Hall of Fame finalists: Malone, Pippen, Dream Team

[duncan228]

Hall of Fame finalists: Malone, Pippen, Dream Team (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ap-halloffamefinalists&prov=ap&type=lgns)

Two-time NBA MVP Karl Malone, six-time champion Scottie Pippen, and two of the great U.S. Olympic champions are finalists for the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame.

The 1992 Dream Team, which Malone and Pippen played on along with superstars such as Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, is a finalist in the team category. Also up for induction is the 1960 gold medalists, a team led by Hall of Famers Jerry West and Oscar Robertson that won its games in Rome by 42.4 points per game.

“It was great to play with Larry, Michael and all the guys after all those years,” Johnson said at the press conference. “They said there’s no way we could play together. They underestimated us from the beginning. We didn’t care who scored the points or got their name in the paper. All we cared about was bringing the gold back to the U.S.”

The 19 finalists were announced Friday at the start of the NBA’s All-Star weekend. The class of 2010 will be announced on April 5 in Indianapolis before the NCAA championship game.

The Dream Team is perhaps the best and most famous basketball squad ever. The first that included NBA players in the Olympics, the Americans rolled through Barcelona to enormous fanfare with an average victory margin of 43.8.

Eight members are already in the Hall of Fame and figure to be joined by at least two more in August. Malone was the NBA’s MVP in 1997 and ’99 and finished his career as the league’s No. 2 scorer with 36,928 points.

He never won a title, because Pippen’s teams were in the way both times his Utah Jazz reached the finals. The versatile forward paired with Jordan to win six titles in the 1990s and was a seven-time All-Star.

Malone and Pippen also won gold in the 1996 Olympics, and both are expected to join former teammates in the Hall this year. Jordan and John Stockton, Malone’s longtime Jazz teammate, were part of last season’s class.

Returning finalists include Chris Mullin, another Dream Teamer, Dennis Johnson, coach Don Nelson and four-time WNBA champion Cynthia Cooper.

[anakha]

Mullin may just make it in as a player in a couple more years.

Poor Christian Laettner - looks like the Dream Team's his only shot of even getting a HoF mention. :lol

[Fpoonsie]

Good for Pippen...

...FKM.

[hitmanyr2k]

It sucks Dennis Rodman didn't make it through the voting.

[daslicer]

It sucks Dennis Rodman didn't make it through the voting.

I expected him not make it because lol he is probably most controversial hof candidate of all time. I think he should be in there because he is one of the most versatialle defenders I have ever seen along with being the greatest rebounder of all time. I don't think he gets in mainly because of political reasons.

[alchemist]

no Pop yet?

[JoeTait75]

Poor Christian Laettner - looks like the Dream Team's his only shot of even getting a HoF mention. :lol

If it's a basketball Hall of Fame, and not a pro basketball Hall of Fame- which it is- Laettner should be in with a bullet.


I expected him not make it because lol he is probably most controversial hof candidate of all time. I think he should be in there because he is one of the most versatialle defenders I have ever seen along with being the greatest rebounder of all time. I don't think he gets in mainly because of political reasons.

100% agree with this take.

[anakha]

If it's a basketball Hall of Fame, and not a pro basketball Hall of Fame- which it is- Laettner should be in with a bullet.


On the merits of college careers, I'll be more convinced Laettner's going to make it in as a player once I see Danny Manning in the HoF.

If you're arguing on the basis of team achievement, I'd say the Dream Team is still his better shot of making it in over the '92 Duke squad.

[duncan228]

Rodman, Jackson surprisingly left off Hall finalist list (http://www.nba.com/2010/news/features/scott_howard_cooper/02/12/hall.of.fame/index.html?ls=iref:nbahpt1)
Scott Howard-Cooper

DALLAS -- Dealing a very public rebuke to Dennis Rodman with very private methods, a screening committee from the basketball Establishment ended the debate over his candidacy for the Hall of Fame by indicating there was never really much debate in the first place.

The lightning-rod question of whether Rodman would make the Hall or fall just short as payback for years of controversy and antics as an immensely productive power forward was answered Friday as 19 finalists from across the sport were announced and he was nowhere to be found.

Seven consecutive seasons of leading the league in rebounding is the greatest streak ever, first- or second-team All-Defense in a coaches' votes eight seasons in a row, Defensive Player of the Year twice in a media vote, an important member of five title teams with the Pistons and Bulls, but bounced in the first elimination.

That wasn't the only surprise when the list was released as part of All-Star weekend. Mark Jackson -- No. 3 all-time in assists Mark Jackson -- likewise went from apparent close call to not even advancing to finalist. A point guard with more assists than anyone in league history except John Stockton and Jason Kidd... and unable to so much as get in contention for the Class of 2010.

The Jackson call at least seemed to be career driven -- the passing number is superb, but he was an All-Star once, never made even third-team All-NBA and averaged more than nine assists a game just twice. He is the epitome of a player who had a long, successful career but was never considered great.

Rodman's elimination, though, was clearly about sending a message. Or at least probably clearly. Few explanations are absolute in the shadowy world of Hall campaigns, where election totals are never announced to know how close a candidate came and names of voters are never released. The only information available is that the electorate is comprised of executives, former players and coaches, and veteran media members, with approval needed from five of the seven judges to advance and from 18 of 24 members of the separate panel that will decide the inductees.

Jerry Colangelo, the former Suns owner who is chairman of the Hall, said he will push for better transparency in the process. He said that Friday, when Rodman and Jackson were eliminated without any sense of the vote or who did the deciding. It was left to secrets and speculation, with one voter who did not want to be identified saying "of course" The Worm was done in by his self-inflicted image, and Brendan Malone, an assistant coach as Rodman rose to prominence in Detroit, speaking what a lot of people were thinking.

"I think that there is a prejudice against him because of his off-court conduct or whatever, the perception that people have of him," Malone said. "They say, 'He can't be in the [Hall of Fame] because of his bizarre lifestyle. But what they should do is sit back and see what he had done for two championship-caliber teams and what they would have been without him."

Said Bill Walton, one of several Hall of Famers who attended the announcement: "Dennis changed the game of basketball in a lot of ways. A real force who played on five championship teams, some of the greatest teams ever, and a dynamic power in the history of basketball. And if I were in charge, things would be different."

Asked if he was surprised Rodman didn't at least make the first cut, Walton said, answering the question without actually answering it: "I liked what Jerry Colangelo said about transparency. I think that's good in all aspects of life. Shine the bright lights in there."

The induction class will be headlined by Karl Malone, Scottie Pippen and the 1992 U.S. Olympic squad, the original Dream Team, each considered a lock to receive the necessary 18 of 24 votes to reach Springfield, Mass. Lakers owner Jerry Buss, New Jersey high school coach Bob Hurley Sr., Dennis Johnson, Bernard King, Chris Mullin, Don Nelson in the coaching category, Jamaal Wilkes, long-time coach Tex Winter, and the 1960 U.S. Olympic team were the others from the North American committee to become finalists.

Also advancing were Cynthia Cooper, former coach Harley Redin and the All-American Red Heads from the women's committee; former Soviet coach Vladimir Kondrashin and Brazilian player Maciel (Ubiratan) Pereira by the international committee; and Richard Guerin and Gus Johnson via the veteran's committee. Inductees will be announced April 5 at the Final Four in Indianapolis.

[ShoogarBear]

Laettner and Manning are both locks to get on the basis of their college careers.

It just takes collegians considerably longer to get in.

(I was originally wrote that Manning may be problematic because he didn't play four years, but he did. For some reason I thought he left after 2-3 years.)