A total of 12 people will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Sept. 8 in Springfield, Massachusetts.The list of inductees were recently announced and it includes legendary NBA players such as Bernard King and Gary Payton. The other inductees are Roger Brown, Oscar Schmidt, Russ Granik, Rick Pitino, Jerry Tarkanian, Dawn Staley, Sylvia Hatchell, Guy Lewis, George Raveling and Edwin Henderson.
As a lock-down defender, Payton was known as one of the NBA’s best-ever point guards. He was named as an All-Star on nine occasions and also won the league’s Defensive Player of the Year award.
He won a league championship with Miami back in 2006, but is best known for his years with the Seattle SuperSonics. In addition, he won a pair of gold medals with the American men’s Olympic team. Payton said he "always wanted to be a pro basketball player", but he "never dreamed" that he’d "be so successful and end up in the Hall of Fame."
King was the New York Knicks swingman and one of the best pure scorers basketball has ever seen. King played 15 years in the NBA and managed to average 22.5 points a game. He was a crucial playoff performer, and during the 1984 postseason he managed to score an average of 34.8 points per contest. King also said being elected to the Hall of Fame "was more than a dream come true."
Another Knick who will be inducted is Richie Guerin. He was known as a feisty player during his NBA days and the guard was named to the All-Star team six times. Roger Brown was a guard with the Indiana Pacers and one of the greatest players in the ABA, where he was named an All-Star four times.
Oscar Schmidt is the leading basketball scorer in the history of the Olympics and represented his homeland of Brazil five times in the Games. He’s the only player to ever score over 1,000 points at the Games.
Russ Granik is a former assistant commissioner in the NBA and was one of the men who helped pave the way to the Olympics for the league. He worked beside current commissioner David Stern for many years.
Rick Pitino (Louisville) and Jerry Tarkanian (UNLV) were college coaches. Pitino is the only college coach to ever lead three teams to the Final Four. The 60-year-old has been coaching college basketball for 28 years and has 661 wins to his name. His record during the NCAA tournament is 47-16. He also coached in the NBA with the Knicks and Boston Celtics.
Dawn Staley, who played at the University of Virginia, was a star in the WNBA and a five-time All-Star there. She also captured a trio of gold medals at the Olympics with the American women’s basketball team.
Sylvia Hatchell was the women’s coach at North Carolina and Guy Lewis coached at the University of Houston. George Raveling is another college coach and he’s going into the Hall with a lifetime achievement award. Edwin E.B. Henderson was elected as an early pioneer.
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