It was announced today that J.R. Richard, the flamethrowing Pitcher best known for his time with the Houston Astros, died at the age of 71.

A ten-year veteran, Richard posted a lifetime record of 107-71 with 1,493 Strikeouts and a 3.13 ERA.  His best season was in 1979, when his 313 Strikeouts were then a team record.  He was one of the first players who threw for a recorded 100 mph.  

In 1980, his career was abruptly halted when he suffered a stroke in late July, only weeks after he started for the National League in the All-Star Game.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to extend our condolences to the fans, friends and family of J.R. Richard. 

The sadness in professional wrestling continues.  “Beautiful” Bobby Eaton, best known for his tag team work in the Midnight Express, passed away at the age of 62.  It is not known at this time how he passed.

Eaton debuted in 1976 after being trained by Tojo Yamamoto, and would quickly be used in various tag teams.  One of the most natural in-ring workers in the business, Eaton was regarded by his peers as one of the best.  

His career really took off when he first teamed with “Loverboy” Dennis Condrey, managed by Jim Cornette, as the Midnight Express.  They drew money in Mid South, World Class, and then the NWA, where they had legendary feuds with the Rock and Roll Express and the Road Warriors, even after Condrey was replaced by “Sweet” Stan Lane.  

Lane and Cornette would depart WCW (which was previously the NWA), and Eaton remained as a single, winning the Television Title.  He again returned to tag teams, staying with the company until 2000.

Behind the scenes, Eaton was considered to be one of the nicest guys, not just in wrestling, but in life.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to extend our condolences to the fans, friends and family of Bobby Eaton. 

Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team.  That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists out and we always consistently look to update them when we can and based on necessity.  As such, we are very happy to present our pre-2021-22 revision of our top 50 Brooklyn Nets.

As for all of our top 50 players in basketball we look at the following: 

1.  Advanced Statistics.

2.  Traditional statistics and how they finished in the NBA. 

3.  Playoff accomplishments.

4.  Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.

Please note, that this is our first revision in two years, which includes the 2019 Championship Season.  This has resulted in three new entries, and one significant jump.

As always, we present our top five immediately, though nothing has changed in this upper-tier.

1. Jason Kidd

2. Julius Erving

3. Brook Lopez

4. Buck Williams

5. Vince Carter

You can find the entire list here.

Jarrett Allen, who is now with Cleveland, climbed from #39 to #18.

Three-Point sharpshooter, Joe Harris debuts at #27.

All-Star Point Guard, Kyrie Irving comes in at #37.

Current Indiana Pacer, Caris LeVert enters at #50.

We expect that Kevin Durant and James Harden will be in the top 50 next year, and debut high.

We welcome your input and comments and as always, we thank you for your support.

Jody Hamilton, known professionally as “The Assassin” passed away at the age of 82.  He had been in hospice care for the last month.

Hamilton began his pro wrestling career in 1957, but it was when he became teaming with Tom Renesto as the Assassins four years later that his career took off.  The tandem wrestled all across the United States for 12 years, collecting titled and main eventing numerous times.  They broke up when Renesto concentrated on booking, but Hamilton carried on as a single.  He would later resurrect the tag team, with Randy Colley and Hercules Hernandez serving as his partners.

Following his retirement as an active wrestler, Hamilton would work briefly as a manager in WCW (for Paul Orndorff and Paul Roma), and would be the first head trainer at the WCW Power Plant.  He would also later own Deep South Wrestling from 2005 to 2007, which acted as a feeder system to the WWE.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to extend our condolences to the fans, friends and family of Jody Hamilton.