Tip-Off Timer counts down the days until the first game of the 2009-10 season. On Thursday, there are 5 days remaining. It takes five years of retirement for a player to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Make it 10 for Dennis Rodman, who always did things differently. He did win five NBA titles.
If you think that Michael Jordan caused a commotion with an unconventional acceptance speech last month when he headlined the Class of 2009, just wait until Rodman shows up in 2010 wearing a dress and lipstick.
Think of the theater. Think of the much-deserved attention it will bring to the greatest names in basketball history. Think of the fun.
Eligible for the first time now – those who have served their five years away – are Karl Malone, Scottie Pippen and Mark Jackson among others.
Malone, the second leading scorer in basketball history with 36,928 points, will join former Utah Jazz teammate John Stockton, who was inducted this year along with their coach, Jerry Sloan. Stockton and Malone formed one of the best tandems the game ever has seen.
Because Malone stayed in the game a year longer, trying unsuccessfully to chase a championship with the Lakers at age 41, he likely will enter the Hall a year behind his assist man.
Pippen, sidekick to Jordan through six NBA titles in Chicago, also is expected to follow his teammate by a year. Unlike Stockton and Malone, there was a clear distinction between the talents of another one of the league's finest dynamic duos.
Pippen, one of the most versatile players in basketball, may have benefited from Jordan's presence, but it also overshadowed his own greatness. He was an eight-time All-Defensive first-team selection, playing Robin to Jordan's Batman in Chicago.
Jackson didn't get the attention of Malone or Pippen, but he also left his mark on the game. He played for seven teams during a 17-year career, recording 10,334 assists, second most in NBA history behind Stockton.
After Jackson, though, the potential candidates in their first year of eligibility are thin. There is Charles Oakley, who played 14 years and collected more than 12,000 rebounds; Horace Grant, who won four NBA titles; and Avery Johnson, the point guard who won a title in San Antonio.
Which brings us back to Rodman, whose absence is as glaring as anyone not in the Hall of Fame today. Easily the best non-center rebounder in history, he won seven consecutive rebounding titles, most by wide margins.
He also was named the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year twice. Added to his five NBA titles, and – based on his basketball accomplishments -- it's almost impossible to deny him the honor.
Maybe it's time to look past his often zany, sometimes bizarre behavior, and focus on the way he played the game – with a passion that produced championships.
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
zany?
Hayes and Unseld are both in the top ten in rebounds. Consider them both small centers? Unseld came in second to Hayes. Same height as Rodman. Stronger/heavier. Rodman is not in the top ten in rebounds. But he was a good rebounder/defender, a lousy transvestite, and yes, should have a legit chance at the Hall of Infamy, of Drag Queens, and maybe at the Nba Hall of Fame as well. But Horace Grant won the same number of championships with the Bulls and Rodman did, and each won away from the Bulls, too. I think he`s about as good a basketball candidate, while not distracting from the basketball with burlesque brawler bizarre antics, so I don`t consider the ranks of solid Hall candidates to drop off until you look past Grant.
It's a tragedy that Rodman has been left out of the Hall of Fame and just proves what Peter Vescey was trying to articulate in his own rambling HOF acceptance speech.
Rodman has five NBA titles. Whether he's in the top ten in rebounding of all time doesn't matter Giles. He led the league seven times and was a two-time defensive player of the year award winner as well as named to the all-nba defensive first team seven times. There's no question he's a HOFer and it's sad that his off-the-court antics have kept him out.
Rodman belongs in the HOF period!!! He is a nut case but when it came to basketball he was one of the best.
Just think of that:
15+ Rebounding Seasons:
Shaq+KG+Superman = 0
Rodman = 6
Championshiprings:
Shaq+KG+Superman = 4
Rodman = 5
Defensivplayer-Award:
Shaq+KG+Superman = 2
Rodman = 2
Rod`s highest Reb-averrage was 18.7!!!!
11 Seasons with 10+ Reboundingaverrages!!!!
he was winning Reboundingtitles when guys like Shaq, The dream, Ewing, Mt.Mutombo and david robinson were around!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
during his time rodman was to rebounding what stockton was to assist, what the glove was to steals, what mutombo was to swats!
...and by the way: every player i mentioned already is (or will be) a hall of famer!!!!!!!
Jordan, it doesn`t matter to whether he should be in the Hall, I granted he should be considered, and suggested Grant should be considered too. It matters to the claim he was the best rebounding forward ever. He was not. The best rebounding forward IS in the top ten.
And while Karl Malone ranked below Elvin Hayes, he ranked ahead of
Wes Unseld. So Rodman is not the best recent rebounding forward, nor
even second rate all time. He is the best rebounding drag Queen,
ahead of Larry Johnson. That shouldn`t keep him out of the Hall, but
it also shouldn`t get him in. I`d probably pick him, but despite the
fun some folks would have, not because of it. And if he does get
picked, I hope he`ll go looking like he did when he won back to back
his first championships. Like the hard working Oklahoma stat, team
oriented, country athlete he was, not the big city joke he made
himself into with Da Bulls.
Bottom line, the Hall doesn`t take five Nba athletes each year, it takes maybe three, and this year those three will probably include Malone, Pippen, and Jackson, all of whom were more productive than Rodman. So I hope he gets consideration the year after next, but we`ll see.