Basketball
Of the four Halls of Fame comprising the “Big Four” of the North American sports, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame is the one that is the hardest for many casual fans to figure out.Established in 1959, though there was no physical building for a decade, the Basketball Hall of Fame would take root in Springfield, Massachusetts. While the popularity of Basketball has skyrocketed over the past 20 years, the Hall of Fame has not grown nearly at the same pace.
Why is that?
It is because the very thing that was designed to make it special is what makes it convoluted.
The Baseball Hall of Fame, with the primary exception of the Negro Leagues, focuses only on those who participated in Major League Baseball.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame only looks at the National Football League.
The Hockey Hall of Fame does look at International contributions but with the exception of two players who played their career in the Soviet Red Army, all players had at one time plied their trade in the National Hockey League.
The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame looks at everything. This includes College, International, Women and in some cases High School.
Every year, there are finalists where even the most devote basketball fans are trying to figure out who those people are, and when that happens, the cache value of the Hall naturally shrinks.
For our purposes, we will only look at those who were in the National Basketball Association as let’s face it…that is what most of us care about the most!
Until then, go for the three!
Sincerely,
The Notinhalloffame.com Committee
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