Friday, February 24

Spencer Haywood and the Hall

The Basketball Hall of Fame announced its list of candidates for 2012 induction today, and they failed to include a former Sonic who spent quite a bit of time proclaiming that he was going to be inducted this year:

Nope, Spencer won't get hired this year.

Reggie Miller, Rick Pitino, Bill Fitch, Katrina McClain, Maurice Cheeks, Bernard King, Dick Motta, Don Nelson, Hank Nichols, Ralph Sampson, Jamaal Wilkes and All American Red Heads make up the entire list, and no matter what you think of the merits of Ralph Sampson (I know, it's ridiculous, but, hey, that's the Hall), it can't be argued that somewhere along the lines, Spencer Haywood either 1) Got some bad info from someone or 2) Was blowing smoke.

(Also, if you had some bad shrimp yesterday and need to get it to come up, just think about this: Phil Knight is also getting inducted this year.)

What does this all mean? Very little, honestly, except for Spencer Haywood, obviously. It's not as though he can't get elected some time next year or the year after that, and given the Hall's byzantine and, frankly, nonsensical standards it's not beyond the realm of possibility that we could very soon see Haywood's name up there with Jabbar, Jordan, and Johnson.

Just not this year.

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