Vince Carter is one step from the Basketball Corridor of Fame. Carter – who performed 22 NBA seasons, probably the most in league historical past – was amongst the Corridor of Fame finalists introduced Friday at All-Star weekend. The finalist nod got here in Carter’s first 12 months of eligibility.
Additionally among the many finalists: four-time WNBA champion Seimone Augustus, former Detroit Pistons guard and present Portland Path Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, former Los Angeles Lakers guard Michael Cooper, Phoenix Suns all-time main scorer Walter Davis, former Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan, and three nominees as contributors – former participant and coach Doug Collins, Indiana Pacers proprietor Herb Simon and NBA legend Jerry West, who was enshrined as a participant in 1980.
“Yearly is new. Yearly is completely different. We’re very pleased with this group,” mentioned Jerry Colangelo, Chairman of the Basketball Corridor of Fame. “And hopefully, we’ll have nice outcomes by way of voting.”
That voting takes place within the coming weeks, with the Class of 2024 set to be unveiled on the Last 4 in Phoenix on April 6. The category will probably be enshrined on Aug. 17 in Springfield, Massachusetts.
“Unbelievable,” Carter mentioned. “You look within the crowd, you see Corridor of Famers, and the chance … I imply, you’ll be able to’t beat that. You possibly can’t beat that. It is a proud second.”
Different finalists embrace Charles Smith, the winningest highschool head coach in Louisiana historical past; former Kansas coach Marian Washington; Australian guard Michele Timms; three-time NAIA champion at Tennessee A&I Dick Barnett; and six-time AAU champion coach Harley Redin.
Washington, Redin and Timms are all already within the Girls’s Basketball Corridor of Fame. Timms can also be a member of the FIBA Corridor of Fame.
Colangelo mentioned he was happy to see range inside the group of finalists – males, ladies, big-name gamers and small-college coaches amongst them.
“It is an honor that displays not solely particular person greatness but additionally the long-lasting affect on the sport itself,” Colangelo mentioned of being a finalist. “From the strategic brilliance of coaches to the unrivaled talents of gamers and the influential roles of a coach-broadcaster, an esteemed proprietor, and a dynasty-building government, every finalist embodies the head of basketball excellence.”
Nominees had been introduced in December. Amongst those that didn’t make the minimize this 12 months – Penny Hardaway, and the 2008 U.S. Olympic Workforce dubbed the “Redeem Workforce” after successful gold in Beijing 4 years after the People completed third on the Athens Video games.
There have been different honorees revealed by the Corridor on Friday as nicely.
JoAn Scott, the NCAA’s vp of males’s basketball, obtained the John Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award. She has been with the NCAA since 2013 after time at Nike and USA Basketball – the place, amongst different duties, she was the employees administrator for the unique Dream Workforce on the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
Additionally introduced Friday had been the recipients of this 12 months’s Curt Gowdy Awards, named for the legendary broadcaster and given to these deemed to have made “a big contribution to the sport of basketball.”
J.A. Adande, the director of sports activities journalism at his alma mater Northwestern, obtained the Curt Gowdy Award for print journalism. Longtime analyst and tv commentator Debbie Antonelli received for digital journalism. Slam Journal and the tv present “NBA Inside Stuff” obtained the awards for transformative media. They can even be honored throughout Corridor of Fame weekend.
