As most of the regular visitors to Notinhalloffame.com are aware we are (very) slowly putting together our top 50 players of every franchise in the “Big 4” of North American sports. After that is completed we will take a look at how each organization honors their past players and executives.

As such, it is important to us that the Orlando Magic has announced that Tracy McGrady will be inducted into their franchise’s Hall of Fame.

After playing his first three seasons in Toronto McGrady signed with Orlando and would become the teams starting Shooting Guard and would be named an All Star in all four of his campaigns with the Magic. T-Mac would average 28.1 Points per Game over his career in Orlando, the highest in team history and he would also win his two scoring titles as a member of the Magic. He was also named All-NBA in each season with Orlando, with a pair of second team and a pair of first team selections.

He will be honored on March 20 when the team hosts the Raptors.

McGrady becomes the seventh member of the Hall, following Owner Rich DeVos, Co-Founders Pat Williams and Jimmy Hewitt and former players Nick Anderson, Shaquille O’Neal and Anfernee Hardaway.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Tracy McGrady for obtaining this honor.

Hell froze over again in the WWE Hall of Fame again as it was announced that Jeff Jarrett will become the next member of their institution.

Jarrett was last seen on WWE television in 1999 when he dropped the Intercontinental Championship to Chyna and allegedly held up the company for a large payout (his contract has lapsed the day earlier). When Vince McMahon purchased WCW on that RAW he openly said that Jarrett was “G-O-N-E, Gone” and he was not expected to ever be welcomed back.

But as they say, anything can happen in the WWE!

The son of former wrestler, Jerry Jarrett, Jeff Jarrett started his career in Continental and moved to the USWA when his father formed the Memphis based promotion when the company merged with the recently acquired World Class. Jarrett would emerge as the number two face behind Jerry “The King “ Lawler and he would win multiple championships there.

The USWA would begin a working agreement with the WWF, and Jarrett would debut in late 1993 as “Double J” Jeff Jarrett, an aspiring country musician who was using the organization to propel his music career. He would languish in the mid-card throughout 1994 but would win the Intercontinental Title from Razor Ramon at the 1995 Royal Rumble and with the exception of a brief vacation of the belt due to a controversial ending in a defence to Bob Holly and a two day stint where Ramon had won the back the belt, Jarrett held the title going into the summer of that year.

At the In Your House II Pay Per View, Jarrett would pull double duty, first lip-synching his “hit”, “With My Baby Tonight” and would later lose his title (due to botched interference by the Roadie) to Shawn Michaels. Jarrett and the Roadie would leave abruptly after the show due to a pay dispute, but Jarrett would return briefly later in the year, only again to leave without notice.

Jarrett would this time go to WCW and after a period of “free agency” would join the Four Horsemen and defeat Dean Malenko for the United States Title, though would lose it to Steve McMichael. After his one year contract expired he returned to the WWF.

Jarrett was poised to be a near main event player upon his return. He delivered a worked-shoot promo on both the WWF and WCW and positioned himself as a wrestler who refused to compete against anyone other than elite competition. This led to a one off match with the Undertaker at the D-Generation X Pay Per View (he won by disqualification) and would then briefly align himself with Jim Cornette and the NWA, only for that to fall off while he would return to the Double J gimmick and a new manager (Tennessee Lee). That didn’t last either, and he would be given a new look via a hair vs hair match (losing to X-Pac) and a new attitude where he was more of a perpetually angry wrestler.

Jarrett would be paired with Owen Hart and Debra McMichael and he would win the WWF World Tag Team Title. Following Owen’s death, he would become the Intercontinental Champion, a belt he would trade back and forth with Edge and D-lo Brown, but for the most part in 1999, Jarrett would hold the championship until he lost it to Chyna at the No Mercy show. He would follow Vince Russo to WCW, who took over as the head writer there.

Jarrett would be pushed to the top at WCW but the company was in severe disarray during the time he was there. He would however win the World Heavyweight Championship there four times.

With the demise of WCW and McMahon’s lack of interest in him, he would work in various independents but most notably he would form TNA Wrestling in 2002 and would run weekly Pay Per Views until 2004 where they ran monthly ones. They would also begin a weekly program on Spike TV and while Jarrett was often criticized for booking himself at the top, there was much praise given to him for the creation of a solid second national promotion offering work to many professional wrestlers across the country.

After a decade, Jarrett would be forced out of the company he created and would again create another promotion, Global Force Wrestling though despite partnerships with New Japan and TNA itself, it was not overly successful. GFW would merge with TNA (now named Impact Wrestling) in early 2017 and the revamped promotion took the GFW banner with Jarrett as a key executive, though Impact Wrestling would cease its relationship with Jarrett and the GFW name.

Despite the fact that Jarrett had been speculated for the WWE Hall of Fame, this still has to be considered a surprise given the past history between Jarrett and McMahon. On our Notinhalloffame.com WWE list had him at #45 as of our last ranking.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Jeff Jarrett for earning this honor.

As is tradition during NBA All Star Weekend, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame has announced the Finalists for this year’s class:

The Finalists are:

Ray Allen: Allen is a two time NBA Champion (Boston 2008 & Miami 2013) and was a ten-time All Star. Allen is still the all-time leader in three pointers. An All-American at the University of Connecticut (1996), Allen also was a member of Team USA’s Gold Medal win in 2000.

Maurice Cheeks: Cheeks was a four time NBA All Star and four time selection for the All-Defensive Team. At the time of his retirement, Cheeks was fifth all-time in both Steals and Assists.

Lefty Driesell (Coach): Driesell is to date the only coach to win 100 Games at four different schools. Inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007, Driesell has a coaching record of 786-394.

Hugh Evans (Referee): Evans was an NBA referee from 1972 to 2001 and officiated nearly 2,000 Games.

Grant Hill: Hill was a 19 year veteran who was a First Team All-NBA Selection once and Second Team All-NBA Selection four times. He is also a two time NCAA Champion at Duke and was an Olympic Gold Medalist for Team U.S.A. in 1996.

Jason Kidd: Kidd was a ten time NBA All Star and was five times chosen for the First Team All-NBA roster. Kidd also was a four time First Team All-Defensive Selection and is second all-time in the NBA in Steals. He was a two time Olympic Gold Medalist with Team U.S.A. (2000 & 2008) and also is a NBA Champion with the Dallas Mavericks (2011).

Steve Nash: Nash was a two time NBA MVP (2005 & 2006) and was a three time First Team All-NBA Selection. Nash was a five time Assists leader and he still is the all-time leader in Free Throw Percentage.

Rudy Tomjanivich (Coach): While “Rudy T” has a case to be a Hall of Fame inductee as a player, this nomination is as a coach. Tomjanavich took the Rockets to back-to-back titles (1994 & 1995) and also was the Head Coach for Team U.S.A. at the 2000 Olympics.

Chris Webber: Webber was the 1994 NBA Rookie of the Year and was a five time All Star. The former of Michigan’s “Fab Five” was also a one time First Team NBA and three time Second Team NBA Selection.

Women’s Committee Finalists:

Kim Mulkey (Coach):   Mulkey took Baylor to two NCAA Titles (2005 & 2012) and was the consensus Coach of the Year in 2012. Historically speaking, Mulkey is the only woman to win a NCAA Title as a Player, an Assistant Coach and a Head Coach.

Katie Smith: Smith is a former seven time WNBA All Star and is also a time WNBA Champion with the Detroit Shock. She is also a three time Olympic Gold Medalist (2000, 2004 & 2008) with Team U.S.A.

Tina Thompson: A four time WNBA Champion with the Houston Comets (1997-00), Thompson holds the distinction of being the first ever draft pick of the WNBA. Thompson is also a two Olympic Champion with Team U.S.A. (2004 & 2008).

Wayland Baptist University: WBU won 131 straight games from 1953 to 1958 and would win 10 AAU National Championships.

The Class of 2018 will be announced on March 31 during The Final Four.

It was announced today (and not a large surprise based on leaks that have been rampant) that Lisa Moretti, who competed in the WWE as Ivory will be this year’s female inductee to the WWE Hall of Fame.

Moretti was a member of GLOW in the 80’s where she competed as Tina Ferrari, made her debut in the WWE as the valet of Mark Henry and D-Lo Brown in 1999 (we are deliberately omitting her one off as one of the Godfather’s hos) and winning the Women’s Title twice that year, the first time from Debra McMichael, the second from The Fabulous Moolah.

2000 would be her best year in the WWE where she joined the villainous and puritanical Right to Censor faction and she would defeat Lita in a four way match to win the Women’s Title for a third time. She would feud with Chyna over the latter’s posing for Playboy. Their program would culminate in Chyna soundly thrashing Ivory for the title at Wrestlemania X7.

Ivory would stay contracted to the WWE for the next few years but was not involved in any major storylines. When she was not wrestling she would occasionally broadcast and also served as a trainer on Tough Enough. Her contract was not renewed in 2005.

While Ivory wrestled at a time where most of the women competed in non-athletic gimmick matches, fans knew that Moretti was a decent wrestler and was capable of far more than she was allowed to do and is a genuine pioneer for the female workers of today.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Lisa Moretti for obtaining this honor.