It’s still five years off, but it’ll be time for something truly special when Tim Duncan and Kobe Bryant get to walk the red carpet in Springfield, Mass., and head into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
They should take the walk alone.
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Of course, the way the selection process has always worked, Duncan and Bryant will have company en route to their induction speeches. If history is any indication, they’ll go in with enough “teammates’’ to make up two starting fives.
By retiring after this past season, Duncan and Bryant are both eligible to make the hall starting in 2021. As their sparkling resumes, with a combined 10 championships, five Finals MVPs and three regular-season MVPs, clearly show, they’re in, no questions asked. They’re not just locks for Springfield. For some fans, they played their way onto the All-Immortals Team over the past 20 years.
But when Kobe and the Big Fundamental are inducted to the hall, it’s almost guaranteed that the various selection committees will also enshrine several other players, coaches, international stars, contributors, women and pioneers of the game, all of whom might very well be deserving of the ultimate honor. However, in this case, the hall needs to break with tradition and have Duncan and Bryant go in as a tandem.
Just Kobe and Timmy. They’re deserving of such extraordinary treatment, given their place in history.
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Except that kind of thinking has never applied to Hall of Fame weekend. Just look at this next class, all set to go for two days of ceremonies on Sept. 8-9. Shaquille O’Neal, one of the game’s all-time centers, and Allen Iverson, a premier scorer, will have to share the spotlight with eight other inductees: Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, former Rockets center Yao Ming, former WNBA star Sheryl Swoopes and Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf, along with longtime NBA ref Darrell Garretson, coach John McLendon and former stars Zelmo Beaty and Cumberland Posey, the last four going in posthumously.
Is that crowded enough for everyone?
We understand, the come-one, come-all approach makes for bigger crowds in Springfield and caters to everyone’s tastes. Except, of course, for NBA head coaches, who have always played second fiddle to college coaches when it comes to hall selections. How that happens is one of the many intriguing mysteries of the Hall of Fame. But we digress.
By in large, we agree, having a wide array of enshrinees is an acceptable way of handling the big weekend.
But in 2021, it would be appropriate if Duncan and Bryant stand alone. Just let these two icons enjoy their crowning achievement and be recognized as more than your typical Hall of Famers.
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The last time I called for such an exclusive ceremony came before Michael Jordan was enshrined in 2009. After Jordan retired and was the lock of the century to be a first-ballot inductee, I made the suggestion to NBA commissioner David Stern. I said wouldn’t it be great if Mike got the entire stage in Springfield, and you can cite these two reasons:
A) Jordan deserved it.
B) The rest of the class will be reduced to a footnote.
Stern was about as enthusiastic for my idea as the time I told him that the NBA should pull out of Springfield and create its own hall of fame. Do what baseball does in Cooperstown and the NFL has in Canton. I argued that in the current setup, with so many other candidates from different walks of basketball life being part of the process, the NBA’s superstars were almost always getting lost in the shuffle. Happy to report, that’s changed over the years.
As for my Jordan idea, Stern wasn’t buying it.
“Nice try, Lawrence,’’ he said. “But that’s not how it works.’’
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So Jordan ended up going in with four other inductees: former Spur David Robinson, former Jazz guard John Stockton, former Jazz coach Jerry Sloan and Rutgers women’s coach C. Vivian Stringer. They were all deserving, no questions asked. Unfortunately, the four were overshadowed because MJ, to no one’s surprise, sucked the Air completely out of the room, especially when he famously took no prisoners in his rather ruthless induction speech. That would have been avoided quite nicely if they had just made it a Michael Jordan Weekend.
But, like Stern said, it doesn’t work that way. Now, though, it’s time for a change.
Here we are five years before Bryant and Duncan will be feted in the old Western Massachusetts factory town, where Dr. Naismith taught the game. There is still plenty of time for the selection committees and the hall to make this happen. Just go ahead and plan on a Kobe/Big Fundamental Weekend.
And one more thing, as long as we’re thinking of it: Timmy, the honor of your presence is formally requested.
