Hall of Fame?

[LnGrrrR]

Maurice Stokes is an interesting case and I don't really know his story so not sure why he's in. But as for David Thompson, if you look at him and he's in the Hall, wouldn't that make for an argument that Tracy McGrady belongs in the HOF? He doesn't have the college resume obviously, but he does have a gold medal. And in his peak years, he put up a number of crazy statistical seasons. I don't think too many would consider T-Mac as a realistic HOFer.

The Gale Sayers argument really only works for me in specific instances:

1) Player looked to be a world-beating, game-changing type of player
2) Player suffered an injury that severely debilitated/limited their game
3) Player seemingly did all he could to maintain/get back their greatness, or retired

I think TMac misses on number 3, as does Vince Carter. Both are perceived as having a lack of motivation to improving their game, as well as poor at udes, which will make it hard for them to make the Hall.

[SomeCallMeTim]

Maurice Stokes should be a bench mark for those types of players. He only had 3 NBA years total (1956-58), but was awesome in those years plus had a great college career. David Thompson only had 6 great NBA years then averaged in the low to mid teens for his last 3 years but was a legend because of his those first 6, plus his utter awesomeness in college. Maybe Hill won't be a first ballot guy but he'll get in. His college career helps him a ton. He also has a Gold Medal from the 96 games which counts in his favor as well.

I thought Thompson's ABA career might help, but I looked it up but he actually only had one ABA season... though it was a great one. The leagues merged his sop re season.

One funny quote I found looking up his ABA career was this on his Wikipedia page:

"Explaining his choice between the establishment NBA and the ABA—which offered less real money (but more "deferred" over the life of the contract) -- Thompson said when he met with the Hawks, the organization had seemed almost uninterested, to the point of treating him to a meal at McDonald's."

[mogrovejo]

Thompson is in because of his college career. A case similar to Manu's.