Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2021

He was an 11-time All-Star (all consecutive) who was a integral part of two champions and two runner-up finishes who had his career numbers depressed by retiring at 31 because if he continued to play he could have died.

 

He was first-team All-NBA once, second-team three times and third team once. He is 18th in career assists, he was 12th when he retired.

 

Hardaway said some vile shit in 2007, but since then he's apparently turned a new leaf. It's also the Basketball Hall of Fame, so he gets credit for a gold medal in 2000, and being named the best college player under six-feet his senior year. The Basketball Hall of Fame standard tends to be lower than the other sports, so most borderline cases eventually get in.

 

Finalists have been announced:

North American Committee Finalists:
RICK ADELMAN
CHRIS BOSH
MICHAEL COOPER
TIM HARDAWAY
MARQUES JOHNSON
PAUL PIERCE
BILL RUSSELL
BEN WALLACE
CHRIS WEBBER
JAY WRIGHT

Women’s Committee Finalists:
LETA ANDREWS
YOLANDA GRIFFITH
LAUREN JACKSON
MARIANNE STANLEY

 

Apparently they added Russell as a coach -- he wasn't on the initial list

Some interesting omissions on both lists.

If I'm guessing at the class: Bosh, Cooper, Pierce, Wright, Andrews and Jackson

 

Paul Westhead is the Don Coryell of the NBA. Innovation doesn't seem to be enough.

 

What was this all about?

 

Speedy Morris was the coach at La Salle in the mid 80s and all through the 90s. He had a few good teams in the first part of his run but the school never had the resources to keep up with the rest of the Big 5 and he eventually got canned.

The Athletic had a pretty good story last year about a young Stephen A Smith praising the firing in an Inky column and calling Speedy inept. John Cheney called Smith in to meet in person and ripped him a couple of new assholes for his ignorance. Smith wound up apologizing in person, but only after Morris insisted he come over for a family dinner.

But no, he isn’t a HOF coach.

 

Coryell was a very successful coach at his stops, San Diego State, St. Louis and the Chargers. While he never made ot to a Super Bowl his teams were generally in the playoffs. Westhead won the championship one year with the Lakers but busted with the Bulls and the Nuggets. Westhead had success at Loyola when he played racehorse basketball and also had two really good college players in Kimble and Gaithers but he was unsuccessful at George Mason. And his up tempo style has never been widely adapted, in large part because it was never consistently successful.

Coryell, on the other hand, showed you could win by throwing the ball a lot. In the seventies it was generally believed that a championship football team had to run to win like the Packers or the Csonka era Dolphins. Coryell had a lasting influence. I don't think Westhead has.

 

Rick Adelman? LOL

 

I learned something from that. Thanks, man. Giving up 107 points in a half has to do some damage to the ol' CV, I imagine.

And that is why I think I was all WTF about Westhead.

 

Jack Friel & North's JVs

https://www.thejuniorvarsityteamisp...fGaYYfOI9bZjp0Rkb5av5pGdwmYlAUN1DqgtkT2fDkayU