Committee Chairman

Steve Nash Retires

Mar 24, 2015

While it was expected to be officially announced at the end of this season, Los Angeles Lakers Point Guard, Steve Nash has officially announced his retirement from the National Basketball Association.

Born in South Africa, but raised in Canada, Nash was lightly recruited and played collegiately at Santa Clara. Nash would open eyes by making Santa Clara relevant in the West Coast Conference, but overall he was relatively unknown when entering the 1996 draft, so much so that the fans of the Phoenix Suns were upset that their team drafted him 15th overall. Nash would have to uneventful seasons in Phoenix where he used primarily off of the bench, but a trade to the Dallas Mavericks would change his fortunes.

Nash would become the starting Point Guard for the Mavs and with an equally unwanted at the draft Dirk Nowitski, would slowly change the fortunes of the team. Year by year, Nash’s stats would rise and in the 2000/01 season would have a breakout year with 15.1 Points and 7.3 Assists and a PER of 19.6.

The following season, Nash would have his first All Star selection and would average a PER over 20.0 for the next seasons in Dallas. With Michael Finlay and Dirk Nowitski, the Mavericks were regular playoff fixtures and Nash would be chosen for the All NBA Third Team twice.

Nash had proven to be a valuable starter in the NBA but at age 30 the Mavs ownership felt that a longterm contract may not yield a proper return. The Phoenix Suns felt otherwise and he returned to the team that drafted him and the Canadian would embark on the most successful run of his career.

Nash was the perfect fit for Mike D’Antoni’s up tempo style, and he became the star of the Suns offense. Phoenix had a forty game swing from the previous season and made the Western Conference Finals. Nash was named the NBA MVP, earn First Team All NBA Honors and won his first Assists Title.

While Phoenix would become a potent team, Nash was unable to take them to the NBA Finals, though he would accrue quite an impressive trophy case. Nash would win another MVP, four more Assists Titles, two Free Throw Percentage Titles, another two First Team All NBA and two Second Team All NBA Selections.

As a free agent again, Nash would chase the final accolade, a championship ring and when he signed with the Los Angeles Lakers, the odds makers pegged L.A. as a favourite but by all accounts, Nash had a horrific time with the Lakers compiling injury after injury to the point where he was ineffective and could not play at all this season.

It may have been a disappointing end, but it is an end to a career that should place Steve Nash in the Basketball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com suspect that he will enter immediately, and will only be on our Basketball list for one year, and will likely be ranked number one by us.

We would also like to thank Steve Nash for the great memories on the court and we are anxious to see what his plans are for his post-NBA career.

RRHOF inductees set.

Mar 21, 2015

Published in Not in Hall of Fame News

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony is less than a month away and the inductors have been announced for this year’s inductees.

Ringo Starr will be inducted by his fellow bandmate with the Beatles, Paul McCartney. For those of you (myself included) who thought this was a sure way to get McCartney as a prominent part of the celebration, you (we) were probably right.

The legendary Stevie Wonder will induct Bill Withers into the Hall of Fame. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen Withers name spelled without the “s” in multiple articles…a testament to the lack of knowledge from music writers these days.

Patti Smith will be inducting Lou Reed.

Peter Wolf, the lead singer of the J. Geils Band will be inducting The Paul Butterfield Blued Band. (Huh?)

Fall Out Boy (who for many are the next generation’s Green Day) will be inducting…Green Day.

Steve Cropper will be inducting the “5” Royales.

John Mayer will be inducting Stevie Ray Vaughn (Seriously?)

It has not yet been announced who will be inducting Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.

Overall, there are some fairly strange inductees, but as this was a strange group of choices to begin with, why not, we suppose.

Other performers scheduled are Jimmy Vaughan, Tom Morello, Beck, John Legend, Dave Grohl and Joe Walsh.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony will take place on April 18 and will be broadcast on HBO on May 30.

Tatsumi Fujinami to the WWE HOF

Mar 20, 2015

Published in Not in Hall of Fame News

The WWE Hall of Fame has announced that Japanese legend, Tatsumi Fujinami will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame and become along with Antonio Inoki, the second Japanese wrestler inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

Fujinami has a past history with the WWE, as he would win the WWWF Junior Heavyweight Championship in 1978 and would often appear for them at the fabled Madison Square Gardens and was also at the Showdown at Shea card where he successfully defended the championship against Chavo Guerrero. Internationally, Fujinami made that championship relevant in Japan, where it become one of the highest regarded Junior Heavyweight Championships in that country.

The mid 1980’s saw Fujinami move up to the heavyweight division and in 1988 he would defeat Big Van Vader for the vacated title to win his first IWGP Heavyweight Championship. He would hold that belt six times in total over his career as well as the IWGP World Tag Team Championship five times.

While he was known in the WWE in the late 70’s and early 80’s, his biggest mark in an American promotion was winning the NWA World Heavyweight Championship from Ric Flair in 1991 at the Tokyo Dome, though that title change was not recognized by WCW at the time and Flair would “win it back” at the main even of Superbrawl in St. Petersburg, Florida.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com applaud the WWE Hall of Fame for looking internationally and would like to congratulate Tatsumi Fujinami for receiving this honor.

Bas Rutten to the UFC HOF

May 23, 2015

Published in Not in Hall of Fame News

With the revamping of the UFC Hall of Fame, we here at Notinhalloffame.com will be unveiling our first UFC list this fall. With that in mind, and with the new categories that was announced earlier in the month, UFC Owner, Dana White ahs announced (and a surprising way as he did it in person on an episode of AXS TV’s “Inside MMA”), that former champion, Bas Rutten will be inducted into the Pioneer Wing of the UFC Hall of Fame.

From the Netherlands, Rutten would begin his fighting career in Muay Thai Kickboxing and would be scouted to join Pancrase, a hybrid fighting group based in Japan in 1993. The Dutchman would win the King of Pancrase three times and finish that portion of his career with a 25 – 4 – 1 record, but the United States and UFC came calling and he would join that organization in 1998.

In his second (and what would be his last) fight for UFC, he would win the UFC Heavyweight Championship but it was a title he would be unable to defend. He vacated the title to drop down to Middleweight (his more natural weight), but his past injuries would catch up to him and he would not compete in UFC again.

Still, Rutten’s charisma gave him a very successful post-MMA career which saw him not only as a television host, but garnered him movie roles and endorsements.

It had already been announced by the UFC that 1984 Olympic Gold Medalist, Jeff Blatnick will be inducted in the contributors wing. Blatnick was a commentator for UFC 4 to UFC 32 and is credited for helping to establish the modern rules of the sport and coining the term of “Mixed Martial Arts” as opposed to “No Holds Barred”, which was how it was perceived at the time.

This is a posthumous induction as Blatnick passed away in 2012 due to complications from heart surgery.

It was also announced that the Matt Hughes VS Frank Trigg fight from April 16, 2005 will be also inducted in the fight wing.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Bas Rutten for achieving this now more than ever important accolade.