Why is Ralph Sampson in the HOF?

[a8bil]

That's an opinion that is hall doesn't agree with in the slightest.

Okay, so where is Hank Gathers? Christian Laettner? Joe Smith? Shane Battier? Glenn Robinson? Marcus Camby? ... there are so many great college players who have NO chance of ever getting into the HOF. Realistically...at best college experience is the cherry on top of what must have been an HOF NBA career. It is, respectfully, a terribly weak argument that has no evidentiary support.

Do you have anyone with a comparable college career for the purpose of this?

If you're asking because Sampson is in a category of 1, then how do you know it is factored, other than by acknowledging is NBA career didn't justify the recognition?

[dhsilv2]

Okay, so where is Hank Gathers? Christian Laettner? Joe Smith? Shane Battier? Glenn Robinson? Marcus Camby? ... there are so many great college players who have NO chance of ever getting into the HOF. Realistically...at best college experience is the cherry on top of what must have been an HOF NBA career. It is, respectfully, a terribly weak argument that has no evidentiary support.

Do you have anyone with a comparable college career for the purpose of this?

If you're asking because Sampson is in a category of 1, then how do you know it is factored, other than by acknowledging is NBA career didn't justify the recognition?

You make a good point here, but you chose a group of comps where they all have both a less accomplished college AND NBA career.

That said, by being an example of a 1 of a kind player, that in and of itself makes a case for him to be in the hall, does it not? And it certainly doesn't lower the bar if it's unicorn level.

[BK_2020]

That's an opinion that is hall doesn't agree with in the slightest.

Okay, so where is Hank Gathers? Christian Laettner? Joe Smith? Shane Battier? Glenn Robinson? Marcus Camby? ... there are so many great college players who have NO chance of ever getting into the HOF. Realistically...at best college experience is the cherry on top of what must have been an HOF NBA career. It is, respectfully, a terribly weak argument that has no evidentiary support.

Do you have anyone with a comparable college career for the purpose of this?

Someone who made one final four in 4 years, and one season didn't even make the NCAA? No, no college player has ever climbed such heights.

[moss_is_1]

Okay, so where is Hank Gathers? Christian Laettner? Joe Smith? Shane Battier? Glenn Robinson? Marcus Camby? ... there are so many great college players who have NO chance of ever getting into the HOF. Realistically...at best college experience is the cherry on top of what must have been an HOF NBA career. It is, respectfully, a terribly weak argument that has no evidentiary support.

Do you have anyone with a comparable college career for the purpose of this?

Someone who made one final four in 4 years, and one season didn't even make the NCAA? No, no college player has ever climbed such heights.

Conveniently leave out 3 time POY. Who has done that? Him and Bill Walton.

[dhsilv2]

Okay, so where is Hank Gathers? Christian Laettner? Joe Smith? Shane Battier? Glenn Robinson? Marcus Camby? ... there are so many great college players who have NO chance of ever getting into the HOF. Realistically...at best college experience is the cherry on top of what must have been an HOF NBA career. It is, respectfully, a terribly weak argument that has no evidentiary support.

Do you have anyone with a comparable college career for the purpose of this?

Someone who made one final four in 4 years, and one season didn't even make the NCAA? No, no college player has ever climbed such heights.

That's a team accomplishment. And in a freaking single elimination tourney to make it all the more dumb. He was college player of the year 3 straight seasons. Come on man.

[Myth]

There are some really dumb arguments in here for why people believe Sampson shouldn’t be in the HOF.

[Fencer reregistered]

If there were an nba HoF, Sampson would not be in it. He is deserving of the basketball HoF since it includes college.

Sampson accomplished a lot more in the NBA than fellow HoFers Arvydas Sabonis or Oscar Schmidt.

[Golden Knight]

Why Ralph Sampson?

Players like Dino Radja is in the HOF.

It's not the NBA HOF.

[KuruptedCav]

There are not lots of players with his numbers and accomplishments. He was a 3 time college player of the year, a rookie of the the year, a 4 time all star, and an all star MVP. The list of players with that basketball career is very short.

College should mean nothing... My bias trends toward giving more weight to all nba selections over all star selection. All star game recognitions get no weight. Most importantly, I don't give much weight to the "he did this in only ___ years". The window for all star recognition for anyone besides the fan favorite superstars is pretty narrow. It's the lebrons, Kobes, etc. who get All stars on reputation. The rest fight with a new upcoming crop each year to garner recognition. With that bias disclosed....look at some of the player on the outside looking in and tell me Sampson deserves his spot.

Shawn Marion -- 4x All star, 2x all NBA, all rookie team, and NBA champion -- No HOF
Chauncey Billups -- 5x all star, 3x all nba, 2x all defensive, Nba champion, and finals MVP -- No HOF
Buck Williams -- 3x all star, 4x all defensive, 1x all NBA, ROY, All rookie - no HOF
Rasheed -- 4x all star, nba champ -- No HOF
Tim Hardaway -- 5x all star, 5x all nba -- No HOF
Shawn Kemp -- 6x All star, 3x all nba -- No HOF
Marquez Johnson -- Five-time NBA All-Star, All-NBA First Team (1979), Two-time All-NBA Second Team, NBA All-Rookie First Team (1978)-- No HOF

Having watched Sampson in college and his entire career in the pros, my view is he was mostly hyped, and recognitions aside, his numbers show it. His ppg, his TS% and pretty much every other metric were terrible for an uber athletic 7'4" athletic freak. So many other great players have been excluded.

You asked the question, can you accept the answer?

It’s not the NBA Hall of Fame, it’s the Basketball Hall of Fame. It contains a half dozen players who never stepped foot on a NBA court, coaches, contributors, etc.

Limiting criteria to NBA play ignores not only college but the ABA, international leagues, female leagues, Olympic and FIBA play, and the host of people who use the sport to combat poverty, violence, etc.

You lose people like Chuck Cooper, Oliver Johnson, Sarunas Marciulionis, Louie Dampier, Arvydas Sabonis, Chris Mullins, Cynthia Cooper-Dyke, 1966 Texas Western Team, the All-American Redheads and the Harlem Globetrotters.

Sure, debate the merits of Ralph Sampson’s inclusion, but your narrow tailoring of what constitutes a Hall of Famer isn’t aligned with the mission of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM mobile app

[Winsome Gerbil]

There are lot of players who can point to his career and acceptance into the HOF as justification for their inclusion. His numbers are good, but HOF? dilutes the HOF in my view.

He's one of the more extreme cases of the HOF judging people on "magnitude of their greatness at their peak" rather than for career long productivity. Basically, he was once very great, and mildly iconic. And if part of that was at the college level, the HOF also can take into account college stuff since it's not a pure NBA HOF.

[Lalouie]

might be the basketball hof and not the nba hof.
regardless, i am hard on supposed "great centers" because i grew up with walton and alcindor.

but dam, when sampson was at virginia he came the closest to making me add another center to "alcindor/walton". of course,,,he fell short - no banner and being on the losing end of the biggest upset in ncaaM history. but he played either kansas or ohio st and that night there's been no center since worthier than ralph to join walton and alcindor

[ZombieKilla]

College achievements should never be enough to get one into a HOF of a sport. What's next, AAU MVPs are getting in?

It’s a BASKETBALL Hall of Fame.
That’s as general as it gets.
They could put a Little Dribbler’s player in if they wanted to.
A high school coach.
Whatever.
Anyone who contributed something major to the sport of basketball.

[SNPA]

There’s a great story of Bill Russell coaching Sampson and asked him to put his hands straight in the air, Russell then puts his arms up and has almost a full hand higher standing reach. This isn’t an indication of Sampson being stubby, it shows the tremendous physical traits of Russell.

[God Squad]

I'll never understand Realgm obsession with the certain players in the HOF.

[Tottery]

There is no NBA HoF. It's a basketball HoF, so college etc. counts. He had a fantastic college career and went on to be a multi All-Star and RoY in the NBA. Why wouldn't he be in the HoF?

[Knightfall]

If there were an nba HoF, Sampson would not be in it. He is deserving of the basketball HoF since it includes college.

Sampson accomplished a lot more in the NBA than fellow HoFers Arvydas Sabonis or Oscar Schmidt.

In no way is this to discredit the career or HOF status of Sampson, who deserves his spot. Rather to point out the ignorance and lack of knowledge in this person's quote about sabonis and Schmidt.

Schmidt scored 49,737 career points in the sport of basketball. Sit down.

Sabonisbhas a hell of a international career and players who played against him in his prime have said he may be the greatest center ever.

Sit down and learn about the game before saying stupid crap.

[Duke4life831]

If there were an nba HoF, Sampson would not be in it. He is deserving of the basketball HoF since it includes college.

Sampson accomplished a lot more in the NBA than fellow HoFers Arvydas Sabonis or Oscar Schmidt.

In no way is this to discredit the career or HOF status of Sampson, who deserves his spot. Rather to point out the ignorance and lack of knowledge in this person's quote about sabonis and Schmidt.

Schmidt scored 49,737 career points in the sport of basketball. Sit down.

Sabonisbhas a hell of a international career and players who played against him in his prime have said he may be the greatest center ever.

Sit down and learn about the game before saying stupid crap.

But you literally didnt argue a single thing against his point though. He didnt say Sampson accomplished more as a basketball player than those 2 guys. I mean he clearly states Sampson accomplished a lot more in the NBA than those 2 guys and that is objectively true.

For all the "sit downs" you had in your post, I would've thought that you had actually read his post...

[Fencer reregistered]

Sampson accomplished a lot more in the NBA than fellow HoFers Arvydas Sabonis or Oscar Schmidt.

In no way is this to discredit the career or HOF status of Sampson, who deserves his spot. Rather to point out the ignorance and lack of knowledge in this person's quote about sabonis and Schmidt.

Schmidt scored 49,737 career points in the sport of basketball. Sit down.

Sabonisbhas a hell of a international career and players who played against him in his prime have said he may be the greatest center ever.

Sit down and learn about the game before saying stupid crap.

But you literally didnt argue a single thing against his point though. He didnt say Sampson accomplished more as a basketball player than those 2 guys. I mean he clearly states Sampson accomplished a lot more in the NBA than those 2 guys and that is objectively true.

For all the "sit downs" you had in your post, I would've thought that you had actually read his post...

Thank you. I am now deleting my original response and instead pasting in my agreement with your much more polite version.