The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and
hall of fame
A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...
, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in
Springfield, Massachusetts
Springfield is a city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States, and the seat of Hampden County. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ...
. It serves as
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
's most complete library, in addition to promoting and preserving the
history of basketball
Basketball began with its invention in 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts, by Canadian physical education instructor James Naismith as a less injury-prone sport than football. Naismith was a 31-year old graduate student when he created the indoo ...
. Dedicated to
Canadian-American
Canadian Americans is a term that can be applied to American citizens whose ancestry is wholly or partly Canadian, or citizens of either country that hold dual citizenship.
The term ''Canadian'' can mean a nationality or an ethnicity. Canadia ...
physician
James Naismith
James Naismith (; November 6, 1861November 28, 1939) was a Canadian-American physical educator, physician, Christian chaplain, and sports coach, best known as the inventor of the game of basketball. After moving to the United States, he wrote ...
, who invented the sport in Springfield, the Hall of Fame inducted its first class in 1959, before opening its first facility on February 17, 1968.
As of the Class of 2019, the Hall has formally inducted 401 basketball individuals.
The
Boston Celtics have the most inductees, with 40.
History of the Springfield building
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame was established in 1959, without a physical location by
Lee Williams, a former athletic director at
Colby College
Colby College is a private liberal arts college in Waterville, Maine. It was founded in 1813 as the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, then renamed Waterville College after the city where it resides. The donations of Christian philant ...
. In the 1960s, the Hall of Fame struggled to raise enough money for the construction of its first facility. However, the necessary amount was soon raised, and the building opened on February 17, 1968,
less than a month after the
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...
played its
18th All-Star Game. The Basketball Hall of Fame's Board named four inductees in its first year. In addition to honoring those who contributed to basketball, the Hall of Fame sought to make contributions of its own. In 1979, the Hall of Fame sponsored the
Tip-Off Classic, a pre-season college basketball exhibition. This Tip-Off Classic has been the start to the college basketball season ever since, and although it does not always take place in Springfield, Massachusetts, generally it returns every few years.
In the 17 years that the original Basketball Hall of Fame operated at
Springfield College, it drew over 630,000 visitors. The popularity of the Basketball Hall of Fame necessitated that a new facility be constructed, and on June 30, 1985, an $11.5 million facility was opened beside the scenic
Connecticut River in Springfield. As the new hall opened, it also recognized women for the first time, with inductees such as
Senda Berenson Abbott
Senda Berenson Abbott (March 19, 1868 – February 16, 1954) was a figure of women's basketball and the author of the first Basketball Guide for Women (1901–07). She was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor on July 1, 1 ...
, who first introduced basketball to women at
Smith College
Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...
. During the years following its construction, the Basketball Hall of Fame's second facility drew far more visitors than ever anticipated, due in large part to the increasing popularity of the game but also to the scenic location beside the river and the second Hall's interesting modern architecture.
In 2002, the Basketball Hall of Fame moved again—albeit merely 100 yards south along Springfield's riverfront—into a $47 million facility designed by renowned architects
Gwathmey Siegel & Associates. The building's architecture features a metallic silver, basketball-shaped sphere flanked by two similarly symmetrical
rhombus
In plane Euclidean geometry, a rhombus (plural rhombi or rhombuses) is a quadrilateral whose four sides all have the same length. Another name is equilateral quadrilateral, since equilateral means that all of its sides are equal in length. The ...
es. The dome is illuminated at night and features 80,000 square foot (7,400 m²), including a Subway sandwich shop, and an extensive gift shop. The second Basketball Hall of Fame was not torn down; rather it was converted into an
LA Fitness
LA Fitness (doing business as LA Fitness International LLC) is an American gym chain with more than 700 clubs across the United States and Canada. The company was formed in 1984 and is based in Irvine, California.
History
LA Fitness was founde ...
health club. The current Basketball Hall of Fame features Center Court, a full-sized basketball court on which visitors can play. Inside the building there are a game gallery, many interactive exhibits, several theaters, and an honor ring of inductees. A large theater for ceremonies seats up to 300. The honorees inducted in 2002, included the
Harlem Globetrotters and
Magic Johnson, a five-time NBA champion, three-time NBA finals MVP and Olympic gold medalist.
As of 2011, the current Basketball Hall of Fame has greatly exceeded attendance expectations, with basketball fans traveling to the Hall of Fame from all over the world.
Criteria for induction
In contrast to the
Soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
and the
National Baseball Halls of Fame, Springfield honors international and American professionals, as well as American and international amateurs, making it arguably the most comprehensive Hall of Fame among major American sports. From 2011 to 2015, seven committees were, and as of 2016, six committees are employed to both screen and elect candidates. Four of the committees screen prospective candidates:
* North American Screening Committee (9 members)
* Women's Screening Committee (7 members)
* International Screening Committee (7 members)
* Veterans Screening Committee (7 members), with "Veterans" defined as individuals whose careers ended at least 35 years before they are considered for election.
Since 2011, the Veterans and International Committees also vote to directly induct one candidate for each induction class.
Three committees were formed in 2011 to directly elect one candidate for each induction class:
*
American Basketball Association
The American Basketball Association (ABA) was a major men's professional basketball league from 1967 to 1976. The ABA ceased to exist with the ABA–NBA merger, American Basketball Association–National Basketball Association merger in 1976, ...
Committee – This committee was permanently disbanded in 2015, because it had fulfilled its purpose over the previous five years.
* Contributor Direct Election Committee
** Other committees may choose to elect contributors. For example, the 2014 class included two contributors.
* Early
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
Pioneers of the Game Committee
Individuals who receive at least seven votes from the North American Screening Committee or five votes from one of the other screening committees in a given year are eligible to advance to an Honors Committee, composed of 12 members plus rotating groups of 12 specialists (one group for female candidates, one group for international candidates, and one group for American and veterans candidates) who vote on each candidate. Each screening committee has a limited number of candidates it may submit to the Honors Committee—10 from the North American Committee, and two from each of the other committees. Any individual receiving at least 18 affirmative votes (75% of all votes cast) from the Honors Committee is approved for induction into the Hall of Fame. As long as the number of candidates receiving sufficient votes from a screening committee is not greater than the number of finalists that the committee is permitted to submit, advancement to the Honors Committee is generally pro forma, although the Hall's Board of Trustees may remove from consideration any candidate who "has damaged the integrity of the game of basketball".
[
To be considered for induction by a screening committee, a player, retired coach, or referee must be fully retired from that role for at least three full seasons.] The waiting period had originally been five years, but was changed to four years in December 2015, and to three seasons in December 2017. Prior to the induction class of 2018, referees had been eligible for induction after 25 years of full-time service, even if still active. Changes to the criteria for consideration of active coaches were also announced as part of the 2017 changes. Currently, coaches become eligible upon 25 years of full-time service at the high school level or above, or three seasons after retirement.[ Effective with the class of 2020, active coaches must meet the years of service requirement and be at least 60 years old.] No years of service criterion is required for those who have made a "significant contribution to the game of basketball". Sportswriters and commentators are elected as full-fledged members, in contrast to the Baseball Hall of Fame that places them in separate wings from the "real" Hall of Fame.[ So far the only broadcaster to earn both a ]Curt Gowdy Media Award
The Curt Gowdy Media Award is an annual award given by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to outstanding basketball writers and broadcasters. It is named for American sportscaster Curt Gowdy, who was the Hall of Fame's president for ...
and to be fully inducted into the hall of fame, has been Chick Hearn
Francis Dayle "Chick" Hearn (November 27, 1916 – August 5, 2002) was an American sportscaster who was the play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association for 41 years. Hearn is remembered for his rapid ...
who was inducted back in 2003.
Controversy
Aspects of the Hall's voting procedures, including voter anonymity, are controversial. While sportswriter voters of other major sports' Halls of Fame openly debate their choices, the Naismith Hall process is not transparent. The Hall has also been criticized for a tendency to enshrine active collegiate coaches and relatively obscure players while omitting some accomplished players and coaches.
The Hall has received backlash for excluding such players, coaches, and innovators. For example, the 24-second shot-clock had two developers for the National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...
in Leo Ferris
Leo F. Ferris (May 31, 1917 – June 1, 1993) was an American sports executive and businessman from Elmira, New York best known for helping invent the 24-second shot clock in the National Basketball Association.
Managerial career in basketball
...
and Danny Biasone
Daniel Biasone (22 February 1909 – 25 May 1992) was the founding owner of the Syracuse Nationals, an NBA team now known as the Philadelphia 76ers. Biasone, who was a childhood immigrant to the United States from Italy, was mostly known for advo ...
, but only the latter has been inducted into the Hall of Fame. Ferris was listed as an eligible nominee from 2017 to 2022. Tim Hardaway
Timothy Duane Hardaway Sr. (born September 1, 1966) is an American former professional basketball player. Hardaway played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Golden State Warriors, Miami Heat, Dallas Mavericks, Denver Nuggets a ...
is one player noted as being snubbed from the Hall, possibly due to his past comments on the LGBT community
The LGBT community (also known as the LGBTQ+ community, GLBT community, gay community, or queer community) is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay men, gay, bisexuality, bisexual, transgender, and other queer individuals united by a comm ...
despite support from peers involving his playing credentials; he was inducted in 2022. Nine of the ten NCAA Division I head coaches who won 800 games are currently in the Hall of Fame, with Cliff Ellis
Robert Clifford Ellis (born December 5, 1945) is an American college basketball coach, currently the head coach at Coastal Carolina University.
Going into the 2020–21 season, Coach Ellis's 800 NCAA Division I victories rank him 8th on the list ...
(894 wins) being the only exception. Leta Andrews
Leta Mae Rains Andrews (born July 7, 1937) is a retired American high school basketball coach who holds the record for the most wins by a high school basketball coach.
Biography
Andrews was born near Granbury and graduated from Granbury High Sc ...
, the all-time winningest coach in the United States (1,416 wins) has been a finalist five times but never inducted. Most notably, Eddie Sutton
Edward Eugene Sutton (March 12, 1936 – May 23, 2020) was an American college basketball coach. A native of Bucklin, Kansas, Sutton played college basketball at Oklahoma A&M (later Oklahoma State) and was a head coach at the high school, junio ...
waited twelve years after his retirement to be inducted. Ken Anderson, holder of the third-highest winning percentage for all college basketball coaches in history, has also never been inducted.
The Basketball Hall of Fame is very independent of its baseball and football counterparts, specifically for its induction and voting process. There are multiple different voting committees for the Basketball Hall: The International Committee, North American Committee, Women's Committee, Contributor Direct Election Committee, Early African-American Pioneers Committee, and Veterans Committee. Each committee makes their own individual selections for their inductees into the Hall. The members of these committees serve three-year terms. How the members get selected, and who they are, is virtually unknown to the public and is kept completely anonymous. Inductees do not know who inducted them, and those who inducted them supposedly never let them know.
According to Mark Purdy, a sportswriter and selection committee member for the Baseball Hall of Fame, the Basketball Hall of Fame's selection process is quite non-exclusive. He argues that the Baseball Hall of Fame first started inducting individuals in 1936, and Basketball did not start inducting players until 1959, but the Basketball Hall currently has more members than the Baseball Hall. Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame President and CEO, John Doleva, defends the exclusivity argument: "I'm used to explaining it and it's different than football and baseball," Doleva said. "Because football and baseball cover the men's game professionally, end of story. Naismith invented this game for everyone: men, women, high school, college, pro, coaches, players. We really represent the entire game, so we have a broader class."
Inductees
Since 1959, 401 coaches, players, referees, contributors, and teams have been inducted, with the most recent class entering on May 15, 2021. John Wooden, Lenny Wilkens
Leonard Randolph Wilkens (born October 28, 1937) is an American former basketball player and coach in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has been inducted three times into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, first in 1989 as ...
, Bill Sharman, Tom Heinsohn
Thomas William Heinsohn (August 26, 1934 – November 9, 2020) was an American professional basketball player. He was associated with the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) for six decades as a player, coach and broadcast ...
, and Bill Russell
William Felton Russell (February 12, 1934 – July 31, 2022) was an American professional basketball player who played as a center for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1956 to 1969. A five-time NBA Most Va ...
have each been inducted as both player and coach (Wooden in 1960 and 1973, Sharman in 1976 and 2004, Wilkens in 1989, 1998 and 2010, Heinsohn in 1986 and 2015, and Russell in 1975 and 2021). John McLendon
John B. McLendon Jr. (April 5, 1915 – October 8, 1999) was an American basketball coach who is recognized as the first African American basketball coach at a predominantly white university and the first African American head coach in any professi ...
has been inducted as both coach and contributor, entering in 1979 as a contributor and 2016 as a coach.
On three occasions, the Hall has inducted new classes without honoring a player – 1965, 1968, and 2007.
Other awards
In conjunction with the Final Four of each year's NCAA Division I
NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of College athletics, intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major ...
men's and women's
A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...
basketball tournaments, the Naismith Hall gives out several awards to college basketball athletes:
For men, the Hall presents awards to the top players in Division I at each of the five standard basketball positions.
* The Bob Cousy Award
The Bob Cousy Award presented by The College of the Holy Cross (or Bob Cousy Collegiate Point Guard of the Year Award) is an annual basketball award given by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to the top men's collegiate point guard. ...
, presented since 2004 to the top point guard
The point guard (PG), also called the one or the point, is one of the five Basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position. Point guards are expected to run t ...
. The award was originally open to players in all three NCAA divisions (I, II, and III), but is now restricted to D-I players.
* The Jerry West Award
The Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year Award is an annual basketball award given by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to the top men's collegiate shooting guard. The award is named after former Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard, ...
, presented since 2015 to the top shooting guard
The shooting guard (SG), also known as the two, two guard or off guard,Shooting guards are 6'3"–6'7"BBC Sports academy URL last accessed 2006-09-09. is one of the five traditional positions in a regulation basketball game. A shooting guard's m ...
.
* The Julius Erving Award
The Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Award is an annual basketball award given by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to the top men's collegiate small forward. Following the success of the Bob Cousy Award which had been awarde ...
, presented since 2015 to the top small forward
The small forward (SF), also known as the three or swingman, is one of the five positions in a regulation basketball game. Small forwards are typically shorter, quicker, and leaner than power forwards and centers but taller, larger, and stronger t ...
.
* The Karl Malone Award
The Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Award is an annual basketball award given by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to the top men's collegiate power forward. Following the success of the Bob Cousy Award which had been awarded ...
, presented since 2015 to the top power forward
The power forward (PF), also known as the four, is one of the five traditional positions in a regulation basketball game. Traditionally, power forwards have played a role similar to centers. When on offense, they typically play with their ba ...
.
* The Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award
The Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award is an annual basketball award given by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to the top men's collegiate center. Following the success of the Bob Cousy Award which had been awarded sinc ...
, presented since 2015 to the top center
Center or centre may refer to:
Mathematics
*Center (geometry), the middle of an object
* Center (algebra), used in various contexts
** Center (group theory)
** Center (ring theory)
* Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...
.
Each of the award winners is chosen by a Hall of Fame selection committee, plus the award's namesake.
The Hall, in cooperation with the Women's Basketball Coaches Association
The Women's Basketball Coaches Association is an association of coaches of women's basketball teams at all levels.
The organization was formed in 1981, with the goal of addressing the needs of women's basketball coaches.
The mission of the WBCA ...
, presents analogous awards for the top Division I women's players at each position. One has been awarded since 2000; the others were first presented in 2018.
* The Nancy Lieberman Award
The Nancy Lieberman Award, named for Basketball Hall of Fame legend Nancy Lieberman, was given annually by the Rotary Club of Detroit in the Award's first 14 years to the nation's top collegiate point guard in women's Division I basketball. Sue Bi ...
for the top point guard was the Hall's only women's positional award that was presented before 2018, having first been awarded in 2000.
* The Ann Meyers Drysdale Award, first presented in 2018 to the top shooting guard.
* The Cheryl Miller Award, first presented in 2018 to the top small forward.
* The Katrina McClain Award
The Katrina McClain Award is an award presented annually to the best women's basketball power forward in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I competition. It is named after Hall of Famer Katrina McClain-Pittman, a two-t ...
, first presented in 2018 to the top power forward.
* The Lisa Leslie Award, first presented in 2018 to the top center.
As with the men's awards, the selection committee for the women's awards includes each award's namesake.
The Hall also formerly presented the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award
The Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award was an annual college basketball award in the United States intended to honor shorter-than-average players who excelled on the court despite their size. The award, named in honor of James Naismith's daughter-in-la ...
to two college seniors—one male player no taller than , and one female player no taller than —determined to have been the nation's best student-athletes. The men's award, given since 1969, was voted on by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), and the women's, given since 1984, by members of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association
The Women's Basketball Coaches Association is an association of coaches of women's basketball teams at all levels.
The organization was formed in 1981, with the goal of addressing the needs of women's basketball coaches.
The mission of the WBCA ...
. Both awards were discontinued after the 2012–13 season.
See also
* Award share An award share is a statistic in baseball, basketball and other sports. It is usually used as part of a formula to determine if a player will likely be elected to the Hall of Fame in his particular sport. It is calculated by the number of points a ...
* EuroLeague Legend
* FIBA Hall of Fame
The FIBA Hall of Fame, or FIBA Basketball Hall of Fame, honors players, coaches, teams, referees, and administrators who have greatly contributed to international competitive basketball. It was established by FIBA, in 1991. It includes the " Samar ...
** List of members of the FIBA Hall of Fame
The FIBA Hall of Fame honors players who have shown exceptional skill at basketball, all-time great coaches, referees, and other major contributors to the sport.
Inductees
Key:
Male players
In total, 60 individuals, have been inducted as male ...
*
**
**
* National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame
The National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, located in Kansas City, Missouri, is a hall of fame and museum dedicated to men's college basketball. The museum is an integral portion of the College Basketball Experience created by the National ...
* Women's Basketball Hall of Fame
The Women's Basketball Hall of Fame honors those who have contributed to the sport of women's basketball. The Hall of Fame opened in 1999 in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. It is the only facility of its kind dedicated to all levels of women's ba ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall Of Fame
Basketball museums and halls of fame
Halls of fame in Massachusetts
History of basketball
Sports museums in Massachusetts
Basketball in Springfield, Massachusetts
Museums in Springfield, Massachusetts
Awards established in 1959