Sorry to hijack, but Rudy T needs to be inducted. It should've happened years ago. Same with Bagwell and the baseball Hall.
One seems likely to happen this year. Rudy, there aren't many multi-time All-Stars with rings as a head coach.
As a "contributor"? - absolutly deserving. He is the major spear in the forward movement to NBA globalization (and other sports in a way) As a player? No. While he was clearly a HOF level talent, the lack of career longevity to me hurts him majorly in that regard. Had he stayed healthy, Yao was absolutely a HOF caliber player. He was on his way to being one of the most versatile greatest centers of all time.
Standards for Halls of Fame are so confusing that I won't bother commenting on what the standards actually are. However, TMac was good enough that despite a serious lack of team success, we're still debating his potential and his impact 5 years after he played his last relevant game. He and Yao will always be some of sports' most 'tragic heroes'. I won't be too surprised whether he gets in or not.
C-Webb and T-Mac much deserved. Ben Wallace was a defensive monster as well as one of the best rebounders of the modern era. The Pistons were serious contenders the entire time he was there. Divac had a lot of international success as well as some great moments for both the Lakers and Kings. Not sure about hof worthy but I can't recall much of his international career. Hardaway was a prolific scorer and had some very memorable moments for the Heat and a lot of buckets for the Warriors. Bogues? Idk. I don't remember much aside from him being short.
Out of that class, T-Mac is easily the headliner. C-Webb was amazing but T-Mac easily had a better career, even without the playoff success. T-Mac, C-Webb, Wallace and Divac make it. Isn't Rudy on the board too? HE HAS TO MAKE IT
I watched all of thes thee guys play when I was growing up. To me, too many people get in to the HOF. None of them were THE guy on a very good team (think Steve Nash) or a critical part of a dynasty. They wee all fun to watch, yes. Vlade Divac did a lot internationally. Webber was phenomenal, and Ben Wallace was a key cog in the Pistons' win in 2004. I just have a very high standard of what hall of famer means.
It's easy to tell the Tracy homers. Webber has TWO college championship game appearances as his team's best player.... check your timeout-count though. Mugsy was one of the biggest freaks of nature ever in the league. 5'3'' playing pro basketball.... Five feet and Three inches!!! Altuve looks down on him. Mugsy had a 12+ year career (most as a starter) and was top 5 assists at least 5x. He had a season where he averaged a double-double. Great ball handling skills. He had an unworldy 4.75 assist-ratio for his career. That's better than Magic, Chris Paul, and anyone I can recall.
Given this standard, there are only 4-6 HOFs in the league (in their prime) at any given time. It would also eliminate Westbrook if OKC finishes 4th or worst.
To be fair there's a lot of players in the hall of fame that shouldn't be. Tmacs stats say he should be there but the guy really didn't have any team success at all. He's prob one of the biggest underachievers of all time in that department. I literally have no idea how a guy with his talent and physical gifts couldn't luck into 1 playoff series victory.
