RealGM

Well deserved?

For sure, considering basketball HoF also includes college and the Fab 5 were the biggest thing in college basketball, perhaps ever.

He is probably there without the Fab Five but that puts him over the top.

The only reason to say he shouldn't be in is because he took $$$ and pretty much everything done at U of M was taken back. I didn't think he'd get in because of that, but the shift in mindset recently about how college athletes should be paid for producing billions in revenue it makes sense that they aren't looking at this the way baseball often looks at "cheating" and keeps players out of the Hall.

Being it's the Basketball HOF and his NBA career alone justifies induction, yes, it was deserved. He was one of not many big men with elite athleticism, ball handling and passing ability.

The basketball HOF isn't as restrictive as most other leagues, so I think this was a no brainer. Huge stats + very long "peak" + elite college team. He was in that 20/10/4 range for over a decade.

https://www.nbcsports.com/bayarea/kings/kings-robbed-2002-western-conference-finals-tim-donaghy-claims
He was the best player on a "near" championship team if the refs hadn't stolen the Kings-Lakers game from him. That seems sufficient in addition to being a top 10 player in the league for multiple years.

He had 5 great and fun seasons where he was a top player in his position and being a unique big at the time. I think it's deserved, he had a pretty big impact to the game and was a star for some time.