The Grip - MON 7.23.18

The Hall of Fame is stupid

July 23, 2018

7.23.18

  Written while listening to OutKast's Player's Ball

Let’s knock it down and start again

Here’s the tweet:

The answer, of course, is yes -- there is a 100 percent chance Carmelo Anthony will be in the Hall of Fame, likely first ballot. Whether or not he is deserving is another question; the standard in which a player is voted in falls somewhere between silly and senseless.

That, in essence, is the problem here

There is no format, no set of standards; just one loosely-defined group that all players, whether or not they played in the league, are pooled into.

And this is allowed because the organization operates under the sanctimonious umbrella of the basketball Hall of Fame, not the NBA Hall of Fame, which is a sneaky and annoying caveat that has served as a cop-out for dozens of entries, all of whom are treated with the same enshrinement as someone like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson or Moses Malone. 

Because of this loophole, players of superior NBA ilk are sometimes left out in favor of those with more notable footprints.

That shouldn’t happen. Example:

PLAYER A (‘02-’11): 486 games played, 19 PPG, 9.2 RPG, 1.6 APG, one playoff series victory, four 50-plus win seasons, five-time All-NBA (3X third, 2X second), no other major awards, no rings.

PLAYER B (‘79-’91): 767 games played, 15.6 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 3.7 APG, eight playoff series victories, seven 50-plus win seasons, one 60-plus win season, five-time All-NBA (1X first, 4X second), two-time DPOY, played in one of the great college basketball games ever, no rings.

Player A, Yao Ming, is in the Hall of Fame. Player B, Sidney Moncrief, great guard for the Milwaukee Bucks of the 1980s, who inarguably had a more impactful and successful on-court NBA career and assisted Bird and Magic in saving the NBA, is not.

(Sid throwing an oop over Jordan)

The answer as to why, for the former, at least, is commonplace: Yao had ample impact on the game’s growth in China. He drew massive amounts of eyeballs to the NBA. He spread the game in the world’s largest untapped market.

That is significant, and should be rewarded with, why not?, his own wing in the Hall -- name it Yao Hall, and put every global ambassador with a sizable impact on basketball in there.

That would be a perfect fit for someone like Brazilian Oscar Schmidt, who is considered perhaps the best to never play in the NBA. He was inducted in 2013, in the same group and class as Gary Payton, who, you know, played in the NBA.

“At the time of the Big Bang, Sidney Moncrief stood close to the fire and came out a star.” -- Charlie Pierce, Sports Illustrated

Plus, it would differentiate between Yao’s place in the game’s history and, for example, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s place. I’m not even here to argue one is larger than the other, just to point out an extreme difference.

The way it is now -- an indistinguishable mess of floating names -- is a flawed system. Moncrief was better than Yao at NBA basketball. And he’s not in, and Yao is. That’s wrong. And until they put him in, I’m going to be angry about it.   

These thoughts are certainly not revolutionary

Pieces have been written on this topic. Bill Simmons devoted nearly 400 pages of his monstrous The Book of Basketball to fixing this problem.

(It’s a book worth reading, even if a quarter of it is filled with poop jokes.)

Here’s his premise: It’s stupid and random and, unlike baseball’s Hall -- a much stricter system with 150 years of history -- it holds zero mystique. It should be torn down, doused in gasoline, set on fire, and built back up in different groups and levels.

(This is a great idea, and now that I’m rereading the chapter, a lot like my Yao Hall idea.)

Here are a few of his groups.

  • The Pioneers -- where Yao’s spreading of the game can go!

  • The Role Players -- like Robert Horry, Bobby Jones, Derek Fisher and so on.

A WNBA section could, and should, also be made. (Some of those women could also be included with The Pioneers.)

Then, the NBA players worthy of Hall of Fame honors based solely on their play, can be split up and ranked by levels, ending with what Simmons calls The Pantheon, the 12 greatest players.

This way, we can honor Yao accordingly. He’ll be noted for his footprint and his efforts off the court while being in a separate grouping than Hakeem Olajuwon on the court.

It’s also a way to show that Reggie Miller and Paul Pierce were great, but not quite in the way that Kobe Bryant and Larry Bird were great.

Simmons proposed this whole thing when the book came out, in 2009. There have been no changes nine years later.

And poor Sid still isn’t in the Hall. (He was elected into the College Basketball Hall of Fame earlier this year, which really makes it more confusing as to why the big Hall even considers college accomplishments, which is presumably why Bill Walton, a great flash but who only had two prime seasons, is in.)

I could keep going, but I’ll spare you. Just know: It’s a real mess, and sooner or later, the basketball nerds will descend upon Springfield demanding change. I’ll be there, even if it means going to Springfield.

- S.E.

The Press

Some of the best NBA stories are the ones hiding out in the loose-leaf pages of actual books, most of which you can’t find on this dang internet machine. Here’s a new segment where we recommend the best from our own archives.  

The Book of Basketball Bill SimmonsWe already mentioned it in our HOF segment, but The Book of Basketball, for all of its shortcomings involving Simmons as a sometimes immature and stupid writer, is an informative look at the history of the league -- Which events, and who, along the way, really mattered? -- and it’s a great place to start for a novice looking to step up her/his NBA knowledge.   

It’s long -- over 700 pages -- but it’s an oddly entertaining read, much in the way peanut butter and bacon is an oddly satisfying snack.

Charlie Pierce, in his hilarious review of Simmons’ book, said it best: “I swear to Christ, there's a book in here somewhere, and probably a pretty good one.”

His hunch is right, and the good parts are worth finding.

 Quick hits

 What we're reading

  • "You can always play the what-if game, but man, I've been F'd over so many times. But, of course, I think about it. I'm human.” Isaiah Thomas talks with Woj about the last 12 months. [ESPN]

  • How LeBron to LA will impact 2019 NBA free agency [Bleacher Report]

  • A four-year deal is a testament to how much the Celtics wanted Marcus Smart [The Boston Globe]

  • DeMar DeRozan repped Toronto like he was born there [The Undefeated]

 Our podcast pick

  • The 1990s produced some of the wildest, loudest, jerseys ever seen on a basketball court. Many of these designs can be traced back to one man—Tom O’Grady, who, in 1990, became the league’s first creative director. [99% Invisible]

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