Posted by Sabrina B. @gametimegirl
Five former NBA All-Stars — Chris Mullin, Maurice Cheeks, Ralph Sampson, Jamaal Wilkes and Dennis Rodman– are among the 12-person list of finalists for the basketball Hall of Fame, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced Friday.
They are joined on the North American Screening Committee’s list by coaches Herb Magee (the all-time NCAA wins leader), NBA coaches Dick Motta and Tex Winter, contributor Al Attles and referee Hank Nichols. The Women’s Screening Committee list includes five-time U.S. Olympian Teresa Edwards and Stanford (and former U.S. national team) coach Tara VanDerveer.
The inductees will be announced April 4 in conjunction with the NCAA Final Four in Houston.They will be joined by one person elected by the ABA and Early African-American Pioneers committees. The induction ceremony is at the hall in Springfield, Mass., from Aug. 11-13.
Mullen was a five-time NBA All-Star after a standout career at St. John’s. Cheeks played in four All-Star games and won an NBA title for the Philadelphia 76ers.
Sampson was a three-time NCAA player of the year at Virginia and enjoyed an all-star career with the Houston Rockets. Wilkes won two national titles at UCLA and then added four more with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Rodman won five NBA titles and is one of the game’s top rebounders — and most eccentric characters.
Magee has won more than 900 games at NCAA Division II Philadelphia University, while Motta was the 1971 NBA coach of the year and won more than 1,000 games at nearly every level. Winter has been a coach since 1947, most famously as an assistant to Phil Jackson with both the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers. He is credited with creating the triangle offense.
Nichols worked six NCAA title games as an official, plus two Olympic games. Attles has been involved in the NBA for more than 50 years with the Golden State Warriors as a player, player-coach, coach, general manager, vice president and consultant.
Edwards, an All-American at Georgia, won four gold medals in the Olympics for the U.S. VanDerveer started at Stanford in 1978 and has won two NCAA titles and the 1996 Olympic gold medal.
-ESPN
