Hall of Fame change could open door to Shaq, Yao in Class of 2016
The powers that be in Springfield, Mass., have decided to change the rules governing induction to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, lopping one year off the waiting period in a move that could result in some big — very, very big — names from the NBA’s recent past getting a crack at enshrinement this coming summer.
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From NBA.com’s Scott Howard-Cooper:
The Hall of Fame is making major changes to the election process, including reducing the wait for eligibility by one year in a move that could suddenly produce an unexpected mega-class of Shaquille O’Neal, Allen Iverson and Yao Ming in 2016, NBA.com has learned.
An official announcement is expected this week. But people with knowledge of the plans said the Hall has finalized the adjustment to shorten the wait time from five seasons in retirement to four before a player can be nominated, wanting to avoid what becomes a sixth year by the time voting is complete near the end of the NBA regular season. Under the new plan, voting and potential enshrinement would come after five calendar years, rather than five NBA seasons.
The big picture is that many candidates with a strong case for first-ballot election — Iverson, O’Neal, Yao, Jason Kidd, Steve Nash — could be enshrined a year earlier. The immediate impact is that O’Neal and Yao, among others, are eligible to be nominated for the Class of 2016 and join Iverson on the previous timeline. Yao and Shaq, plus Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Jason Williams (among others), could not have gone on the ballot for another year under previous Hall rules.
The Hall made its official announcement on Monday afternoon, several hours after Howard-Cooper’s scoop:
“After recommendations from our Election Process Committee, consisting of highly respected Hall of Famers and board members, three changes to the enshrinement process have been approved in the best interest of the game, including to acknowledge our many deserving candidates in a more timely manner upon the conclusion of their careers,” said John L. Doleva, President and CEO of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. “This will allow the best in the game to be welcomed into the Hall of Fame with a timelier context and higher historical relevance to be celebrated by fans that have supported them over the years.” […]
“Our previous requirement for Players was to be retired for five full seasons, when in reality the schedule of the process led to a timetable of six calendar years after retirement,” said Doleva. “This is well in excess of our major sports Hall of Fame counterparts and it is time for these legends to be recognized in a more timely manner.”
Knocking one year off the eligibility requirement doesn’t seem like something that will engender much consternation or gnashing of teeth; one has a hard time imagining vast swaths of humanity getting upset that voters, all told, took a scant half-decade to consider players’ candidacies rather than a proper and just half-dozen years.
That said, you certainly could argue, if you were so inclined, that the decision to nudge the number down to make global megastars like Shaq and Yao eligible ASAP — just like the decision to disregard the 10 games Iverson played in Turkey after his final NBA game so that he could come under consideration this summer — seems like a move aimed at ensuring as much celebrity status and coverage as possible at the next enshrinement, especially after a 2015 ceremony that — with all due respect to inductees Dikembe Mutombo, Spencer Haywood, Jo Jo White, John Calipari, Lisa Leslie, Tommy Heinsohn, Louie Dampier and the rest of the honorees — didn’t really seem to capture the public’s attention.
At the time of the Iverson news, Doleva said, “It’s not a marketing decision. It’s a playing decision.” There seems to be some skepticism about that.
Whatever the actual motivation, the decision to truncate the waiting time could hurt the chances of enshrinement for a number of players who have missed induction in the last couple of years, such as Chris Webber, Tim Hardaway and Kevin Johnson, whose chances might have been improved by a relative lack of top-flight alternatives. That would leave a certain segment of fans and observers bummed out, but if the flip side is getting way more attention and coverage for a ceremony headlined by several should-be-no-doubt-about-it Hall of Famers, I suspect the Hall’s decision-makers wouldn’t mind whatever grief they’d get from die-hards.
The Hall’s brass also announced two more changes — one heartening, and one disheartening.
On the plus side of the ledger: the Hall of Fame Board will double the number of finalists that the Women’s Committee submit to the last stage of the induction process from two to four, “in light of the overall growth of the women’s game and the establishment of a long term professional women’s league in the WNBA, whose marquee players are now becoming increasingly eligible for Enshrinement.” On the minus side: the Hall’s getting rid of its ABA-specific committee after five years as a category that could directly elect players for enshrinement without having to go through the same two rounds of voting as everyone else.
The internal argument, according to Howard-Cooper, centered on the notion that “the defunct league had run out of players and coaches who deserved the easier path to induction after being overlooked in the past.” The Hall, as you might expect, used slightly softer language.
“Over the past five years the ABA Committee has fulfilled our promise by honoring legends such as Artis Gilmore, Mel Daniels, Roger Brown, Bobby ‘Slick’ Leonard and Louie Dampier,” said Herry Colangelo, the Hall of Fame’s chairman and the newly minted special adviser to the managing general partner and chairman of basketball operations of the Philadelphia 76ers, in a statement. “The Board agreed with the Election Process Committee that the appropriate evaluation for this broader group of ABA candidates has been reached; ABA candidates remain eligible for consideration through other respective committees.”
In practical terms, that means ABA-heavy candidates must now go through the North American committee, same as NBA players/coaches, and pass through two rounds of voting for enshrinement. That, unfortunately, makes it much less likely that outside-looking-in ABA greats like George McGinnis and James Silas will get past the gatekeepers and into the Hall.
The Hall plans to announce the full list of candidates eligible for the Class of 2016 next Monday, Dec. 21, on the 124th anniversary of James Naismith inventing basketball. Those who get at least 18 of 24 votes from the Honors Committee will be announced as 2016 finalists on Saturday, Feb. 13, during NBA All-Star Weekend in Toronto. The full class will be announced on Monday, April 4, at the Men’s NCAA Final Four in Houston.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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