trip together, let's work things out."

On the ownership reign of Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who bought the team from Ackerley and eventually sold the team to the man who moved them to Oklahoma City:

"[Schultz] did a lot of moves that wasn't the best moves," said Payton. "He made a lot of silly moves and those silly moves, first, was getting rid of me. I wasn't asking for a lot. I didn't never ask for a contract, I played all my contracts out. I was in the last year of the deal. All I asked was, are we going to get an extension? He made it seem like, 'I don't care about you no more, you're nothing.' That's what happened. He seen that wasn't the right way. Then the team and the whole franchise went downhill from there."

On the end of his time in Seattle:

"It was time to go. I didn't want to be working for this guy. He knew it and I knew it. He made the move and he had the consequences. But, the consequences came and he messed that franchise up."

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King, Payton Inducted To Hall Of Fame

April 8th, 2013 at 11:07am CST by Zachary Links

The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame announced today that they will welcome 12 new members in September.  This year's class includes Sonics star Gary Payton and Nets and Knicks great Bernard King.

Here's the complete list of 2012 inductees..

Women's Committee:

  • Sylvia Hatchell (Coach)
  • Dawn Staley (Player)

North American Committee:

  • Bernard King (Player)
  • Guy V. Lewis (Coach)
  • Gary Payton (Player)
  • Rick Pitino (Coach)
  • Jerry Tarkanian (Coach)

ABA Committee:

Early African American Pioneers Committee:

  • Dr. E.B. Henderson (Contributor)

International Committee:

  • Oscar Schmidt (Player)

Veterans Committee:

  • Richard Guerin (Player)

Contributor Direct Election Committee:

  • Russ Granik (Contributor)
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Miller, Nelson Headline 12 Hall Of Fame Inductees

April 2nd, 2012 at 12:13pm CST by Luke Adams

The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame announced today that 12 new members will be inducted into the Hall this September. Longtime Pacers guard Reggie Miller and the NBA's all-time winningest coach Don Nelson headline this year's class.

Here's the complete list of 2012 inductees…

North American Committee:

International Committee:

  • Lidia Alexeeva (Coach)

Women's Committee:

  • Katrina McClain (Player)
  • All American Red Heads (Team)

ABA Committee:

Veterans Committee:

Early African-American Pioneers of the Game Committee:

  • Don Barksdale (Contributor)

Contributor Direct Election Committee:

  • Phil Knight (Contributor)
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