Nolan Richardson won more than 500 games in 22 seasons. (USATSI) The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame unites the legends from the sport at all levels, making it one of the prestigious honors in sports. On Monday, the inductees for the 2014 class were announced.
Alonzo Mourning and Mitch Richmond headline the group of players selected in this year's class, each following their successful college careers with multiple NBA All-Star selections and a world title for Zo in 2006.
Former Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson and former Maryland coach Gary Williams give the college game two well-respected names into the hall, along with the 1972-74 Immaculata University women's teams; winners of the first three Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) national championships.
Bob "Slick" Leonard (American Basketball Association), Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton (Early African Pioneers), Sanunas Marciulionis (International), Guy Rodgers (Veterans) and former NBA commissioner David Stern (Contributor) were the direct election inductees from each committee.
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2014! pic.twitter.com/aPzuOVFEs7
— Basketball HOF (@Hoophall) April 7, 2014Check out the full list of 2014 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductees below:
Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton: 1957 NBA All-Star and multi-sport athlete who became the second African-American player to sign a NBA contract when he joined the New York Knicks in 1950.
Bob "Slick" Leonard: National championship winning guard from Indiana (1953) who went on to win three ABA titles as a coach in the 1970's with the Indiana Pacers.
Sarunas Marciulionis: One of the first Europeans to break through in the NBA, Marciulionis also led the USSR basketball team to a gold medal in 1988 and then helped bring back the Lithuanian national team -- leading the squad to bronze medals in the 1992 and 1996 Olympics.
Alonzo Mourning: Consensus first team All-American at Georgetown, seven-time NBA All-Star, All-NBA first team in 1999 and world champion for the Miami Heat in 2006.
Nolan Richardson: NCAA Tournament champion (1994) at Arkansas, NABC and Naismith Coach of the Year, 2008 inductee to the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
Mitch Richmond: Six time NBA All-Star and NBA champion in 2002 with the Los Angeles Lakers. Richmond's jersey has been retired by Kansas State and the Sacramento Kings, and he penned a response to his induction here that is worth a quick read.
Guy Rodgers: Rodgers was a first team All-American at Temple (1958) before teaming up with Wilt Chamberlain on the Warriors. Between 1963-67, Rodgers was selected to the All-Star team four times and led the NBA in assists twice.
David Stern: Longtime NBA employee and former NBA commissioner.
Gary Williams: Williams returned to Maryland, where he played from 1964-67, in 1989 to take over as the program's head coach. He led the Terps to a national title in 2002 and captured three ACC regular season titles before stepping over to the administration side of things in 2011.
Immaculata College 1972-74: Head coach Cathy Rush led the Mighty Mac to three AIAW championships and helped pioneer the game of women's basketball. Rush was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008 and now the entire program gets to share in that honor.
Basketball Hot News
Kevin Johnson to lead players’ union search for new executive director
Well, at least now the NBA players union has decided on who is going to help them decide who should be executive director.
Former NBA player and current Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson will head up a search committee to find a new executive director for the National Basketball Players Association, the union announced on Monday.
That job has been vacant since Billy Hunter was let go 14 months ago following a scathing report that questioned his management and said he made preferential dealings with family members. The union press release says the goal is to have someone in place by the start of next season.
“Mayor Johnson is in a unique position as a former player and someone skilled in the politics of negotiations to lead this effort,” said union president Chris Paul in a released statement.
“I have a deep passion for the NBA and the promise it has for everyone connected to it,” Johnson said in his statement. “Everything I’ve been able to achieve in life was a result of embracing the opportunities that I had as an NBA player.”
Johnson is a polished consensus builder — remember he spearheaded the effort to keep the Kings in Sacramento — and those are the kinds of skills needed to help pick someone for a position where a lot of different people have varied interest in who gets selected. There are agents and others that want to push back against the owners after gains the owners made in the last collective bargaining agreement, while others see those percentage points as gone and want instead someone who can hold that line and find ways to increase the league’s revenue pool. Also, there has long been an “what is good for the elite players may not be good for the average player” tension in the union and in its bargaining sessions.
Whoever is ultimately selected for this job will be the one sitting across the table from Adam Silver in 2017 when one side — probably the owners but maybe the players — opts out of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement. A lockout that year seems likely, at least as viewed right now, and how that plays out will in large part be about who is picked and what their view of the negotiations.
There already has been one round of searches and this past All-Star weekend in New Orleans the union’s executive committee met with two candidates: David White, former director of the Screen Actors Guild; and Michele Roberts, a respected corporate attorney.
After those interviews the union has decided to open up the process again.
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