HOUSTON — Two New York basketball legends made the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame yesterday, and another is potentially on his way.
Though Richie Guerin and Roger Brown were two of five men directly elected to the Hall yesterday, New York basketball fans hope they will be joined by former Knick and Net Bernard King when the full Hall of Fame class is announced at the Final Four in April.
King has been through this process before, as he has been named a finalist multiple times without getting in. Current Knicks star Carmelo Anthony, a longtime admirer of King and his game and who has studied his post moves, said he hopes King finally gets in.
“He should be in there, without a doubt,” Anthony said. “He should have been in there a long time ago.
“Some of my family are long time New York Knicks fans and the one thing we talk about is or they talk about because they’re older is they never got a chance to see Bernard King and Pat Ewing play together and what that would have been like. … He definitely belongs in the Hall of Fame.”
Those sentiments were echoed by fellow Knicks legend Earl Monroe, who was in town for yesterday’s announcement.
“He should have been in here a long time ago,” Monroe said. “This year, I’m quite sure he’ll be able to make it. He’s a guy that played his heart out for New York, and I feel for him, because I was actually on one of those committees early on, and we voted for him and he didn’t make it.
“He’s been on the cusp the last four years, and probably if he doesn’t make it this year there might be a rebellion in New York.”
Guerin, who was born in The Bronx, starred at Iona and made six All-Star teams with the Knicks, was voted in by the Veterans Committee, while Brown, who was a high school star before helping the Indiana Pacers win three ABA championships, was voted in by the ABA Committee.
In addition, to King, the Hall announced 11 other finalists: Gary Payton, Mitch Richmond, Tim Hardaway, Spencer Haywood and Maurice Cheeks as players; Rick Pitino, Tommy Heinsohn, Guy Lewis and Jerry Tarkanian as coaches; former women’s star and current South Carolina women’s coach Dawn Staley and North Carolina women’s coach Sylvia Hatchell.
Along with Guerin and Brown, the other direct elections to the Hall this year were early basketball pioneer E.B. Henderson, Brazilian star Oscar Schmidt — who the Nets actually drafted in the sixth round of the 1984 draft, though he never played in the NBA — and former deputy commissioner Russ Granik, who may have been best known for announcing the second-round picks each year in the NBA Draft.