The Cal Ripken of basketball with 1192 consecutive games played, A.C. Green’s hopes of enshrinement rely on amazing consistency and ability to do whatever it takes for the good of the team.  A star out of college winning PAC-10 player of the year at Oregon State, Green came to the Lakers and immediately developed a role as the power forward who would bang down low, grab boards, and show up for work every day.  12,000 career points and almost 10,000 rebounds as well as the being the only player to play on both Magic and Shaq’s championship teams don’t hurt.  Oh and did we mention that he was never in competition for chicks with Magic?

The second best player ever to come from Louisville, Darrell Griffith led Coach Denny Crum’s Cardinals to their first National Title and was the National Player of the Year in 1980.  Griffith had incredible leaping ability and used this to finish plays with style.  He also was a potent jump shooter though he never became the superstar many thought he would be out of college.  Griffith still had a very solid NBA career but was overshadowed by his great career at Louisville.

One of the best shooters ever, Otis Birdsong could flat out score. A great scorer at the University of Houston, Birdsong became one of the great shooting guards in the NBA in the early 1980’s with both the Kings and the Nets averaging 18 points a game for his career.  Being a four-time All-Star helps his case but low career totals (just over 12,000 points) hurts.

Once again, we have another player who had a solid pro career that is overshadowed by a spectacular college career.  Hersey Hawkins is only one of six players to score more than 6,000 career points in Division One.  Hawkins and Chet Walker are easily the two best players ever to come from Bradley University; and the Braves are one of the best programs ever that nobody remembers.  This might be hurting him. He may be sadly best remembered for an injury that kept him out of most of the 1988 Olympic Games and some say cost the team a gold due to their lack of perimeter shooting.  This of course led to the Dream Team being created so he has got that going for him.