As expected, Paul Pierce, Ben Wallace and Chris Webber will be part of the Class of 2021 for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
They will be joined by Chris Bosh, coaches Rick Adelman, Jay Wright and Bill Russell, and WNBA players Yolanda Griffith and Lauren Jackson.
Among former players, Bosh is the only name that hasn’t been reported already. He is best known as part of the Big Three in Miami that made four straight Finals appearances and won two NBA titles early last decade. He played 13 NBA seasons, with the first seven coming in Toronto before getting a chance to join LeBron James and Dwyane Wade with the Heat.
Bosh is an 11-time All-Star and was a second-team All-NBA selection in 2007. A medical condition ended his career early, and he was elected to the Hall in his first year of eligibility.
Adelman made two trips to the NBA Finals and is the ninth-winningest coach in league history with 1,042 career victories. He played seven seasons in the league, but made his greatest impact as a coach, guiding the Trail Blazers, Warriors, Kings, Rockets and Timberwolves.
Wright has been the head coach at Villanova since 2001 and has more than 600 career wins. He has led the Wildcats to three Final Fours and captured NCAA titles in 2016 and 2018.
Russell was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1975 for his legendary playing career, but he was also a pioneer as a coach. He took over as player-coach of the Celtics in 1966, becoming the first Black head coach in North American professional sports. Russell had a 341-290 coaching record and won a pair of NBA titles.
Griffith is a seven-time WNBA all-star and was captured the league’s MVP, Newcomer of the Year and Defensive Player awards in 1999. She was named Finals MVP in 2005 after leading the Sacramento Monarchs to their first WNBA championship.
Jackson was an Australian star who won three silver medals in the Olympics. She’s among the WNBA career leaders in games, minutes, field goals and three-pointers and helped the Seattle Storm win two titles, capturing Finals MVP honors in 2010.
Several other players were also voted into the Hall, Wojnarowski adds (Twitter links):
- International Committee: Toni Kukoc.
- Contributors: Val Ackerman, Cotton Fitzsimmons, Howard Garfinkel.
- Veteran’s Committee: Bob Dandridge.
- Women’s Veteran Committee: Pearl Moore.
- Early African-American Pioneers: Clarence Jenkins.
Photo courtesy of USA Sports Images.
Bosh a first ballot HOFer. Joke. Kevin Love first ballot too if that’s the case
Great argument except that this is Bosh’s second time on the ballot.
Considering he was all nba just once – its laughable he got in on his second try. Chris Webber had to wait much longer.
Bosh was an 11 time NBA All Star. Here is the list of all players with that many NBA All Star appearances not in the Hall
Dirk Nowitzki
Dwyane Wade
LeBron James
Kevin Durant
Chris Paul
3 of those are active players, 2 are retired but not yet eligible for the Hall.
BTW, Chris Webber is at 5 ASG appearances.
lolol… yeah really, lolol wake up bro lol.
With that eloquence, you should really look into becoming an attorney or a poet.
Who cares about all star games? All NBA shows who are the best 15 players regardless of conference. Even guys like DLo make all star games in the East.
ELEVEN TIMES! One time can be a strange inclusion of an outlier player. 11 times is not an outlier.
Ok boomer
Class headed by Bill Russell and Jay Wright
All of them are incredibly deserving of a selection. Congrats! also who’s eligible next year?
Ben Wallace a hall of famer is a joke so Derek fisher is a hall of famer too?Role players are role players the hall of fame is for the elite next thing you know Zach Randolph is gonna be a first ballot pick
Yes, no, no. Wallace was an extra-elite defender.
*16 yr career as an undrafted player from a D2 school
*4x DPOY
*5x All-NBA
*5x NBA All-Defensive Team (1st Team)
*4x NBA All-Star
*led league in rebounding (twice)
*led league in blocked shots (once)
*Cuyahoga Community College (Cleveland, OH) first Naismith Hall-of-Famer
Helluva “role player”
Led league in blocked shots once? Seriously? By your logic, Mark Eaton should be a no doubt Hall of Famer.
*11 year career, but didn’t debut until age 26
*drafted in the 4th round 72nd overall which would be undrafted today
*2x DPOY
*5x All Defensive
*led league in blocks (4 times)
*NBA record 5.6 blocks PER GAME in 84-85
*only missed 9 games in his first 10 years
*1x NBA All Star (but with Kareem, Olajuwon, and David Robinson etc. his competition was much stiffer than Wallace’s)
*only NBA player from Westminster High School (Westminster, CA)
You convinced me, Eaton should be in. Those accolades are pretty impressive for his era.
Ben Wallace’s defense was elite during that great Pistons stretch, without him I don’t think they win a title
Best help defender of his era, gosh I am so happy Jon Amici had a no trade clause and used it. Truly funny how things sometimes work out. Pistons defenses were simply incredible during that era and held opponents to under 70 11 times during regular season alone(including 5 in a row) and an additional 6 times in the playoffs. 17 games their opponents didn’t reach 70.
Best help defender of his era, gosh I am so happy Jon Amici had a no trade clause and used it. Truly funny how things sometimes work out.
Pistons defenses were simply incredible during that era and held opponents to under 70 11 times during regular season alone(including 5 in a row) and an additional 6 times in the playoffs. 17 games their opponents didn’t reach 70.
I don’t really care who gets into the hall of fame, but I do know that they look at more than the NBA accomplishments. McDonalds All-American and Olympic gold medal probably helped Bosh more than many realize.
The whole thing is about as important as the all-star selections, however, which is to say it doesn’t matter.
People with the lines they draw. Of course HOFs matter. The allstar lists themselves can be overblown, but outsiders preferring the celebrity angle to a sports angle need some guidance in who they can call “allstar” or else they would call nearly everyone that.
They’re all great players, I’m always happy to meet any NBA player, and they all deserve respect because of their accomplishments.
At the same time, the HOF selection process is often arbitrary and as a result I don’t have much confidence in it. It’s not like I need the hall of Fame to tell me who played well.
Arbitrary? Care to explain?
The best explanation I can come up with is Robert Horry. On one hand, he’s clearly not a HOF talent. On the other hand, look at his stats! Seven rings, big plays in big games, championship leadership, etc.
Then look at a guy like Webber – great talent, won in college, but can’t come close to Horry’s play in the big moments.
Or how about Rasheed Wallace? Played big in big moments and won a ring. If Webber can get in, doesn’t Rasheed’s career warrant the HOF? I mean, he gave us “ball don’t lie!”, right? Epic!
Bobby Jones – all NBA 10 years or something incredible like that, won a ring, but he’s not in. Bosh – All NBA precisely one time. Played with maybe the GOAT and won a few rings. HOF.
It’s arbitrary, right?
There are the stories. Bosh would have done more but saved the NBA the nightmare of a guy dying on court. Not on Bas.Ref.
RasheedW was a joiner not a leader; he needed BenW to keep him in line. That will not be in stats either, except for the Ts.
Webber could build value, then snatch it away joyfully; it was too much a game for him. Horry was too cool, but that helped him when he set up in the corner. I remember little else of him.
Bobby Jones must have been regarded early on as good, but an example of not quite a HOFer, so that when it was all over and maybe it was good enough, he still had that rep. Well that is a guess, before my time, but this is not baseball, with everything numbered in more detail.
Basketball stats with decimal digits amuse me. BB is more about fit and fear and character. It is not as detailed as that.
When they started letting in the McGradys and the Richmonds, we knew the standards were getting low. I would only have the absolute best get in the hall. Wallace and Bosh wouldn’t make it for sure.
A lot of complaints about players getting into the HoF. It’s not easy to carve out an NBA career, let alone put up solid numbers and get other achievements like all defensive teams and whatnot. I have no problem with these players getting in, they deserve it
It’s just that there’s no public hard and fast rules for it, look if the committee comes out and says “anyone who plays as a starter for over 10 years and makes all star games makes the HOF” then there would be nothing to complain about. It also has to do with the MLB HOF being put out as being so precious by the voters, they leave in terrible people from the 1920s even though there’s apparently a “character” clause that only applies to modern players, and they leave out all-time leaders in hits and homers for no reason other than they are modern players who did some vague notion of “cheating” which is actually borderline nonsensical to frame within a team game to begin with, but also when 100% of players have “cheated” in some way that was ok at the time (steroids vs greenies argument). This spills over into the NBA where fans want to argue whats good and not good enough, but the problem is those standards vary from person to person. Imo the HOF should be cold, raw, stats.
I think the “counting up all stats into 1” stats like WAR in MLB and WS in NBA should be used, like if we put in everyone who had over 100 career WS in the NBA, that’s a nice easy way and its not like anyone on that list definitely doesnt belong there. That’s roughly 100 players, which is a nice round number too.
yeah because everybody LOVES WAR and having hard line like that would be amazing…
TONI KUKOC!!! wasn’t expecting to see that.
Why not???
Guy was a legend!
Ya know there is more than the NBA out there (BTW the HoF isn’t ’bout the NBA is ’bout hoops)!!!
Doesn’t defense count?— who is better?— I think none until you’re back to DeBusshere or Russell, like 60s-70s. Rallying a franchise to #1 should count… Ben Wallace was the first there of that group’s starters.
I admit fans often say the ’04 Pistons were the only team to win a title in recent years without a star… and they might say they liked Sheed or effficient Billups more. But Rasheed was not a winner without Ben, indeed he only lasted a year for half his teams.
Some say they don’t like intimidators like Ben, but swelling up is a key to defense.
Going by stats, he looks ordinary, but to the extent that defensive stats are accurate… looks good for Ben, a league leader several times.
The guy to question is Bob Dandridge. He was supposed to be a scorer, but his PER never went above 20 and the Bucks drafted KAJabbar the same year to win a title. He was never better than third best on his team I think.
Webber is a perfect example of the previous generation having to do much less than the current one to get respect. Webber would have been a 6th man at best in today’s game. So slow and not nearly as skilled as today’s player. Respect to his great career, when he played in an era that looks like slo-mo compared to todays game, but come on.
He’s a hall of very good most definitely, but the NBA loves its massive HOF where apparently the only rule they have is to put in anyone who played more than 10 years who made all-star teams, so he gets in. Exact same goes for Ben Wallace.
You’re entitled to your silly opinion.
Halls of Fame these days are ridiculous (as an example, players like Harold Baines and Alan Trammell in the baseball HOF). Basketball is the most absurd of all. Russell and Pierce, yes. Maybe Bosh. Otherwise, a complete farce. Won’t be long before we see Larry Steele and Purvis Short admitted.
A complete farce? Care to explain?
im not saying he should be in, but i had always heard a lot of “Future HoFer Alan Trammell” talk of him for years.
Man, are you any of you guys losing money over these people getting in the HOF? Any of you not eating dinner tonight because of it? Some of these guys steal your women? No? Stop acting like b*****s
Paul Pierce couldn’t carry Bob Dandridge (Greyhound) jock!! Crazy to think it took this long to get him in!!! Marcus Johnson also deserve to be in!!
Sounds homer-y.
Why would he want to carry the man’s jock?