Posts Tagged ‘Mitch Richmond’

Chances For The 2013 Hall Of Fame Class

April 4, 2013  ·  2:11PM

This is a little late because Mitch Richmond, a pretty decent source on the topic, already broke the news (via Twitter) that he did not get elected to the Hall of Fame. For most of the other candidates in the 2013 Hall of Fame class set to be unveiled Monday, uncertainty remains.

Gary Payton is in – according to someone close to the situation, in this case not named Richmond – and Richmond is out. In full disclosure, I would have had Payton as a lock (the only one) and given Richmond a good chance. That leaves eight from the North American committee to be revealed, seven with NBA ties plus college coach Guy Lewis.

Estimating the chances of the seven is a fool’s errand with Hall of Fame voting notoriously unpredictable, as proven by the fact that I would not have given Tom Heinsohn a shot to make the second and final stage of balloting as a coach. But based on decisions from recent years that (hopefully) give some indication of trends for this time, feedback from people around the game and the usual factor of the average 30-year fixed mortgage divided by the square root of the combined jersey numbers of the previous NBA champion multiplied by the wind velocity at City Hall in Springfield, Mass., at noon today, I am just that fool.

Maurice Cheeks

Hall of Fame Chances: Decent

Summary: Four-time All-Star, five-time All-Defense (four on the first-team), key member of the 1983 title team in Philadelphia, No. 5 all-time in steals.

Tim Hardaway

Hall of Fame Chances: Decent

Summary: Five-time All-Star, first-team All-NBA once, No. 13 in career assists, won an Olympic gold medal in 2000.

Spencer Haywood

Hall of Fame Chances: Good

Summary: Four-time NBA All-Star, averaged at least 20 points a game six times in the NBA, first-team All-NBA twice, member of 1980 championship team with the Lakers, ABA Rookie of the Year, ABA MVP, star of the 1968 Olympic team that won a gold medal (as he refused to join other African-American standouts in a boycott).

Tommy Heinsohn

Hall of Fame Chances: Poor

Summary: Nominated as a coach after being elected as a player in 1986. As a coach, won two championships with the Celtics, Coach of the Year, but only 427 career wins.

Bernard King

Hall of Fame Chances: Good

Summary: Averaged 22.5 ppg in his career, one of the premier offensive threats from the late-1970s through the early-1990s despite major knee injuries, four-time All-Star, two-time first-team All-NBA, Comeback Player of the Year.

Gary Payton

Original Hall of Fame chances: Lock

Updated Hall of Fame chances: Lock

Summary: Nine-time All-Star, nine-time All-Defense, two-time first-team All-NBA, Defensive Player of the Year, championship with the Heat in 2006, Olympic gold medalist in 1996 and 2000, retired as No. 4 in career steals and No. 8 in assists.

Rick Pitino

Chances: Good

Summary: The only coach to take three schools to the Final Four, won the 1996 national championship with Kentucky and has a strong chance this season with Louisville (with the title game hours after the Hall of Fame announcement), has been to the Final Four seven times, coached the Knicks and Celtics.

Mitch Richmond

Original Hall of Fame chances: Good

Updated Hall of Fame chances: Not-so-good.

Summary: Six-time All-Star, Rookie of the Year, three-time second-team All-NBA, averaged 21 points a game for 10 consecutive seasons, member of the 2002 championship team with the Lakers, won a gold medal in the 1996 Olympics and a bronze in 1988.

Jerry Tarkanian

Hall of Fame Chances: Decent

Summary: Won 990 games in his college career, guided UNLV to the 1990 national championship, four trips to the Final Four, owns the highest junior-college winning percentage (.891), coached the Spurs. Back on the ballot after being removed for lack of support, there is a renewed push for induction with Tarkanian in failing health.

Winners who receive at least 18 of 24 votes in anonymous voting will be announced Monday in Atlanta as part of Final Four festivities. Inductees from the Women’s committee, with North Carolina coach Sylvia Hatchell and former star guard Dawn Staley as finalists, will be revealed at the same time. Roger Brown (ABA committee), Edwin B. Henderson (Early African American Pioneers), Oscar Schmidt (International), Richard Guerin (Veterans) and Russ Granik (Contributor) have already been elected.

The enshrinement ceremony is Sept. 8 in Springfield.

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Hall of Fame Debate: Mitch Richmond

April 1, 2013  ·  5:28PM

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HANG TIME WEST – This is the month that potentially changes the future for Mitch Richmond, starting early next week and then to the April 18-19 debate that would be historic not only for Richmond, but the entire league.

Richmond is a minority investor in the attempt to keep the Kings in Sacramento, and that group will be in New York on Wednesday along with leaders of the Seattle bid for the Kings for presentations to league executives as the showdown intensifies in advance of the April 18-19 Board of Governors vote. Richmond is a finalist for the Hall of Fame, and the Class of 2013 will be announced next Monday in Atlanta as part of the Final Four.

Two cities, two historic votes, two very uncertain outcomes for Richmond. One legacy possibly being altered.

Richmond has remained close to the NBA since retiring after 2001-02, working under close friend and former teammate Chris Mullin in basketball operations in Golden State when Mullin ran personnel and staying visible at other league functions. Making the Hall of Fame, though, is a different level of visible. Making the Hall of Fame the same month he could become an owner, however small the stake, and perhaps joining the front office turns this into his potential forever April.

Several portions of his resume will be touted: star at Kansas State, Olympian in 1988 (bronze) and 1996 (gold), Rookie of the Year in 1988-89, a career average of 21 points a game over 14 seasons with three-point range and a post game, cornerstone of the Run TMC fun bench of the Warriors, three-time selection as second-team All-NBA, small role in the Lakers’ 2002 championship. That is the platform of a strong candidate.

But nothing boosts his chances, and makes Richmond a unique finalist, like being picked for six All-Star games, because he wasn’t just being picked for six All-Star games. He was being picked while playing for the bottom-feeding Kings of the 1990s by coaches who would not have rewarded good numbers on a bad team year after year if they didn’t rate him along the elite. Top that as an endorsement.

Richmond was one of the better guards for an NBA generation that included Michael Jordan, John Stockton and Gary Payton, the leading candidate for enshrinement this year. The people who coached against Richmond, and routinely beat Richmond’s team, kept choosing him as an All-Star when it would have been easy to say players from good clubs were more deserving. Not many have been able to make that part of candidacy.

The other finalists from the North American commitee that handles most candidates with an NBA background are Maurice Cheeks, Tim Hardaway (another initial member of Run TMC with Mullin), Spencer Haywood, Tom Heinsohn (already in as a player, now up as a coach), Bernard King, Rick Pitino and Jerry Tarkanian.

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Hall of Fame Debate: Most Deserving

January 15, 2013  ·  1:39PM

The updated rankings, following last week’s release of the nominees for the Class of 2013 in Springfield, Mass., includes one stretch and one asterisk pick, but the premise is the same as the standings from last April in the wake of the election for the Class of 2012: The order of most deserving among candidates on the ballot with NBA or ABA ties.

The fine print is important. This list does not weigh cases from the amateur and women’s game or most from the International, Early African-American Pioneers and Veterans categories. It’s NBA and ABA. And, it’s people under consideration by voters, not anyone deserving of induction. Gregg Popovich and David Stern, among others, have made it clear they do not yet want to be nominated, just as Jerry Sloan held out for years before finally agreeing in 2009 to undergo the discomfort of friends and peers saying nice things about him.

There is obviously a new No. 1 that creates a domino effect, now that Gary Payton is under consideration, and also alterations lower on the list after the inclusion of other new and renewed nominees or simply a change of thinking. Plus, Mark Jackson is off the Hall ballot after failing to get a single vote from nine panelists in three consecutive years. (Jackson was always a long shot for enshrinement – consistently good, never great – but No. 3 on the career assist list has to at least get someone away from 0 for 27.)

The outcome of the first round of voting for the North American committee, which handles most nominees with an NBA background, will be announced at All-Star weekend, with the survivors then advancing to a final layer of balloting before inductees are revealed at the Final Four. Candidates via the ABA committee face a single ballot before a maximum of one winner is named at All-Star.

1. Payton, North American committee: The Glove was selected first-team All-Defense by coaches nine consecutive times in the 1990s and 2000s, All-NBA twice and Defensive Player of the Year once as chosen by the media, and part of two Olympic golds and one NBA championship. The anonymous Hall voters have been hard lately on first-ballot nominees – Dennis Rodman went from not making finalist in 2010 all the way to being elected in ’11 and Reggie Miller had the same bounce back from 2011 to ’12 – but giving Payton the same rookie hazing would generate the largest outcry yet.

2. Bernard King, North American: He averaged 22.5 points despite two serious knee injuries, finished better than 20 a game in 11 different seasons and was also a scoring star at Tennessee, an important consideration in a process where college achievements count. King was first-team All-NBA only twice and second-team once, but he played at the same time Larry Bird, Julius Erving, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone and Dominique Wilkins were working forwards. (more…)

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An Early Look At The Hall Class of 2013

September 8, 2012  ·  12:00PM

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Hall of Fame voters are big on patience. That much is apparent regarding the few details known about the secret panels that rule on enshrinement, a notion increasingly clear with the Class of 2012 that included Reggie Miller being inducted after not even making it to the finalist stage the year before, the same circuitous route Dennis Rodman took in 2011, and Don Nelson, Jamaal Wilkes and Ralph Sampson making it after lengthy waits.

This bodes well for the many in line. Hall chairman Jerry Colangelo has made reversing past oversights a priority, the ABA and the Early African-American Pioneers committees have been added to guarantee election for at least two candidates away from the game for decades, and the group that was celebrated Friday night was all about the waiting.

The continued relevance of the trend heading toward the Class of 2013 is the expectation that Gary Payton will be the only virtual first-ballot lock among players with strong NBA ties. That’s a lot of opportunity to fill out a field. Although there is no set number of inductees required annually, voters in the North American Committee could easily see the lack of superstars among new nominees as the latest chance to address the past.

I did a Most Deserving Candidates list in April, after the Class of 2012 was announced. The rankings will change early in the regular season, after the 2013 nominations are announced, with Payton likely the new No. 1 and other tweaks expected after further consideration, but the short version for now:

1. Bernard King, North American Committee.

2. Jerry Krause, Contributor.

3. Mark Jackson, North American.

4. Tim Hardaway, North American.

5. Bobby Jones, ABA.

6. Mitch Richmond, North American.

7. Maurice Cheeks, North American.

8. George McGinnis, ABA.

9. Rick Pitino, North American.

10. Slick Leonard, ABA.

Also considered: Vlade Divac (International), Bill Fitch (North American), Dick Motta (North American), Ron Boone (ABA), Rudy Tomjanovich (North American).

Again, those are the candidates with NBA connections, and an ABA nominee is definitely going in through a direct election, without the same layered screening process as others in the general North American field. It is also possible that nominees from the college game will have a strong presence and cost NBAers support.

But based on the last two years, based on the push by Colangelo, and certainly based on Friday night at Symphony Hall, patience has an important place in the voting. The early indication, with no surge of several automatics appearing to be on the way, is that will be true again in 2013.

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Chris Mullin’s Big, and Telling, Night

March 19, 2012  ·  1:38PM




* Photos: Mullin’s career | Warriors.com’s coverage of Mullin’s jersey retirement

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS WEST – The Warriors will retire uniform No. 17 tonight at halftime at Oracle Arena to honor Chris Mullin, a tribute both richly deserved and years overdue. That much is obvious.

Look at the list of guests who will be on the court with him, though. Not so obvious. Many family members, sure. The Warriors who previously had their numbers retired, or someone on their behalf: Al Attles, Rick Barry, Tom Meschery, Nate Thurmond and Barbara Lewis representing her brother Wilt Chamberlain. Several former teammates, including Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond, Sarunas Marciulionis and Rod Higgins. All predictable party guests.

But then there is Tom Abdenour, the former Golden State trainer.

And Mark Grabow, the former director of athletic development.

And Eric Housen, the former equipment manager and current director of team services.

On his big night, the guest list says more about Mullin than any speech. He was the small forward who couldn’t take anyone off the dribble yet played in five All-Star games, the New York City product without the mega-street hype who won two Olympic gold medals and the human being who overcame alcoholism early in his career to become a Hall of Famer all because he was the ultimate gym rat who would not be outworked. The greatness of Mullin is that he refused to give up, and now he will make sure others who were there with him late at night, away from the spotlight, will get credit.

“It’s an incredible honor to be recognized by the organization,” Mullin said. “I spent 13 years playing and growing as a player and a person, and it’s a place I lived. I developed a really unique relationship with the fan base there. It’s another opportunity for me to say ‘Thank you’ to all of my teammates, administrators and front-office people that stuck with me and helped me carve out a nice career in the NBA.”

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