And-Ones: Hall Of Fame Finalists, Kelly, Expansion, Investigations
The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame announced this week the selection of finalists for its Class of 2026, according to a league press release. The finalists will be put forward to the Honors Committee to be considered for election and the new class will be announced on Saturday, April 4 during Final Four weekend.
The North American Committee Finalists include referee Joey Crawford; coaches Mark Few, Gary McKnight, Dick Motta, Doc Rivers, Kelvin Sampson and Jerry Welsh; and players Blake Griffin, Kevin Johnson, Amar’e Stoudemire and Buck Williams.
The Women’s Committee Finalists include the 1996 United States Women’s National Team and players Jennifer Azzi, Elena Delle Donne, Chamique Holdsclaw and Candace Parker.
Molly Bolin-Kazmer is the lone finalist from the Women’s Veterans Committee. Dušan Ivković (coach) is the lone International Committee finalist while Marques Johnson is the only Veterans Committee finalist. The Contributors Committee chose Tal Brody and Mike D’Antoni as its finalists.
Here’s more from around the basketball world:
- David Kelly has been unanimously elected as the next NBA Players Association executive director by the Board of Player Representatives, Ian Begley of SNY relays (Twitter link). He’ll replace longtime NBA player Andre Iguodala, whose term expires in July. Kelly has been serving as the managing director and general counsel for the NBPA. He’s also served as a close advisor to Iguodala.
- The Board of Governors might vote on expansion this summer, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania (video link) and Dallas Morning News’ Brad Townsend (Twitter link). The BOG’s spring meeting is expected to be critical for stakeholders to better understand the factors around expansion, according to Charania. Some BOG members wanted to vote on expansion in the spring, but it will be tabled until the summer for extra information-gathering and deliberation, according to Townsend. Seattle and Las Vegas have long been considered the top candidates for expansion.
- The Athletic’s Mike Vornukov and Joe Vardon provide an in-depth look at how the law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz conducts investigations into various NBA matters. The league has used the firm’s services since 2007.
- All-Star weekend continues today with the three-point contest, the Shooting Stars event and the slam dunk competition and The Athletic’s Steven Louis Goldstein offers a guide to Saturday’s activities. Prior three-point contest winners Damian Lillard and Devin Booker are among the eight participants in that event. The Shooting Stars is making its first appearance since 2015, replacing the Skills Challenge.
Blake Griffin, Joe Johnson Among Hall Of Fame Nominees
Former NBA standouts Blake Griffin and Joe Johnson are among the noteworthy first-time nominees eligible to be inducted into the class of 2026, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame announced in a press release.
For women’s hoops, ex-WNBA stars Elena Delle Donne and Candace Parker are also eligible for the first time, and both two-time MVPs are likely shoo-ins to be enshrined on August 14. Coaches Kelvin Sampson, Bruce Pearl and Mike D’Antoni, the latter of whom is technically in the “contributor” category, are among the other first-time nominees.
Returning eligible candidates include Mark Few, Doc Rivers, Amar’e Stoudemire and Shawn Marion.
The finalists will be selected on February 9, while the 2026 class will be unveiled on April 4.
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 draft, Griffin was sidelined for his first professional season due to a left knee injury, which eventually required surgery. He made a triumphant return in 2010/11, winning the Rookie of the Year award and earning the first of six All-Star berths.
Griffin, 36, was named to five All-NBA teams over the course of his 13 active years in the league. Injuries continued to be an issue, however, particularly at the end of his career.
Johnson, 44, was the 10th overall selection in 2001. He played parts of 18 years in the NBA, making seven All-Star appearances and earning one All-NBA nod in 2009/10.
And-Ones: Delfino, Positional Rankings, Top Storylines, More
Appearing on the “Doble Doble” podcast this week, former NBA forward Carlos Delfino confirmed that he is retiring as a player, as Johnny Askounis of Eurohoops writes.
Delfino, who turned 43 in August, was the 25th overall pick in the 2003 NBA draft and spent nine years in the league from 2004-08 and 2009-14 (he played in Russia in 2008/09). The Argentinian wing averaged 8.1 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 1.7 assists in 22.8 minutes per game across 507 regular season outings for the Pistons, Raptors, Bucks, and Rockets before injuries derailed his career.
Delfino eventually returned to action in Europe in 2017 and spent the next several seasons playing for non-NBA teams. A longtime international standout, he won an Olympic gold medal in Athens in 2004 as a member of the Argentina national team that upset Team USA in the semifinals, then took home a bronze medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
We have several more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Law Murray of The Athletic ranked all 30 NBA teams based on their depth charts at each position, with the Thunder (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander; Cason Wallace) taking the No. 1 spot at point guard while the Timberwolves (Anthony Edwards; Terrence Shannon Jr.) sit atop the shooting guard list. The Rockets (Kevin Durant; Tari Eason), Bucks (Giannis Antetokounmpo; Bobby Portis), and Nuggets (Nikola Jokic; Jonas Valanciunas) ranked first at small forward, power forward, and center, respectively.
- What storylines will be the biggest of the 2025/26 season? Chris Mannix of SI.com makes his predictions, including whether or not Antetokounmpo will finish the season with the Bucks, how much better the Magic will be with Desmond Bane, and whether the concept of playoff reseeding will gain any momentum based on the relative strength of the Western Conference.
- An international basketball league that has been in the works for the past couple years still plans to launch in 2026, but LeBron James‘ business partner Maverick Carter is no longer involved in the venture, according to Ben Horney and Daniel Roberts of Front Office Sports. The report from Horney and Roberts provides some details on the big names who are investing in the league, including tennis star Novak Djokovic and former WNBA star Candace Parker.
- John Hollinger of The Athletic‘s projections for the bottom half of the Eastern Conference in 2025/26 include the Sixers, Celtics, and Pacers finishing 10th through 12th with 37, 36, and 31 wins, respectively. However, he acknowledges that Philadelphia might have a wider range of potential outcomes than any other team in the NBA.
And-Ones: Wade, Parker, Amazon, Shaq, EuroBasket
Dwyane Wade and Candace Parker are expected to join Amazon Prime Video’s NBA coverage for the 2025/26 season, reports Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sports. As Glasspiegel explains, deals for Wade and Parker aren’t finalized yet, but appear likely to get done.
Wade, who did color commentary for NBC’s Olympic coverage in Paris last year, would be a hybrid game and studio analyst for Amazon, according to Glasspiegel. Parker, meanwhile, would be part of Amazon’s studio show for both NBA and WNBA broadcasts after having long worked for TNT.
With the company set to become a broadcasting partner for the NBA beginning in ’25/26, Amazon is in the process of filling out its roster of on-air talent. Reporting earlier this week indicated that Steve Nash and Stan Van Gundy will join the streamer as analysts.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Former NBA star and current TNT analyst Shaquille O’Neal will become the men’s basketball general manager for Sacramento State, according to Shams Charania of ESPN, who says it will be an unpaid, voluntary role. O’Neal’s son – Shaqir O’Neal – is transferring from Florida A&M to Sacramento State for his senior year and will play for the Hornets under new head coach Mike Bibby.
- FIBA has revealed the schedule for the EuroBasket 2025 tournament, formally announcing in a press release that the event will tip off on August 27 with a six-game slate. The group stage will wrap up on September 4, with the elimination phase taking place from Sept. 6-14. The full schedule for EuroBasket 2025, which should feature many NBA players, can be viewed here.
- In the wake of Chris Finch‘s claim that the physicality in the NBA playoffs has “gone too far” and disrupted the flow of games, a panel of writers from The Athletic debate that subject, with Eric Koreen, Fred Katz, Kelly Iko, and Law Murray discussing whether any particular moment or series has crossed the line and whether the increased physicality this spring has been good or bad for the league.
2027/28 Season Viewed As Target For NBA Expansion
One reason the NBA isn’t yet prepared to dive head-long into expansion talks is that a potential Celtics sale could reset the market, sources tell ESPN’s Tim Bontemps, Kevin Pelton, and Brian Windhorst. If the Celtics set a new record for the highest sale price ever for an NBA team, it would only increase the price tag for incoming expansion franchises, as ESPN’s trio notes.
Commissioner Adam Silver recently stated that the NBA is “not quite ready” to move forward on the expansion process, though he left the door open for those discussions to happen later on in the 2024/25 league year.
With the NBA continuing to drag its heels on expansion, league sources and people connected to potential bidding groups are viewing the 2027/28 season as the target date for when one or more expansion teams could begin playing, with the ’26/27 campaign considered an increasingly unrealistic – albeit not impossible – option, according to Bontemps, Pelton, and Windhorst.
Based on the growing valuations of NBA franchises, it’s not unrealistic to project that a pair of new teams could net the league $10 billion combined – or even more than that – in expansion fees, ESPN’s reporters suggest.
While some current NBA team owners are wary of further diluting their share of the league’s revenue by slicing off two more pieces of a “pie” currently being shared 30 ways, expansion fee payments (which don’t have to be shared with the players’ union) exceeding $300MM apiece could help sway those ownership groups, as Bontemps, Pelton, and Windhorst point out. Additionally, the $76 billion media rights deal negotiated by the NBA earlier this year has assuaged some owners’ concerns about sharing revenues with 31 partners instead of 29, the ESPN trio adds.
Here are a few more items of note from ESPN’s in-depth FAQ on the possibility of expansion:
- Although the National Basketball Players Association has no real voice in the expansion process, the union would be “very much in favor” of adding 36 new jobs (30 standard roster spots and six two-way slots) for its members, sources tell ESPN.
- Seattle and Las Vegas are widely considered the favorites to land expansion teams, but they likely won’t be the only cities receiving consideration. Sources who spoke to ESPN view Mexico City as the most likely candidate to seriously enter the mix along with Seattle and Vegas, though Bontemps, Pelton, and Windhorst acknowledge there would be a number of “logistical hurdles” to contend with.
- If Seattle and Las Vegas land expansion teams, they would both have to be Western Conference clubs, meaning one current Western team would have to move to the Eastern Conference. According to ESPN, that decision would likely come down to the Pelicans, Grizzlies, and Timberwolves, with Minnesota considered the most logical choice to move East since the Wolves are geographically closer to five Eastern opponents than they are to their closest Western opponent (Denver). Still, it could be a “protracted fight” to determine which team would change conferences.
- The ownership group of the NHL’s Seattle Kraken – led by Samantha Holloway and her father David Bonderman – is considered the most likely bidder for a Seattle franchise, per ESPN. Hall of Fame NBA executive Rick Welts has served as an advisor for the Kraken ownership group, which also includes the sons of former Sonics owner Barry Ackerley. Chris Hansen, who previously attempted to relocate the Sacramento Kings to Seattle, isn’t expected to lead a bid to bring the NBA to the city, but would be willing to assist in the process, ESPN’s trio adds.
- Active NBA players aren’t permitted to own a stake in an existing franchise, but the rules for an active player becoming a stakeholder in an expansion franchise (before it begins play) aren’t as clear. Those rules may need to be clarified in the coming years, with LeBron James seriously interested in getting involved in a bid for a Las Vegas team. According to ESPN’s report, former Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry is putting together a group to bid for a Vegas franchise — that group is expected to include longtime WNBA star Candace Parker.