As the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2016 gets set to be inducted, Shaquille O’Neal — one of this year’s crop of legends — had this take on Wednesday:
Guess what? He’s not wrong. But it’s not the greatest. Here are the six best of the best:
6. 2002
Magic Johnson is the headliner, and he’s followed by coaches Larry Brown, Lute Olson and Kay Yow. Then there’s the late Drazen Petrovic, whose international career was incredible and who was a star-in-the-making in the NBA before he died tragically in a car accident. Impressive, but then you add the Harlem Globetrotters, who are still entertaining arenas full of people to this day. I’d argue that’s enough to put this class into the top six.
5. 1987
Rick Barry, Walt Frazier and Pete Maravich. Three of the NBA’s all-time giants (not in size). Bonus points go to Frazier for his fashion sense that continues to make headlines …
(Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images for Cantor Fitzgerald)
… and for the magic Pistol Pete showed off every single time he stepped on the court.
3. 2016
The combination of O’Neal, Allen Iverson and Yao Ming is already pretty stellar. But then throw in Sheryl Swoopes, Tom Izzo and Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf. Huge names, all around. Think about Iverson and O’Neal, who were titans both on and off the court. Iverson’s style — both his game and what he wore — was incredibly influential, and O’Neal will go down as one of the NBA’s greatest big men who become a brand of his own. It’s a class that represents the league truly exploding at the turn of the 21st century.
3. 2008
It’s only fitting that Patrick Ewing and Hakeem Olajuwon went in together. This class also included Adrian Dantley, Pat Riley and Dick Vitale. It’s combination of star power and influence — along with all the “Dipsy-doo Dunk-a-roos” you get from Dickie V. — that puts it a tick above ’16, but not by much.
2. 1980
Oscar Robertson, Jerry West and Jerry Lucas are in this group. It doesn’t get much better than that.
1. 2009
Look: If it was just Michael Jordan, it wouldn’t be a top six class. But there’s also David Robinson, John Stockton, Jerry Sloan and C. Vivian Stringer. You can’t argue with the game’s greatest player along with those four. Also, the induction ceremony produced one of the Internet’s greatest memes, so that’s worth something.
(AP Photo/Stephan Savoia, File)