2009 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Thread

I haven't listened to the whole thing yet - I turned it on last night to see him ripping Krause. Really Michael? Still?

So who didn't he take shots at? Was there a swipe at LaBradford Smith? Did he mock Sports Illustrated and remind them that he will still refuse to talk to them, 15 years after their baseball cover? Did he yell at Dan Dakich? "Yeah, Dan, you held me down in the 1984 tournament. But how did our lives go from that point? Scoreboard!"

Did he drop his notecards and say, "Oh, sorry, I was doing my Kwame Brown impression?"

Was he drunk?

 

Or when he describes his love for the "game of basketball", take a drink.

I did not like his speech, either. Extremely petty and not the right stage at all for all that. Adrian's column is on point. Jordan needs to let go ... desperately.

 

Just my opinion, but I believe Stockton is underrated to this very day, and I hated the guy (I'm a Rockets fan).

But if there's one person I want leading my team, aside from Magic, it's Stockton. I'll take the best shooting point guard and the one of the top three passers and thieves of his generation any day.

 

Seen this crap from Michael Jordan for years. Got tired of it. One guy in my dorm refused to speak to me after a while because he thought I was too critical of Jordan.

Wonder if that guy saw this display. Wonder why the whole world doesn't love you, Michael? You really wonder?

 

I believe that's the least gracious induction speech I've ever heard.

Seems like he only thanked people for their slights and offenses which drove him to prove them wrong or stuff it in their face, never for their efforts actually trying to help him. Hell, even with his saint figure Dean Smith, he only mentioned his reaction at Dean not choosing him as one of the four players on the pre-season SI cover his freshman year. He was still trying to compete and stick it to his opponents and doubters in his induction speech.

 

Dean Smith certainly didn't teach him to be that petty.
(Understanding that's not your point, Stoney, but just sayin' ... )

 

Very true. I imagine there's a lot more people in the NBA and former players who don't like him than those who do.

 

And Reilly decides to get in on the Jordan bashing:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=reilly_rick&id=4477759

 

Not a bad column at all by Reilly. The anecdote at the end was very interesting.

 

Peter KIng loved Jordan's speech.

http://kissingsuzykolber.uproxx.com/2009/09/peter-king-appreciates-the-not-really-underappreciated.html

From KissingSuzyKolber:

I think every future Pro Football Hall of Famer needs to get a copy of Michael Jordan’s 22-minute induction speech Friday night at the Basketball Hall of Fame. Perfect. Just perfect.

Oh, you mean the one everyone called petty and vindictive?

What made Jordan’s speech so perfect was the overarching story of his career — this insane motivation he derived from everything — and the fact that he told stories. Story after story after story.

About longtime assistant Tex Winter trying to prevent Jordan from bighead syndrome by telling him there is no “i” in team, and Jordan responding, “Yeah, but there is an ‘i’ in win.”

It’s a great story, because he’s a selfish prick.

b. Re: Michael Jordan and the Hall of Fame. Well, I’ve got my Jordan story. I was a 25-year-old college basketball writer at the Cincinnati Enquirer in 1982, covering the Final Four. North Carolina beat Georgetown in New Orleans, and Jordan, a freshman, made the winning shot from the left elbow in the final seconds.

The next morning, early, a few writers (I remember college friend Tony Grossi of the Cleveland Plain Dealer) went out to the lakefront airport in New Orleans to see the team before it jetted back to Chapel Hill. There, we spoke to James Worthy and Matt Doherty about winning the title, and off in the distance I noticed Jordan, who’d thrown down the winning shot nine hours earlier, in a coat and tie with a shirt about three neck sizes too big, with his big gym bag slung over his shoulder, carrying a film projector in his right hand and eight or nine canisters of film in his left hand. Yes, film. Those were the days of real film, not videotape. I said to Doherty: “Why is Jordan carrying all that stuff?” Doherty said, “The freshman always carries the film and the projector.”

c. Read that, college coach enablers.

a. When Michael Jordan was a freshman, he had to do bullshit freshman jobs.
c. Talk about a unique way of doing things!
2. You should look into it sometime, you college coach jackals!