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http://spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=134535
By The Associated Press
BOSTON — Michael Jordan has chosen David Thompson, another high flyer from North Carolina, to present him, while Charles Barkley and Isiah Thomas also will be presenters at the Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony.
Jordan highlights a class that includes David Robinson, John Stockton, and coaches Jerry Sloan of the Utah Jazz and C. Vivian Stringer of Rutgers. Each was asked to select a previous inductee to serve as a presenter at Friday's ceremony at Springfield, Mass.
Jordan went with a surprise by asking Thompson, the athletic swingman who led North Carolina State to the national championship in 1974 -- eight years before Jordan won one for the rival Tar Heels.
Stockton, the career leader in assists, requested Thomas, like himself one of the best point guards in NBA history. Sloan, Stockton's coach in Utah, asked Barkley to be his presenter.
Barkley called Sloan's invitation "one of the greatest compliments of my life."
Robinson went with Larry Brown, his first NBA coach, and fellow San Antonio Spurs Hall of Famer George Gervin.
Stringer's choice of John Chaney was perhaps the least surprising. The longtime friends were coaches of the men's and women's teams at Division II Cheyney State at the same time.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baske...61509766_x.htm
Oh, this is gonna be fun!
Zeke being at MJ's induction.
Sloan selecting Barkley?
By order of MJ, or what?!?
discussion here
http://spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=134535
No there's not.
My point was made about the other ones.
Not MJ's.
Axis of Ego could present Hall ceremony with problems
Sep. 8, 2009
By Ken Berger
CBSSports.com Senior Writer
Michael Jordan selection of David Thompson to present him for his Hall of Fame enshrinement brings a beautiful strand of symmetry to the proceedings. As much as he changed the game, Jordan realized that he was a product of those who came before him.
Thompson will serve as a living, breathing origin of the high-flying signature that Jordan picked up in mid-stroke and finished with a flourish. But as impressed as I am with Jordan's presenter, I'm a little worried about the others.
We'll see if Larry Brown and Isiah Thomas can play nice and if Charles Barkley can play it straight. (Getty Images)
With Charles Barkley presenting Jerry Sloan, Larry Brown presenting David Robinson and Isiah Thomas presenting John Stockton, the enshrinement ceremony in Springfield, Mass., on Friday night runs the risk of turning into something it shouldn't be. In Barkley's case, it could become amateur night at the comedy club. In the case of Larry and Isiah, lawyers might have to be present to negotiate seating assignments and bathroom breaks.
Has a Hall of Fame in any sport ever had two presenters who hated each other more?
All I can say is, thank God for No. 23. Because without Jordan's mountainous presence looming over the evening, I'm afraid the wattage generated by Charles, Larry and Isiah would be inappropriately bright. Even with M.J. in the house, the Axis of Ego might find a way to make it about them.
Barkley's gift for gab is greatly appreciated in many venues, but not this one -- and especially not in his role of presenting one of the truly ego-less coaches ever to roam an NBA sideline. Sloan doesn't need a presenter, much less one who is fully capable of turning the event into his own personal mix tape of inappropriate jokes. The only worse choice would've been Phil Jackson, who might've been tempted to show up with his "X" cap to signify his 10 les to Sloan's none.
• Jordan selects D. Thompson as presenter; Stockton picks Isiah
Speaking of chronic insubordinateion, Brown earned the honor of presenting Robinson by virtue of being a Hall of Famer himself -- one of the criteria -- and serving as the Admiral's first NBA coach. There is no doubting Brown's status as a coaching luminary. I just question the wisdom of putting him in the same room with Thomas, with whom he infamously feuded when they were both employed by the Knicks. Only Jordan -- who blocked the Knicks from numerous NBA les during the '90s -- and Bernard Madoff have stolen more from New Yorkers than Larry and Isiah.
Couldn't the Hall of Fame get Anucha Browne Sanders involved, just to complete the dysfunction?
The funny thing is, Barkley and Brown would've wound up in Springfield this weekend one way or another, because either one would've been a credible presenter for Jordan. Barkley, of course, is M.J.'s longtime golfing and gambling partner, while Brown could've used the opportunity of presenting Jordan as a way to lobby one last time for the North Carolina job. To do that, Brown could've become the first presenter in Hall of Fame history to have his own presenter: Dean Smith.
• 2009 Hall of Fame Inductees
One thing that puzzles me: Which guy is Isiah going to dislike more at the ceremony? Brown or Jordan? Either way, I'm going to want a full accounting -- once and for all -- of Isiah's famous-but-often-denied freezeout of Jordan at the 1985 All-Star Game. That would be a lot more interesting than listening to Isiah talk about how he's building a champion at Florida International.
The pitfalls here are numerous. I just hope that George Gervin (Robinson's co-presenter) and John Chaney (presenting C. Vivian Stringer) find a way to get a few words in. Together, they might have to save the ceremony from itself.
This class is special -- too special to have the spotlight and applause focused on anyone but the inductees. It's as good as it gets when you consider Jordan's legacy and Sloan's selfless contributions as a teacher and ambassador for what coaching should be. Robinson's 1,000-watt smile and résumé, not to mention Stockton's throwback point-guard play and ruggedness, could've stood on their own merits at any other induction. On Friday night, they'll take a backseat to Jordan. I just don't want them outshined by anybody else.
So please, dignified, decorated and dysfunctional presenters: Play nice. Don't let your egos get in the way. And repeat after me: It's not about you.
http://www.cbssports.com/nba/story/12175781
LOL Please sit Larry Brown and Isiah next to each other.
Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease!!!!!!!
...and please Isiah kick the holy out of him.
Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thompson Selection a Nod to MJ's Rebel Side
SportingNews
O the wilds of news cycle. First, it was "why not fellow giants and partners in glory Dean or Phil"; then "of course, wide-angle ACC pride"; and finally, "recognize the original high-flyer."
So, a day plus after Michael Jordan's announcement that David "Skywalker" Thompson would be presenting him at Friday's Hall of Fame induction, we've reached a kind of equilibrium. This is MJ playing humble, tracing back many roots, broadening exactly what he wants us to see as the backdrop for his extraordinary career.
Thus, as the mystery unraveled, the pieces fell into place, and we realized just how much sense the Thompson pick made (and on how many different levels), it looked like another MJ coup. During his playing days, Jordan was the epitome of the anodyne pitchman: consummate champion, pan-racial object of beauty, role model par excellence.
MJ oozed charisma and power on and off the court, but never did a thing to rock the boat. He kept his purpose, image, and message simple, and that's how he became not only a marketing phenom, but also such a universally beloved athlete. He's even gone so far as to replace the soaring Jumpman of his first act with the poised, controlled fadeaway—and the high-drama highlights that produced—as his signature image.
With the Thompson pick, though, Jordan is really picking away at, even subverting, this carefully-crafted corporate edifice. For one, Thompson may be part of the Baylor-Hawkins-Erving lineage of high-flyers that lead up to MJ's league-wide influence. But while Thompson is a member of the Hall of Fame, he's by far the least vaunted of the pre-Jordan aerial artists. In fact, during his prime, Thompson was frequently accused of being overrated, a freakish draw who could do little more than leap.
And then there's all the baggage that comes with Thompson. Yes, he and Erving were among a handful of individual players who, as much as any franchise, forced the NBA to absorb several ABA teams. The Nuggets were extremely successful, financially and record-wise, and yet the Association was just as focused on electrifying stars like Thompson—in large part because the league couldn't escape the stereotype of being in a drug-riddled rut, one that Magic, Bird, and ultimately Jordan would deliver it from.
The NBA wanted Thompson because it was troubled and in search of answers. But no matter how much the Nuggets had won, the ABA was a renegade league with a culture that would make even the faltering NBA blush. Thompson—raw, dynamic, battling multiple addictions, and felled too soon by a combination of poor personal decisions and knee problems—was that era in all its ambivalent grandeur.
What's compelling about Jordan allying himself with Thompson isn't that it's State over UNC, or a relative no-name over someone everyone recognizes instantly as a Hall of Famer. In making explicit the connection between himself and this damaged, dynamic career, Jordan is for once revisiting those first few seasons as a pro, when he was criticized as a one-man team whose dunking was exciting but shallow.
By choosing the star-crossed, edgy Thompson, rather than, say, basketball ambassador Erving, he's acknowledging just how rebellious and scary that game can be to the powers that be—something he learned first-hand when he entered the league and saw the Jordan 1 banned.
In one of my favorite Jordan Brand commercials, MJ asserts that he might be at fault for "making it look too easy." As in, you think I turned this league into an showcase for athleticism and untutored exuberance:
By picking Thompson, he seems to be saying not only "I did other stuff" but "yeah, that was definitely a part of it." Jordan's triumph wasn't that he outmoded Skywalker, but that he gradually transmuted Thompson's legacy from a threat to the system into that of a pioneer. In other words, as Michael Jordan enters the Hall, he wants us to remember just how raw he can get—and how, like it or not, that might clash with the MJ we've come to know so well.
Or so we thought.
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