Among those who fit that mold were Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond, Alonzo Mourning and Kevin Johnson. In fact, Hardaway enters with the possibility to be enshrined alongside two former teammates, considering he played with Richmond as a member of the Warriors and Mourning for the Heat.
In the coaching ranks, Eddie Sutton, Gary Williams and Nolan Richardson are possible enshrinees. Others involved are Spencer Haywood, Harley Redin and the Immaculata University team.
Former NBA commissioner David Stern was part of a five-person direct elect group. Others directly elected into the Hall of Fame were Lithuania star Sarunas Marciulionis, former Indiana Pacers coach Bob ''Slick'' Leonard, former New York Knicks player Nat ''Sweetwater'' Clifton, and Guy Rodgers.
Those picked to enter the Naismith Hall of Fame will be announced on Monday, April 7, the day of NCAA championship game. The enshrinement ceremony will take place on Aug. 8 at 6:30 p.m., in the Springfield Symphony Hall.
MELO FUTURE
No, Carmelo Anthony does not think he is going to be traded by the Knicks, despite a disastrous first-half of the season that has seen his team start 20-32, 2.5 games out of a playoff spot.
“I don’t even pay attention to it,” Anthony said. “I don’t think there is no way possible I will be traded. I don’t think they are considering me being traded. Unless you hearing something I am not. … If they feel like they want to get rid of me, I feel like we would have had that conversation already. I know for a fact I am not being traded.”
So that is the good news for Anthony, who is in his fourth season with the Knicks after strong-arming a trade from the Nuggets in 2011. But for the Knicks, the news might not be so good. Anthony will be a free agent this summer, and though the assumption has long been that he would re-sign to stay in New York, he did not commit to that on Friday.
In fact, Anthony left open the possibility that the Knicks’ awful start to the season—especially in light of how well last year’s 54-win season went—would affect his free-agent decision this summer.
“I will evaluate that when the time comes,” Anthony said. “I didn’t expect the first half of the season to go how it is going, coming off last season, I was expecting us to take another step forward. Obviously, we took some steps backwards. I will evaluate that when the time comes.”
Anthony has never played for a team with a losing record in his career, and it is doubtful that, even if the Knicks make the postseason, they would finish above .500. That’s been tough for Anthony to swallow, but he has grown thick skin, he said.
“Body armor,” he said, laughing. “You got to have that body armor on. You got to build a wall around you and just take it. A lot of times, people go through stuff they’re not ready for. Me, I wasn’t ready for this season and the way this season is going, as far as all the things that come along with it. But I have braced myself for that.
"Nobody can tell me from their own experience how to deal with my own experience I am going through it, it is a learning curve for me. But I prepared myself mentally for a lot of the stuff that is going on by not reading it or listening to it, not feeding into it, but just focusing on what I need to do to make myself better and make my team better.”
SHOULD HE DUNK?
Yes, Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins, as well-known for his slam-dunk flair as for his illustrious achievements in his 15-year career, has seen the videos of Heat star LeBron James dunking in practice. And yes, he thinks James would take home the trophy if he were to enter.
“He does those dunks in the layup line,” Wilkins said. “With those dunks alone, he would win the contest.”
Alas, James has never entered a dunk contest in his NBA career, and when Saturday’s event comes and goes, that streak will be intact. To that, Wilkins just shrugs his shoulders.
“Hey, he doesn’t want to do it,” Wilkins said. “I don’t know why. For whatever reason, he just feels like it is something he does not want to do at this time in his life. But I would love to see him do it.”
Wilkins helped forge the identity of the dunk contest as a centerpiece event here at All-Star weekend—he won it twice, and his battles with Michael Jordan have become legendary. The contest has had a sketchy history since Wilkins’ heyday, though, as the league’s top players frequently opt out of participating.
That has changed somewhat this year, with All-Stars Paul George, Damian Lillard and John Wall scheduled to participate. They will take on defending champ Terrence Ross, as well as Harrison Barnes and rookie Ben McLemore.
“I like to see the star players get in it," Wilkins said. "It is very encouraging, Paul George is an emerging superstar in this league and it is nice that he is taking the opportunity to get into this. I think it is great, because you get the star players trying to figure out who is the best this particular year. It is nice to have some star players in this, and not to discredit anybody else, but it is really good to get All-Star players in this contest.”
NO REGRETS
With an eye toward winning an NBA title, Steve Nash joined the Los Angeles Lakers on a sign-and-trade deal worth $27 million over three years.
Nash, now in the second year of his deal, has played only 10 games this season, and he's only suited up in 60 total over the past two years. Still, the Lakers do not feel that they made a mistake in signing Nash, who they expected to work in concert with Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard to bring another title.
“No regrets,” Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said on Thursday, according to ESPNLosAngeles.com (via ProBasketballTalk). “You have to recognize where you are as a franchise and we felt we had a two-year window, maybe three, to go for a championship and that’s what we did.
“Looking back on it, which nobody can do, that’s a different story. But at the time, we knew exactly what we were doing.”
Reality has set in on Nash as well. That was obvious in a Grantland documentary on the Lakers point guard's return from nerve irritation. Nash wondered aloud whether he would make a full recovery and considered the very real possibility that retirement is around the corner.
Nash, who is in the early stages of a return, is due to make $9.3 million this year and $9.7 million next season. Because Nash has played 10 games this season and does not see his career as over, a medical retirement that would take his deal off the books is no longer a possibility.
Contributors: Sean Deveney, DeAntae Prince
