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Road to the Hall

The Basketball Hall of Fame has an exclusivity problem.

By Kyle Jordan FergusonPublished 6 years ago 5 min read
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Manu Ginobili announced his retirement from the NBA a few days ago. Like most of us who follow sports when a player’s playing days are finished, we put their career in a historical context. We do this with just about everything. Sports, politics, music etc. We cannot help but doing so. Lebron and Kobe, as great as they are and were, will never escape the Jordan debate. As great as Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady are they will not escape the Joe Montana comparison. It is what we do.

Manu Ginobili is an interesting case when discussing his Hall of Fame probability. Manu’s retirement brings up an important question that deserves some thought. What constitutes a Hall of Famer in the NBA? The answer based on the results of who is indeed in the Hall appear arbitrary. From Grant Hill to Bill Walton, there have been players on the fringe who could have certainly gone either way.

Manu is the perfect example of a player whose accolades will lead him where his stats would otherwise not. Let us look at the numbers. If I told you Player A was an 18 point, 5 rebound, 3 assist guy and Player B was a 13 point, 3 rebound, and 3 assist a night guy which would you say is a Hall of Famer. Oh also, Player A was an MVP in just his third NBA season. Undoubtedly, any person with common sense would say Player A. Well, Player A is Derrick Rose and the Player B is Manu Ginobili. Manu is on his way to the Hall of Fame and Derrick Rose will most likely be the first player to win the MVP award and not make the Hall of Fame. What that says about the process to get to the Hall is it is not just a numbers game. Manu made an impact at every level and revolutionized the way the game is played on his way to titles.

He won a Euro league title in Italy with Basket Viola Reggio Calabria, a gold medal in 2004 with Argentina, and multiple titles with the San Antonio Spurs. He is widely considered a top five shooting guard to ever play the game (recency bias is in play here) and was the best sixth man in the NBA for a decade. He no doubt made a sacrifice to stay in San Antonio and come off the bench. His numbers ultimately took a hit for it.

Manu’s career embodies what the Basketball Hall of Fame is all about. It is all encompassing of your contributions to the game at every level. It takes into consideration your college, European, and NBA career. That is why Bill Walton who is a 6,000 point scorer in the NBA is in the Basketball Hall of Fame given his dominance at the collegiate level at UCLA. Pau Gasol is another fringe Hall of Famer that will get in due to his international duty with the Spanish National team as well as his two titles with the Los Angeles Lakers. Manu is in the same boat. The accolades he racked up during his career at every level will usher him into the game’s most prestigious club.

The problem with that criteria is that it is flawed and often contradictory. Grant Hill will go into the Hall of Fame in a few days after playing through an injury plagued career. No one is here to diminish what Grant Hill was prior to his injury, but, if he gets in we must have the conversation about Penny and ultimately Derrick Rose. Derrick Rose prior to his ACL injury was a 21.1 point, 6.8 assist, 3.8 rebound a night guy in this league. The only knock on Derrick Rose is his sample size. Sadly, we never saw Rose’s prime and while he came back to be a 15+ point a night scorer he was never the same.

The criteria for the Hall of Fame appears to be subjective at times. If you were ever the best player at your position, or in Derrick Rose’s case, the best player in the NBA, you should be a Hall of Famer, period. Never has a player with an MVP in his trophy case not made the Hall of Fame. Derrick Rose, considering his numbers and contributions to the game, should not be the first.

Manu is a case of a player falling into the right situation at the right time. Drafted by the Spurs, he played in a system that could highlight his attributes. Ball movement and floor spacing gave him the room to operate and revolutionize the game. With the Euro step in his arsenal, he influenced a generation of players from James Harden to Dwyane Wade. He has the total package fitting of an NBA Hall of Famer. However, from a basketball perspective are we ready to say that he was ever better than peak Derrick Rose? Some will and some will not, regardless Rose was the first point guard with that type of athleticism to lead a team deep into the playoffs, especially that young.

With all of that said, it is time the NBA had its’ own Hall of Fame. They would not be the first league to have a Hall of Fame exclusive to the main sports league. Baseball and football do this year in and year out. The college football Hall of Fame is available to reward those who excelled at the collegiate level and the Pro Football Hall of Fame is there for the best of the best. I do not know why the NBA will not get on board with this. As it stands the Hall is massive and somewhat diluted because everyone gets in.

None of this is to damper the historic career that Manu turned in. He is indeed a Hall of Famer. More so simply to say that the NBA is now big enough and popular enough to exist on its’ own. No longer do they need the help from college or the international game to determine the best of the best. A reduction of inductees would enhance the prestige of the club as opposed to an appreciation of the game itself. Maybe when Derrick Rose’s time is up we will see what really constitutes a Hall of Famer. Should he not get in he will still have some hardware to cling to. Hope that’s enough.

basketball
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About the Creator

Kyle Jordan Ferguson

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