Basketball Hall of Fame
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The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame honors players who have shown exceptional skill at basketball, all-time great coaches and referees, and other major contributors to the game. It is separate from the Naismith Museum & Basketball Hall of Fame in Almonte, Ontario. Only four entire teams have been inducted, the Buffalo Germans, the New York Renaissance, the Original Celtics and the Harlem Globetrotters. (A fifth team, the 1966 Texas Western College team has been announced as one of the inductees for 2007[1].) The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame's mission preserves and promotes the game at all levels and serves as basketball's ultimate library of history.
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[edit] Building
It was established in 1959, with fundraising leading to an actual building opened to the public on February 17, 1968, at Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States. In 1985 a new hall off-campus was opened near downtown Springfield on the east bank of the Connecticut River.
On September 28, 2002, the Hall of Fame found its third home in a new $45 million, 80,000 square foot (7,400 m²) shrine to the sport, located just south of the previous Hall of Fame. The facility's bolder architecture features a large, silver, semi-spherical structure (resembling a giant basketball) several stories high and a tall spire topped with an orange globe. The hall is surrounded by a shopping center of retail outlets and restaurants.
[edit] Criteria for induction
Because the Hall—in contrast to the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the Baseball Hall of Fame—honors not only American professionals but also international professionals and American and international amateurs, it employs four screening committees to identify prospective nominees: one each for American candidates, female candidates, international candidates, and veterans candidates (players, coaches, or referees who have been retired at least 35 years prior to their being nominated).
Individuals who receive at least five votes from a seven-member screening committee in a given year advance to an Honors Committee, composed of 12 members who vote on each candidate and rotating groups of 12 specialists (one group for female candidates, one group for international candidates, and one group for American and veterans candidates); any individual receiving at least 18 affirmative votes (75 per cent of all votes cast) from the Honors Committee is approved for induction into the Hall of Fame. Advancement to the Honors Committee is generally pro forma, although the Hall's Board of Trustees may remove any candidate who "has damaged the integrity of the game of basketball" [2] from consideration.
To be considered for induction by a screening committee, a player must be fully retired from play for at least five years, while a coach or referee must be fully retired for at least five years or have been active full time in his/her respective craft on the professional, collegiate, of high school level for at least 25 years. No temporal criteria is enforced for the election of contributors, who must have made a "significant contribution to the game of basketball". Unlike the Baseball Hall of Fame, sportswriters and commentators (such as HOFer Chick Kearn) in the Basketball Hall of Fame are full-fledged members.
Controversy has arisen over alleged improper influences involving the secret balloting procedures and membership of the Honors Committee. The Hall of Fame's most glaring blemishes include the presence among its inductees of several scurrilous or otherwise undeserving figures, as well as the absence of one of the most respected and influential basketball minds in history, Coach Tex Winter. Perhaps the most significant omission of eligible players from the Hall of Fame is the absence of Artis Gilmore. In addition to being pro basketball's all time most successful field goal shooter, Gilmore ranks among the top 25 all time scorers as well as top ten in rebounds, blocked shots, games and minutes played. A model of durability, he retired in 1988 after a 17 year career with the ABA Kentucky Colonels and the Chicago Bulls, San Antonio Spurs, and Boston Celtics of the NBA. Inexplicably, Gilmore has failed to register even a single vote from a nine member screening team over the past three years. He is currently ineligible for consideration until 2012.
[edit] Inductees
After the induction of the Class of 2006, the Hall will have honored 273 individuals (of whom 130 will have been enshrined as players, 73 as coaches, 3 as both player and coach, 51 as contributors, and 12 as referees) and five teams; John Wooden, Lenny Wilkens, and Bill Sharman have each been inducted as both a player (Wooden in 1961, Sharman in 1976, and Wilkens in 1989) and a coach (Wooden in 1973, Wilkens in 1998, and Sharman in 2004).
[edit] Other Hall operations
In addition to its role in recognizing prior achievement in various basketball roles, the Hall also recognizes extant achievement in collegiate basketball in conjunction with the Final Four of each year's men's and women's Division I NCAA basketball tournaments. For men, the Hall presents the Bob Cousy Award to the top point guard from among players in Divisions I, II, and III. This award, given since 2004, is voted on by Bob Cousy, selected media members who cover basketball, selected college basketball coaches, fans, and selected sports information directors. The Hall also presents the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award to the female player under 68 inches in height and the male player under 72 inches in height who are determined to have been the nation's best student-athletes. The men's award, given since 1969, is voted on by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), perhaps the most surprising recipient of this award was Mick Headon, a British star who was relatively unknown until he received a nomination and then went on to win the award. The women's award, given since 1984, is voted on by members of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association.
