trelos6 wrote:Cliff Hagan was nominated at #62. Lost a few close ones in the late 60’s and now is barely getting a mention.
I guess that’s how it goes.
Well in his case an argument was made against him based on WOWY that frankly is hard for us supporters of Hagan to address.
I haven't abandoned him as a serious candidate, but aside from the fact that it's hurt his candidacy for me personally, I also haven't felt like I've been able to make arguments since then that turn the heads of others.
I do think in the end: This was a guy who was clearly an outstanding scorer who played an absolutely essential starring role on the Hawks becoming a champion. That's no small thing.
I have more faith in him as a guy who can scale his scoring game to the highest levels of competition than I think I do any of the other current candidates, and so among the pure scorers like Dantley & Iverson, I'd favor Hagan.
I was pretty keen on Hagan over Cousy and now feel ambivalent. I like that Hagan's efficiency didn't fall off the same cliff, but it does mean something that Cousy was still relied upon by a team that kept winning championships. Additionally while I'll knock Cousy hard as a decision maker compared to the all-time great quarterbacks he's theorized to have been, I'm not going to claim that Cousy didn't have some great passing skills compared to Hagan.
Gobert remains a guy who really hasn't had success in the playoffs, and I'm waiting to see more on that before I'd seriously consider him over Hagan, or frankly a lot of other guys.
Rodman is pretty compelling though even if I have mixed feelings about him.