Inspired by another thread. This gets talked about more in baseball, but it's still an interesting discussion. Who is the best NBA player who is eligible for, but not a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Artis Gilmore's career stats are incredible. 21 ppg, 14 rpg in 17 seasons, 11 time all-star. http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/g/gilmoar01.html Adrian Dantley is the other one most often cited.
Dominique finally made it in, right? If so then I agree with PacerTom. It's a travesty that Gilmore and Dantley aren't in the Hall of Fame. After them I have to go with Sidney Moncrief despite injuries cutting his career short. But then I'm a sucker for the guys who would have been great were it not for injuries - Sampson, Anfernee Hardaway, Grant Hill, Larry Johnson.....
I still don't know why Sampson never made it. It's the "Basketball Hall of Fame", not "NBA Hall of Fame", right? That's the reasoning we get for Bill Walton's induction. Sampson had at least as good an NBA career, and almost as good an NCAA career. Walton has done more for the game since, but he was inducted as a player.
Lotta people have argued Dennis Johnson for the celtics. Kinda been overshadowed by all the other Celtic greats. rip denny.
Walton singlehandedly gave the Blazers their only NBA title in '77. I believe the following season, the Blazers started out at an insane 50-8, lost Walton to some injury (probably foot) and went 8-16 the rest of the way to finish 58-24. That's how valuable he was to them. Add to the fact that he was a VERY important player on the Celtics team that beat Sampson's Rockets (ironically enough) in the '86 finals and I can see why Walton is in (that combined with his college achievements). Sampson never won a ring while Bill won 2. Plus Bill was named one of the NBA's 50 greatest players ever - Sampson was not.
Just for clarity sake it is : 18.8ppg and 12.3 rbs per game...... The stats you cited were per 40 minutes. DD
oops you're right. his averages are hurt by hanging on 3 years at the end. 11-time all-star is hard to quibble about. i doubt if anyone else comes close to that.
Sidney Moncrief His Bucks won 7 straight division titles. He was a decent scorer and relentless on the boards.
That's still incredible career numbers. The basketball I played with for most of my childhood was an old rubber ABA-colored ball with an Artis Gilmore stamped signature.. I held on to it for years, but I can't find it anymore.
I always thought Tom Chambers was another skinny white dude that could dunk. I never realized how good he was until I looked up his stats one day. I was like, "Tom Chambers averaged 27 ppg?? WTF?!"
