80sballboy wrote:Ask any expert out there and this Hall of Fame is a joke.
Name
one.
as compared to the other three major sports. I love the game. I've been to Springfield twice (before and after the renovation) and it still pales in comparison with Cooperstown, which actually has more meaning. I don't care what Bill Walton did in short period of time. Nobody is denying what a great COLLEGE player he was. As a pro, Walton played in 468 games in 10 years. In three of his four years in Portland, he put up Hall of Fame-caliber numbers but still only averaged about 50 games a year. He ended up averaging just 13.3ppg though he did average 10.5 rebounds and 2.2 blocks. That's a great role player, not Hall of Fame worthy numbers.
#1 -
Regardless of the fact that his career averages include his hobbled years...13.3 points, 10.5 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 2.2 blocks, and 0.8 steals
ARE Hall of Fame numbers.
#2 - You forgot how he won an MVP and
led his team to a championship, winning the Finals MVP. He's one of the best defensive rebounders of all time. He's one of the best defensive centers of all time. He's one of the best passing big men of all time. He was Sixth Man of the Year on one of the 2 or 3 best teams in NBA history.
#3 - Due to his injuries however, his career totals suffered, and so his HOF-ness needed a boost, for sure. Hence...
Why should college be included?
Because he is on the SHORT, SHORT, SHORT list for the title of
THE GREATEST COLLEGE PLAYER EVER. Christ. It's virtually a 3 or 4 way tie.
Do you not understand the significance of that?
Grant Hill averaged 19ppg in 13 seasons. 5 assists per game and 5.4 rebounds. He also made seven All-Star games. Borderline Hall of Famer at best, but he also helped lead Duke to two NCAA titles and a Final in 1994. Before injuries hampered his career, he was also known as an outstanding man-to-man defender in college and the pro's.
"Helped lead"? That was Laettner's team. There've been a
lot of
really good college players, and Grant Hill was one of them. Neither his NBA career nor his college career are even close to Walton's in terms of impact. Not. Even. Close. Look, maybe Grant Hill has a
halfway decent case to be
considered for the HOF. He was an elite player for 4 or 5 years. He's not in Bill Walton's league, however.
Look, I hate the Celtics and Duke but I know how great Grant was in his prime and I know in the few years that Walton was reasonably healthy, he was one of the best men in the game. Doesn't mean both belong in the Hall of Fame, which to me, should be the best NBA/PRO Basketball players in the world. If you want to include foreign players like Petrovic for his European days or Sabonis for his International play, fine. To include college is like the NFL giving credit to guys winning the Heisman if they had decent pro careers and inducting them.
But dude, you realize that college is "included" to the extent you're implying VERY VERY RARELY, right? Like, NEVER? It's probably because you underestimate how awesome Bill Walton was that you're assuming his college career was just as important to his induction as his NBA career -- an NBA career which was magnitudes better than "decent". And even then, again:
You're talking about maybe the single greatest college player of all time.
What would be the football equivalent? Earl Campbell, probably.
The Basketball HOF is
NOT a joke.