Russ Granik: One "Hall" of a Choice

SPRINGFIELD, Mass - September, 7, 2013 -- The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame will induct its Class of 2013. Included in the diverse group of players, coaches and contributors to the game are five "direct elect" Hall of Famers, in ABA great Roger Brown, little-known basketball pioneer Edward Henderson, NBA Veterans committee electee Richie Guerin and International great Oscar Schmidt. In addition, the rightful inclusion and the Hall of Fame's recognition of former NBA Deputy Commissioner Russ Granik is a wonderful message for the many behind-the-scenes contributors to the global game of basketball.

Granik helped build the court of dreams, the NBA

At times, players and media criticize the inclusion to the Hall for non-players of the game. The question arises when referees or executives are named to the hallowed Hall, and the questions often come with a streak of venom and unfounded criticism. At issue is a simple question, really. Should the Hall be for players only?  Should alll others, including coaches like Red Auerbach, refs like Earl Strom or Mendy Rudolph, contributors like league and team officials such as 24-second clock inventor and Syracuse Nationals owner Danny Biasone or the NBA's first Commissioner Maurice Podoloff, be designated for the same treatment as the media - a seperate wing?

I say no and I can highlight Granik as the reason why.

Granik's official Hall of Fame bio hints at the amazing impact he made.

"One of the most influential contributors to the game of basketball. Granik spent 30 years in the NBA league office starting as a staff attorney in 1976 and finishing his NBA career as the Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer. He was involved in every major negotiation in the NBA from 1980 to 2005 including television contracts, collective bargaining and league expansion. Overseeing the expansion of the game into the international realm as a key figure in working out the details of professionals (NBA players) competing in the 1992 Olympic Games and subsequent international competitions. He was the NBA’s chief negotiator on four collective bargaining agreements and has served as NBA Executive Vice President (1984-90), Vice President of USA Basketball (1989-96) and President of USA Basketball (1996-2000). He was also the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Chairman of the Board (2003-2007). In 2005, he received USA Basketball’s Edward S. Steitz Award," it says.

The bio just hints at the significance of such a key contributor to the game of basketball. 

Why?

Russ Granik was a quiet, but powerful workhorse behind the meteoric rise of the NBA to global prominence in the 1990s. Most importantly, he was a champion for every level of the game of basketball.  While his accolades and biography list major NBA contributions such as his negotiations of record-setting TV deals, resolved labor stalemates which resulted in trend-setting, progressive Collective Bargaining and Anti-Drug Agreements with the NBA's players, Granik's most significant contributions resulted from his work with the NCAAs, FIBA, the international governing body of basketball, global leagues, federations, Euroleague Basketball, and, most importantly, USA Basketball. 

Under Granik's watch, seemingly unresolvable problems with regard to mending fences, unraveling "red-tape," and creating consensus for the betterment of the overall game of basketball became everyday by-products of a career built on creating goodwill, strong relationships and dealing with people as one would like to be dealt with during a negotiation. That as a professional, a person who is respected and treats people with respect. In essence, Granik is a thoroughly decent human being and he treats his constituents with equal respect. Granik walked softly but carried a resume that could literally part a Sea of Red Tape and, unlike many who only barked of problems while surfacing and creating more problems, Granik would grab a No. 2 pencil, a phone and call upon years of goodwill to resolve most problems before anyone else knew they even existed.

His work in building the NBA-FIBA player pacts, his early recognition of powerful allies with the likes of FIBA Secretary General Borislav Stankovic, the late Coach Alexander Gomelski of Russia and BIG EAST Commissioner/NCAA veep/USA Basketball power-broker (the late) Dave Gavitt, might've earned him induction on its own. Certainly, without Granik's hard work, negotiating skills and willingness to give and take just the right amount, allowed for (former) Eastern Bloc European players such as Drazen Petrovic of Croatia (then Yugoslavia), Sarunas Marciulionis of Lithuania (then of the USSR) and Aleksander "Sascha" Volkov of the Ukraine (then of the USSR) to be the first true NBA global ambassadors, coming to America complete with a bevy of gold and silver Olympic medals but with "game" and a "take it to the hoop" approach never seen before on the international basketball scene.

At the time, the NBA had its Georgi Gluchkov of Bulgaria and long had Henry "Hank" Biasetti, a Canadian player of Italian descent who actually suited up in the NBA's very first game ever, an epic bout between the New York Knickerbockers and the Toronto Huskies in the way back machine that was 1946. But, the league - much because of Granik - was quickly thrust into a modern day model for immigration and exportation for talented ballplayers who wanted to travel to find a good game of hoops. While some may call it a theoretical jump, without Granik's work, the Petrovic/Marciulionis/Volkov era internationals would've been sitting in their rocking chairs wondering if they could've ever driven the lane to challenge the likes of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson or Larry Bird. The confidence instilled upon a legion of countrymen and Euro-Latin-Australian-Asian counterparts might never have gathered the confidence to say, "Yes, I can do that."

The result might've put Dirk Nowitzki in goal for the German Bundesleague F.C., it might've made Manu Ginobili a striker, Tim Duncan a swimmer or Yao Ming rocket scientist, instead of a Houston Rocket all-star center. And, that, would've been a shame.

Brian McIntyre to Receive HoF Honor

This breaking news from the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield is quite welcome news considering the terrible devastation experienced by the birthplace of basketball and many of the surrounding towns in the Pioneer Valley region...

A very special note of congratulations to the one and only Brian McIntyre:

SPRINGFIELD, Mass - June 2, 2011--NBA Executive Brian McIntyre, who has spent over 30 years in the league office, has been selected to receive the 2011 John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, it was announced today.

The Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award was instituted by the Board of Trustees of the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1973 and is the most prestigious award presented by the Hall of Fame outside of Enshrinement. Named in honor of Hall of Famer John W. Bunn (Class of 1964), the first chairman of the Basketball Hall of Fame Committee who served from 1949-1964, the award honors coaches, players and contributors whose outstanding accomplishments have impacted the high school, college, professional or international game.

“Brian McIntyre has dedicated his stellar professional career to the NBA and the game of basketball, making him an outstanding recipient of this year’s John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award,” said John L. Doleva, President and CEO of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.  “Since joining the NBA, Brian has worked in almost every capacity to help enhance the sport globally and impact the overall growth of the league.”

“The Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award was created to honor our colleagues who have made significant contributions in basketball,” said Jerry Colangelo, Chairman of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Board.  “Over the last three decades, Brian has had a critical role in developing the game around the world through his role at the NBA and helping to develop and implement many of the league’s most important global assets.”

McIntyre, who is in his 33rd NBA season, currently holds the title of Senior Communications Advisor to NBA Commissioner David Stern.

"Few people have done more to help mold the history of the NBA than Brian McIntyre,” said Stern. “During his tenure, he oversaw the NBA's PR efforts for every major event -- from the NBA Draft Lottery to All-Star Weekend to The Finals -- and was intimately involved in the league's international expansion and in the creation of the WNBA and the NBA Development League. More importantly, however, Brian has been a true friend and unwavering in his loyalty to the NBA. I can think of no one more worthy of the John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award. On behalf of the entire NBA family, I congratulate him on this truly deserved honor.”

The NBA hired McIntyre in November 1981 as Director of Public Relations after three and a half years as Director of Marketing and Media Information for the Chicago Bulls. He was promoted to Vice President, Public Relations in March 1989. Under McIntyre, the Public Relations Department expanded to become the Communications Group, and he was named Senior Vice President in November 1997.

In addition to managing public relations activities for every major NBA event from 1982 through 2010 and the emergence of the WNBA and NBA Developmental League, he also created numerous NBA awards, including the Defensive Player of the Year award, the Sixth Man Award, and the Most Improved Player. He was responsible for initiating White House visits by NBA Championship teams, creating a media training program for players, instituting the use of satellite postgame feeds at major NBA events, and a host of other initiatives. In conjunction with USA Basketball, McIntyre has been actively involved in public relations planning, activities, and onsite execution of the 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, and 2008 Olympics and the 1994, 2002, and 2006 World Championship of Basketball.

A graduate of Loyola University of Chicago, McIntyre has served as a member of the FIBA (International Basketball Federation) News Council and on the USA Basketball Media Advisory Committee. He was inducted into the Loyola (Ill.) Academy Athletic Hall of Fame in 1999, and the National Association of Black Journalists honored him with a Merit Award in 2009. The Professional Basketball Writers Association honored McIntyre in 2010 when the organization named its annual media relations tribute "The Brian McIntyre Media Relations Award." He is on the Board of Advisors for Loyola University's School of Communications.

McIntyre will be presented the John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award during the 2011 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame ceremonies, to be held at the “Hall of Fame Family Reunion Dinner” on Thursday, August 11. The annual Enshrinement Ceremony will be held on Friday, August 12.

Satch

Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe says it better than anyone.  It is my pleasure to congratulate my friend and former co-worker at the NBA, Tom "Satch" Sanders on his induction to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Here is Ryan's tribute to Satch via a Boston Globe column today:

Satch Sanders Induction, A Nod to the Working Man:

HOUSTON — You had to feel sorry for Dennis Rodman, still desperate for attention five weeks shy of his 50th birthday.

There he stood yesterday, a newly elected member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He had the baseball cap on tilt, the shades, the earrings, the lip piercings, the garish shirt, and an indescribable vest with some scarf-like thing draped around his neck.

And directly next to him stood Thomas “Satch’’ Sanders, The Coolest Man In the World. Talk about a mismatch.

Satch, as always, exuded class. He had on a dark suit, and he was wearing his trademark bow tie. It goes without saying that, at 72, he looks as if he could step on the court tonight and hold Kevin Durant to 10.

But Satch, ever gracious, paid tribute to Rodman as someone he could relate to — on the court. Were they not both members of the same hoop fraternity?

“Dennis Rodman is a man who did all the quote-unquote dirty work, did he not?’’ Satch pointed out. “And all he did was win.’’

Satch Sanders likewise did the dirty work for the Celtics. What Red Auerbach, Bill Russell, and Tom Heinsohn wanted out of him was to guard the other team’s high-scoring forward, hit the boards, set picks, and snack on a few offensive crumbs here and there. Somebody had to do it, and Sanders did it well enough to help those ’60s Celtics teams win eight championships.

No man could be more comfortable in his own skin or be more realistic about just where he fits into the Big Scheme Of Things in both Celtics and NBA history. He was not a star. He never even had a faint sniff of an All-Star appearance. He was a worker bee, and he was, well, cool with that.

That’s why this Hall of Fame thing will take a while to settle in.

“I never expected this,’’ he said. “Not after all those years went by and all the others went in. I figured the time had certainly passed for me. The reality is that I’m catching up to the other guys again. That’s the truth of it.’’

By “the others’’ he means the 11 teammates of the ’60s and ’70s (he played from 1960-73) who have preceded him in Springfield. The only prominent members of the bunch that won every available title in the ’60s, except for 1967, who do not reside in the Hall of Fame are Jim Loscutoff and Don Nelson (who may yet be enshrined as a coach).

The only catch is that Satch officially will be enshrined as a “contributor’’ in recognition of his postcareer accomplishments, which include his service to the NBA (where he ran the rookie transition program for many years) and his work with such entities as the Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern. He already has been given the Hall’s John Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award. Now he gets the full treatment.

Satch and quasi-soulmate Rodman are two of a 10-member class that will be inducted Aug. 12. The others: University of Georgia, WNBA, and Olympic great Teresa Edwards; Stanford and Olympic coach Tara VanDerveer; Lithuanian stalwart Arvydas Sabonis; renowned coach and innovator Tex Winter; Harlem Globetrotter clown prince Reece “Goose’’ Tatum; ABA and NBA great Artis Gilmore (who had a brief stint with the Celtics); Philadelphia University coaching legend (winner of more than 900 games) and famed shooting instructor Herb Magee; and St. John’s star, NBA great, and Dream Teamer Chris Mullin.Now they can call Sanders a “contributor,’’ but once you’re in, you’re in, and Satch is going to be in there as an inspiration to all those dirty-work guys at every level. Let the world know that Sanders was a player of true distinction.

When he came to the Celtics as their first-round pick in 1960, he was jumping onto a very fast-moving train. The Celtics had just won their third title in four years. No rookie had made an impact the year before. It was not like he was made to feel, you know, needed.

He had been an offensive star as a 6-foot-6-inch center at New York University, but he quickly surmised that defense would provide the key to Auerbach’s heart. And so he outfitted himself with elbow pads and a pair of foam rubber knee pads he fashioned himself, the better to protect his body once he began the dives on the floor he was sure would win over his new coach.

“Red took one look at my elbow pads and knee pads and screamed, ‘Hey! I don’t want guys like you on the team. You’re soft. A pansy. Get rid of ’em,’ ’’ Satch recalled.

He didn’t have to. “Jungle Jim Loscutoff took them and hid them somewhere at Babson Institute, where we trained,’’ Satch explained.

The story eventually culminated in a you-can’t-make-this-stuff-up development. A number of years ago Satch was back at Babson, and he was overwhelmed with curiosity. He poked around in the ceiling ducts and guess what he found? No, really.

“They hadn’t held up too well over the years,’’ Satch said of the elbow and knee pads that had spent more than three decades hidden at Babson.

The pads might not have held up well, but Satch has. My unsolicited advice to the other inductees concerning the night of Aug. 12: don’t stand too close to Satch Sanders. For you, too, will be involved in a mismatch.

The Famous and the Not So Famous on the Road to Springfield

Here are two good stories by two different journalists in two very different parts of the country.  The columns celebrate the 1960 and 1992 US Olympic Teams, both being enshrined at teh Basketball Hall of Fame tonight (7pm ET - NBA TV).


The first is from the Colorado Springs Gazette, the hometown paper fore the United States Olympic Committee and USA Basketball while the second is from The New York Times.  As you might expect, the Gazette addresses the "Not So Famous" as the Times writes on the very "Famous."


Haldorson won 2 gold medals, and today he's heading into the Basketball Hall of Fame
By MATT WILEY
THE GAZETTE

Arguably the greatest men’s Olympic basketball team of all time will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday.

No, not the 1992 “Dream Team” that featured Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird – the 1960 squad that featured college stars Walt Bellamy, Jerry Lucas, Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, and Colorado Springs resident and two-time gold medalist, Burdette Haldorson.
“I was fortunate enough to play in two Olympics,” Haldorson, 76, said from his Widefield home Saturday. “On the ’56 team with Bill Russell we just basically routed everybody. In ’60 it was a little tougher because the European teams were getting better.”

The ’60 team compiled an 8-0 record at the Rome Games and won by an average of 42.4 points. Similar numbers to the “Dream Team” that won by 43.8 in Barcelona and was also 8-0.

The biggest difference between the teams is that the ’92 team was the first to feature players who were in the NBA.
“I’m kind of sad about it at times but I think that is what had to happen,” Haldorson said of using professionals. “The European teams were playing their pros, so I think that is what we had to do also.”

Haldorson didn’t like seeing Team USA struggle and he is equally adverse to seeing the University of Colorado stuck in mediocrity.

As a senior at CU in 1954-55, the 6-foot-9 first-team All-American led the Buffs to the Final Four. He averaged 23.9 points. CU lost to eventual champion San Francisco, which was led by Russell.

“I think (Jeff) Bzdelik did a very good job while he was there,” Haldorson said of the Buffaloes. “I think he got them turned around. They were really in a funk for a number of years and just couldn’t get anything going. Unfortunately he decided to leave, but I can’t blame him; he went to a good program. They really brought in a good young coach (Tad Boyle). I think they are on the right track.”

Haldorson never played in the NBA, but played AAU ball with a team owned by Phillips Petroleum. After his playing days were over, he began working for Phillips.

“We came down here (to Colorado Springs) in ’72 because I went into the gasoline distributing business,” he said. “Everybody went their separate ways. I’ve seen a few of them over the years.”

This week will mark the first time Haldorson will see some of his former teammates. In total, 17 members of the Haldorson family will be on hand in Springfield, Mass.

“It’s a real honor and I am really looking forward to going back there and seeing some of the guys I haven’t seen since 1960,” he said. “I’ve never been back to the Hall of Fame either. It will be fun.”

Although he hasn’t kept in touch with his ’60 teammates, Haldorson appreciates that the group is being honored together.

“I am going in as a member of a team and I think that is great because basketball is still a team game,” he said. “(The NBA) gets pretty individualized at times, but it is still a team game.”

As for the “Dream Team”, Haldorson wouldn’t say if the 1960 team was better than the 1992 team.

“By ’92, that’s 32 years later, the game had changed an awful lot,” Haldorson said. “Basketball is played today with better athletes and much easier rules. Back when I played you had to dribble the ball. You couldn’t carry it and move it all around. If you took one step you better be passing or getting rid of the ball. Now you can take two or 2½ (steps). It would be kind of fun playing with these rules they play with today.”

Read more: Here



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Stepping Out of Jordan’s Shadow, Pippen to Enter Hall
 
By HARVEY ARATON

On the eve of Scottie Pippen’s induction into basketball’s highest society, Phil Jackson recalled him as “the ultimate team player.” Quite the homage from Jackson, the former Chicago Bulls coach who once watched incredulously as Pippen sat down with 1.8 seconds left in a deadlocked playoff game against the Knicks and refused to get up.

It was 1994 — Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals — and Pippen wanted the ball for the last shot because Michael Jordan, on a baseball sabbatical, was not around to take it. Jackson instead nominated Toni Kukoc, a European legend but an N.B.A. rookie, who made the winning jumper.

“A lot of people thought the 1.8-second ‘denial’ would define Scottie’s career,” Jackson wrote in an e-mail. Instead, Pippen’s entry into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame Friday night for his 17-year, six-championship career will be the final answer to those who argued he never, ever, would live down the episode of Sitting Bull.

“It was a learning moment in his life,” Jackson wrote. “He came back as a leader of teams for another decade.”

In the Bulls’ locker room that night, Bill Cartwright, the veteran center, stood up and said, “Scottie, how could you?” In a telephone interview, Cartwright said: “My thing for Pip was that with Michael gone, it was his team, his time to lead. And when things are at their worst, you’ve got to be at your best.”

Pippen apologized, Cartwright said, and played brilliantly as the Bulls evened the series and took a one-point lead into the final seconds of Game 5 in New York. With the jump-shooter Hubert Davis squaring up in the area of the key, the 6-foot-8 Pippen emerged from the lane, extending the long arm of an eight-time all-league defender, who took on the toughest assignments, position be damned.

Davis rushed the shot and missed it, but Pippen grazed his fingertips well after the release. A referee named Hue Hollins awarded Davis free throws that would live in infamy almost everywhere outside New York. The Knicks survived and took the series in seven games, leaving the Air-less Bulls, a surprise 55-victory team that season, crestfallen but certain they were much more than their reputation as a subordinate band of Jordanaires.

“If we had won that game and then the series and gone on to win the title that year, the whole legacy of Michael would have been different,” said Jerry Reinsdorf, the Bulls’ owner, who recently hired Pippen as an organizational ambassador. “But because Michael had left and came back and then we won again, he was given all the credit, and sometimes it was unfair, especially to Scottie.”

As the years passed, Pippen was acknowledged as a valued member of the so-called supporting cast but was, in a larger sense, undervalued as merely the largest moon in orbit of the planet Michael. But to judge Pippen’s legacy against the league’s most lethal weapon and its first corporately supported powerhouse was always beside the point or missing it entirely, said Don Dyer, who coached Pippen at the University of Central Arkansas.

Nobody recruited Pippen when he graduated from high school, Dyer said, not even the junior colleges. “His high school coach had played for me in college,” he said. “He called me and said, ‘I have no idea if he can play at your level, but I’d appreciate it if you gave him a look.’ Scottie’s brother brought him over; he was maybe 6-2, 145 pounds, an athlete but not really what you’d call a basketball player.”

Pippen was the youngest of 12 children and grew up in a two-room house in rural Hamburg, Ark. His father, Preston, a mill worker, was disabled by a stroke and became unable to work when Pippen was a teenager. Dyer got him into school on a Pell grant and put him to work as the team manager until a position on the team opened during the season.

He cleaned lockers, handed out towels. “And now he’s going into the Hall of Fame — and that’s amazing,” said Dyer, who will attend the ceremony in Springfield, Mass., at the invitation of Pippen.

Preps to pros, rarely has an N.B.A. great emerged from such humble beginnings. Far from the clichéd Jordan comparisons, there lies the essence of the Scottie Pippen story.

According to Jerry Krause, the former general manager who traded for Pippen in a prearranged draft-day deal with Seattle, it was a sight to behold, watching Jordan punish the rail-thin and raw Pippen in practice.

“One of the smartest things Doug Collins did was match them up,” Krause said, referring to the Bulls’ coach before Jackson. “And I mean Michael just killed Scottie, beat the hell out of him. But it was the best thing that could have happened to Scottie, winding up with Michael in Chicago. He had to get stronger. He had to learn to compete.”

Jordan prepped him for bully opponents like the Pistons and later the Knicks, who focused on Pippen as a player who could be physically and verbally whipped. They were only encouraged to push harder, taunt louder, when he begged off a 1990 conference finals game against the Pistons with a migraine.

“He had that label put on him; he definitely was a target of ours,” said John Starks, the former Knick who introduced himself to Pippen during the conference semifinals in 1992 by clotheslining him, knocking him silly — accidentally, of course, Starks said — on a fast break at Madison Square Garden.

“I think part of it was because he didn’t show his emotions and he’d get that frown on his face,” Starks added. “But to his credit, he stood up. He showed in ’94 he could step up on his own. He’ll always live in Michael’s shadow, but, hey, they were a great Batman and Robin duo.”

Robin fought some battles independent of Batman, feuding with Bulls management over money, dealing with a gun possession charge and conducting messy and litigious business affairs well after his playing days.

Was an involvement in the purchase of a Gulfstream II jet in 2002 that bled Pippen of several million dollars a symbolic statement that he, like Jordan, believed he could fly?

Maybe he couldn’t, not like Jordan, but Jackson said Jordan would now admit that without Pippen he might have been the LeBron James of his day, searching for a championship fit in some other city.

“When Michael came back from the Barcelona Olympics, he came into our coach’s office and said that Scottie was the best player on the team,” Jackson said.

A debatable statement, but suffice to say that Pippen is the most credentialed player of an estimable 2010 Hall of Fame individual class that includes Karl Malone, Dennis and Gus Johnson (no relation) posthumously, the women’s star Cynthia Cooper, and Bob Hurley Sr., a New Jersey high school coaching legend.

Just Pippen’s luck, the Hall will also induct two gold-medal winning Olympic teams from 1960 and 1992, meaning that he will get in twice but that Jordan is also expected back after his own individual induction last year.

No worries. Jordan is also Pippen’s planned presenter. Viewed in its proper context, it could be no other way.

Basketball Hall of Fame: A Year-Round Jewel

See this feature from Springfield's local papeer, the Springfield Republican - and its Masslive.com online site.  It features the year-round value of the Hall to the City of Springfield and the Pioneer Valley region.  Good reading:

Who doesn’t want to stand at Center Court in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and pretend they are shooting the final buzzer beater to win “the Championship game” under the watchful eyes of Hall of Famers in the Honors Ring above?
“Hardly anyone,” said John L. Doleva, president and CEO of the Hall of Fame, which moved into its “new” space just doors down from its former home on West Columbus Avenue in Springfield back in 2002.

Doleva said those who have only visited the old Hall of Fame will be pleasantly surprised to learn that today’s shrine for everything basketball is “designed to reflect the energy and excitement of today’s game” including men’s and women’s basketball at every level: high school, collegiate, amateur, Olympic, and professional.

“Everything is built around our full-size basketball Center Court where there is non-stop activity, and we are constantly changing our exhibits and galleries, plus we have guest appearances that make each visit unique,” said Doleva.
Young or old, male or female, there is something at the Hall of Fame to appeal to the basketball lover in everyone.
“Kids gravitate toward activities on Center Court, whether it’s a clinic by guest coaches, a Hall of Famer or basketball celebrity, a free throw shooting contest, or even a forum about key events in basketball history. And after events like these, kids can’t wait to just shoot the ball on our historic Center Court floor,” he added.

As for adults, Doleva said they love to revisit their favorite era of basketball players and events throughout the museum.
“I often see different generations of the same family educating others in their family about their favorite player, team, or moment in the game. Adults also like to share with their kids the stories of achievement and the obstacles Hall of Famers had to concur to become the best in the game,” he added.

Peter McCarty of York, Maine, who visited the Basketball Hall of Fame with his kids for the first time in July, shared Doleva’s thoughts on the educational aspects of the Hall of Fame.
“The Hall of Fame offers a great learning opportunity for kids, not just about today’s popular players, but about the history of the game and those who made it what it is now,” said McCarty.

Still when asked about his experience at the museum, McCarty’s son, Jackson, 10, said his definite favorites were “shooting hoops and the virtual basketball game.”
New exhibits on Michael Jordan and the USAB Basketball tribute are current favorites at the Basketball Hall of Fame, but each gallery has a unique flavor and appeal celebrating the game, noted Doleva.

The museum’s top floor is the Honors Ring, where visitor can view plaques and biographies of the more than 290 individuals and teams who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame. There is also a timeline of world history and basketball history since the game’s invention in 1891 by Dr. James Naismith in Springfield. The second floor is considered the heart of the exhibits where visitors will find five different galleries called The Game, Players, Media, Coaches and Teams. There are displays, memorabilia and artifacts in each gallery, more than enough to bring you back for another day to continue your journey into basketball’s illustrious history.

The Hall of Fame also has interactive activities in almost every gallery, especially on the second floor where you can play one-on-one in virtual hoop against some of today’s best players, as well as find regular video games and become a sportscaster in the Media gallery, not to mention plenty of others.
“Visitors really enjoy seeing themselves on television as they read from a teleprompter,” said David Bolster of West Springfield, an attendant at the Hall of Fame whose regular station is at the Media gallery.
“But sometimes I do move around and people often ask me, especially in the Honors Ring, how you get enshrined,” he added.
And, there’s still more at the Hall of Fame in the form of a theater which you don’t need a ticket to visit and that runs basketball videos, television shows and more.

Summer hours are Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Admission is $16.99 for adults, $13.99 for seniors age 65 and over, $11.99 for youths 5-15, and kids under 5 are free.

Scottie's Journey to the Hall ... to be met at Gate 3 1/2 by MJ

The editors of Bulls dot com - Adam Flack - built a tribute section to Scottie Pippen starting with his introductory press conference for the Hall back at the Final Four in Indianapolis.  They tapped the archives and have this section ready for this week's Hall of Fame Enshrinement ceremony in Springfield:







From Socks and Jocks to Springfield, Mass.  Read this story - Click .http://www.nba.com/bulls/history/pippenhof_dyer_100808.html

Some "ART" and "SOLE" springing eternal in Springfield

Check out the artwork popping up all around the town in Springfield, Mass - the birthplace of basketball.

'Art and Soles' artist Mike Manzi finishes his sneaker in Springfield

Mason Square in Springfield will be Center of Hoops on Sunday

The Springfield Republican and their online site --  MassLive.com -- have done a tremendous job of advancing the 2010 Basketball Hall of Fame Enshrinement, scheduled for next Friday night, August 13th.

One of the noteworthy activities leading up to the Enshrinement is the dedication of a monument at Mason Square (State and Sherman Streets) where the very first game of basketball was played.  

Here is an interesting story on the concept and the monument:

There are many ways the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame has collaborated with the Springfield community for an eight-day celebration of Enshrinement 2010 – including the unveiling of a monument on Sunday at 2 p.m. in Mason Square that marks the exact spot where basketball was first played.

Invented by Dr. James Naismith, basketball was first played on Dec. 21, 1891, in a YMCA gymnasium on State and Sherman Streets in Springfield’s Mason Square.

Leading the charge to bring a monument to Mason Square celebrating his neighborhood’s role in the history of basketball was Aaron Williams.

“We were instrumental in assisting Aaron Williams in turning his vision into a reality with a monument that surpassed his and his neighborhood’s wildest dreams,” said John L. Doleva, president and CEO of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

But before telling the rest of the story, it is first important to travel back in time three years ago when Doleva was approached after Enshrinement ceremonies by the vice president of the Chicago Bulls.
“He told me it was a great Enshrinement, but expressed his dismay that no one could show him where the first actual game was played, and that always stuck in my mind, “ said Doleva.
“Then Aaron called me with his idea and I thought it was time to put some heads together,” he added.
The result was a major project to recognize Mason Square’s unique place in basketball history that had broad and enthusiastic support throughout Springfield from the neighborhoods, the city, and the Basketball Hall of Fame.

“I am just feeling so honored to be participating in this project and happy that it will be ready for this month’s Enshrinement,” said Williams, who got the project rolling with the support and encouragement of neighborhood businesses and civic leaders.

Enter Brian Hanlon into the picture.

“Brian is our official sculptor and a wonderful friend of the Hall,” said Doleva.
The master sculptor has created iconic physical awards for the Hall of Fame including the “Spires” given to each Hall of Famer upon their induction.

“John approached me with the challenge of creating something for a founding event, and I really didn’t understand what it was all about until I met Aaron and saw his passion for the project….he is Mr. Springfield,” said Hanlon.

“To be able to identify the actual spot in Mason Square where basketball was founded was of great interest to me as a history nerd,” he added.

Then there was the question of what to do.
“A statue of Naismith seemed too easy to mark the spot, and it’s been done already, so I tried to come up with something symbolic,” said Hanlon.

The final concept was to create two brass statues, one seven-feet in height, of a player from 1891 passing a basketball to a youth of today from Mason Square that symbolically mark the game’s beginning, its impact today, and the future impact of basketball on the world stage.

“We actually modeled one of the statues after a boy now living in Mason Square,” said Hanlon. A call was also made to Patrick J. Sullivan, executive director, Springfield Parks, Recreation and Building Management for his assistance.
“Jack Maloney, chairman of the Park Commission and I are very pleased to have worked on this community collaboration with the Hall of Fame in seeing that the actual birthplace of basketball gets its proper recognition in the city. It has truly been a tremendous effort on the part of everyone who got involved to make this a reality,” said Sullivan, who offered the services of Michael Tully, senior park project manager, to help on the project.

“Mike took my concept to a whole other level. His creativity in layout is to be commended and the city is lucky to have him as an employee,” said Hanlon.

It was Tully who helped to identify a location with streetscape improvements just across the street from the former location of the original YMCA gymnasium where the sculptures could stand upon a 30-foot circumference area of granite and brick to create the look of a contemporary basketball. He also suggested the four glass panels surrounding the sculptures that will be up-lit at night and etched with historical information, including the story of the first game and the significance of the Mason Square location.

“This was all thought about with lighting in mind to make sure that the monument is a 24/7 beacon of the actual location where basketball was invented, as well as to deter vandalism,” said Tully.
The glass panels will have green technology of LED tape lighting that will accent the glass etchings at night. The lights will change on 15-second intervals to provide an engaging factor in the evening. There will also be a beaming light that shoots out of the bronze basketball. The glass panels will be tempered glass and encased making it very hard to break.

“From the start we have engaged the community to make sure that they embraced this idea because without their consent it wouldn’t have happened, and we had the support of Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno as well. It was a great collaborative effort of local private business, local government and big citizenship that made this project happen,” said Tully.

While a McDonald’s restaurant stands on the exact spot where the first game was played, a second piece will eventually mark the actual site where basketball was first played, he added.

Of course, nothing comes for free, and money had to be raised for the project amounting to $100,000, noted Doleva. Hanlon provided at no cost the design and hand sculpting of the pieces, a $50,000 cost savings. Donors to date include Springfield College, MassMutual Financial Group, Chicago Bulls, Bay State Gas, Baystate Health, Palmer Paving, Hampden Bank, and Southworth Paper Company.
Springfield City Councilor E. Henry Twiggs, who represents the Mason Square district and who was one of the influential persons Williams contacted when he was growing support for the project, said he is proud of Williams and “his tenacity in bringing recognition to Mason Square where basketball was first played.”

“The residents of Mason Square have expressed to me their enormous pride in the fact they are finally being recognized for what they gave the world,” said Twiggs.

Twiggs also expressed his hopes about not only the monument’s learning potential - five public schools are within walking distance of the monument - but its economic potential. He sees the new monument bringing tourists to Mason Square, one of the poorest areas in the city of Springfield, encouraging new business and eventually creating additional jobs.

Following the official unveiling, there will be a Mason Square Enshrinement Basketball Festival at 2:30 p.m. presented by Nike and the Basketball Hall of Fame that will feature music, three basketball games and various cultural events celebrating the invention of the game. 

NBA.com Tribute to DJ; Hall of Fame Induction coming Aug 13th

Here's to Dennis Johnson, one of the all-time greats.  He'll be honored during the "Celebration of Basketball" and Enshrinement Week in Springfield, Mass:

Let the Comparisons Begin - 1960? 1992? or maybe even 2008?

The comparisons are starting.  

The first volley comes from Cincinnati, Ohio - where Oscar Robertson is truly KING and actually played as NBA royalty for the Cincinnati Royals, of course. That came long before the guys in Akron/Cleveland who just "couldn't wait to be king."

So, here is one opinion on the comparison between the 1960 US Olympic Basketball Team and the 1992 US Olympic Basketball Team.  Read on for a thought provoking story by Bill Koch via Cincinnati.com:


A Dream Team Before The Dream Team | Cincinnati.com

There was no such thing as a Dream Team in 1960.

When the U.S. Olympic basketball team traveled to Rome, it was merely a sports team on a mission to win a gold medal for its country.

It accomplished its goal without the marketing apparatus that accompanies such endeavors today.

There were no NBA players, but there were plenty of future NBA stars such as Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, Jerry Lucas and Walt Bellamy, all of whom would land in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Fifty years later, they refuse to concede anything to the 1992 Dream Team that included Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, David Robinson and Patrick Ewing among others.

That team also fulfilled its mission by bringing home the gold medal, but to considerably more acclaim than its predecessors in 1960.

"What did the Dream Team have that we didn't have?" Robertson said. "They had more publicity and made more money. That's where it stops."

Both teams will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., Aug. 13.

The Dream Team - the first to include NBA players - won its games by an average margin of 43.8 points, a shade more than the 1960 team's 42.4. But the Dream Team did have a distinct advantage in Hall of Famers, with 10 (including 2010 inductees Karl Malone and Scottie Pippen) to four for the 1960 team.

Coached by legendary University of California coach Pete Newell - who passed away in 2008 at the age of 93 - the 1960 team held its opponents to an average of 59.5 points and ran the U.S. winning streak to 36 games over five Olympics.

Robertson and Lucas, the youngest player on the team at age 20, were the leading scorers, each averaging 17.0 points. West averaged 13.8 and Adrian Smith 10.9.

Robertson dominated

Robertson had averaged 33.7 points as a senior at the University of Cincinnati the previous season and was named the national player of the year. He was a player of such enormous skill that his teammates still speak with reverence about his exploits on the court.

"He played the game like he invented it," said Bob Boozer, a 6-8 forward from Kansas State who averaged 6.8 points in the Olympics. "Oscar was James Naismith in tennis shoes. He did what he wanted to do."

The 1960 Olympics were the Games of Cassius Clay and Rafer Johnson, who became the first black athlete to carry the flag for the American delegation. It was also the first time the Summer Olympics were televised, with CBS paying $394,000 for the broadcast rights.

The Olympics were the second foray into international basketball for Smith, who played on Kentucky's Fiddlin' Five 1958 national championship team. He had played in the Pan American Games the previous year in Chicago with Robertson.

"When I was at Kentucky, I used to read about him," Smith said. "I said nobody's really that good. Until I made the Pan American team and saw him play in the Pan American Trials. I got to be a teammate of his and then I realized what a special, great player he was."

Playing in the Olympics was the stuff of fantasy for Smith, who grew up on a tobacco farm about 12 miles outside of Mayfield, Ky.

His family's house had no electricity and no running water. The ball that he learned to shoot with was made of his dad's old socks that his mother sewed together.

"I never thought anything like that would ever happen to me," Smith said.

Year's delay

Boozer wanted to play in the Olympics so badly that he postponed his NBA career for a year to maintain his amateur status. During that time, he worked for Caterpillar and played for its team in the National Industrial Basketball League with no assurance that he would make the Olympic team.

"I graduated from Kansas State one year before the team had a chance to be assembled," Boozer said. "I just said I'm not going to go pro until I have a shot to make the Olympic team.

"You probably couldn't do that today (because of the money). That's been the highlight of my basketball career. The only one that would probably be up there with it was my last year with the Milwaukee Bucks winning the championship (in 1971)."

The Americans clinched the gold medal with a 90-63 victory over Brazil. Before the game, Smith promised himself that he would take home a souvenir to go with his gold medal.

His first objective was to secure the game ball. When that didn't work out, he went to Plan B.

"I convinced somebody to give me a sharp instrument," Smith said. "Walt Bellamy put me on his shoulders and I cut that net down. I still have that net today."

Five future Royals

Nine of the 12 players on the 1960 Olympic team eventually played in the NBA. Four - Robertson, Lucas, Bellamy and Terry Dischinger - became Rookie of the Year.

"It was just an awesome team," Smith said. "We had speed. We had shooting. We had rebounding. We had height. If you had kept that team together, we might have been a contender for an NBA championship."

Three years later, five members of the 1960 Olympic team - Robertson, Lucas, Boozer, Smith and Jay Arnette - did play together on the 1963-64 Cincinnati Royals.

They didn't win the NBA championship, but they produced a 55-25 regular-season record, the best of any Royals team during its 15-year stay in Cincinnati.

But that team still finished four games behind Boston in the Eastern Division and lost to the Celtics, 4 games to 1, in the division finals.

"Maybe we needed a sixth man," Robertson said.

Actually, five might have been enough if they had stayed together for the entire season. But Boozer, who averaged 11.0 points and 5.6 rebounds for the Royals, was traded to the New York Knicks on Dec. 16 after 32 games.

"It was a surprise," Boozer said. "I was highly disappointed to leave the team. We had some good relationships on that team. I love Cincinnati."

Lucas top rookie

Lucas joined the Royals a year after his storied career at Ohio State, having originally signed with George Steinbrenner's Cleveland Pipers in the American Basketball League, which collapsed in 1962.

He was named Rookie of the Year in 1963-64, combining with Robertson, the league's Most Valuable Player, to produce 49.1 points, 27.3 rebounds and 13.6 assists per game.

But Lucas was injured in the semifinal playoff series against the Philadelphia 76ers and was not the same player against the Celtics in the playoffs.

Robertson would eventually win an NBA championship with the Bucks in 1971 on the same team with Boozer. Lucas would win a title in 1973 with the New York Knicks.

Regardless of what they accomplished later in there careers, the players on the 1960 Olympic team will always be remembered.

"Being with the guys I played with and having the friendships over the years has been tremendous for me," Robertson said.

"It was a magic moment that no one even knew that much about then, until they decided to bring up the Dream Team. Then they looked back and saw how good of a team we did have."

PS:  A quick TL comment.  Like I stated when asked to compare the 1992 and 2008 teams, it's very different.  Apples and Oranges.  Different era and different style of basketball.  If asked to pick the 'best' of the 1960, 1992 and 2008 teams, I would tend to give the edge to '92 because of their strength up the middle.  It was impossible to stop the scoring of Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, Patrick Ewing and David Robinson in the paint, nevermind the work being done offensively and defensively by the likes of Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and all.

The 1960 team needed a nickname, they say?  How about The Bryl Creem Team?

The MailMan is on the Road to Springfield

KSL-TV in Salt Lake City/Sandy, Utah caught up with Karl Malone this past weekend.  On August 13th, Karl will be inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player and as part of the '92 USA Basketball Dream Team.


Here is the feature from KSL-TV 5:

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

Mason Square in Springfield is the Cradle of Hoops

 This story ran in the Springfield Republican/MassLive.com on Sunday, July 18th.  It highlights a Springfield, Mass citizen who has been instrumental in a city project with the Basketball Hall of Fame to mark the place where the sport of basketball was born.  Check it out:

Story by Rich Chimelis

The man helping bring Springfield’s basketball history to life spends his time, alternately shining the spotlight on Mason Square and trying to avoid it himself.

“The spot has changed lives,” says Aaron Williams, who helped bring together the forces that made possible the construction of a new monument in the Square.
The landmark, which will be unveiled during Basketball Hall of Fame Enshrinement Week on Aug. 8, will designate the precise location where basketball was first played.
‘“I knew the game was invented in this city,” Williams said. “But, like others, I wondered about the exact spot.”

The spot is no secret. But most people have not known or thought much about it.
Invented by Dr. James Naismith, basketball was first played in 1891 at a Christian YMCA school that later became Springfield College. The school was located at State and Sherman streets.
But the exact location is not where the college stands now.

A videographer who has done informational documentaries on Springfield, the humble Williams repeatedly explains his role in the monument project with this caveat, “it’s not about me.”
True enough, but it has become his mission, one that began with a research mission to learn more about “the spot.”

Encouraged by politicians, neighborhood groups, African-American and Latino business leaders and the Hall of Fame, Williams helped marshal support for the monument, which will feature informational panels, statues and lighting.

To Williams, this is more than a set of brass figurines and plaques.
It is a window through which to look at the Mason Square he knows, and a door to enter it.
“People see (the Square) as one of the poorest communities in the state. I see it differently,” said Williams, a lifelong city resident.

The monument, he feels, will bring day-trippers and school children to the Square.
There is economic potential to that, as well as enriching educational opportunities.
“People come to the spot, they take a picture. That’s a teachable moment,” he said.

For the Hall of Fame, this link to its home city materializes at a most opportune time.
By its nature, the hall caters to the rich and famous.
Moreover, it has gone global, embarking on projects from New York to China.
And the visual image is hard to deny. The building’s grand, exterior facade, nestled next to the riverfront, sits in stark contrast with the working-class urban neighborhoods just up the street.
This monument bridges that gap forever as a physical extension of the museum itself.

The Hall and the Square are not just neighbors now. They are partners, linked by history but also in a more tangible, current way. It is hard to see the Hall of Fame gaining much direct revenue from the monument, unless tourists start pouring into Springfield to see it, as Williams hopes.
But is it really necessary to put a price tag on being involved with something that is right, appropriate to your mission and frankly, wonderful?

Williams, 55, is unabashedly idealistic, but he is not naive.
He is well aware of Mason Square’s negative connotations in many minds.
“How do you calm fear? You show them history,” he said.

Valued at $200,000, and constructed primarily through private donations, the project is being built in two parts. The smaller segment is being installed near a McDonald’s restaurant that now occupies the site of the first game. The larger segment will be across State Street near the former Mason Square Library, currently home of the Urban League.

Williams lives in the Square, which has four neighborhoods (McKnight, Bay, Upper Hill and Old Hill).
James Naismith lived in what is now Mason Square. So did many other pioneers.
One was Primus Mason (1817-1892), an African-American businessman and philanthroper for whom the district is named.

The history of the automobile and motorcycle can be traced to the Square.
But, like the spot where basketball was first played, all too many people either don’t know these facts, or thought little about them.

Until, perhaps, now.

“Springfield has 150,000 people. If each one of them were to tell one person about this, that’s 300,000.
“Imagine what that would do for Mason Square and the city.” Every day, from his home, Williams sees men and women of all types, streaming in and out of the congested district. Scant few seem aware of the presence of history. He is convinced this monument will cause people to take a longer, different look.
He believes they will see Mason Square as he sees it - packed with proud and vibrant people, and carrying tremendous potential.

“This will have benefit on the micro level, encouraging kids from all our local elementary schools to come and learn,” he said. “It will have impact on the macro level, too. People from (all over) will be encouraged to come to Springfield and take a look.”

All because of a spot where a great sport was born, a spot overlooked every day by those who walked over it and drove right past it, at least until now. 

It was "Banner Day" at the Hall...

Today was "Banner Day" in Springfield, Mass. - as decorative banners of the incoming "Class of 2010" were hung on the facade of Springfield's Symphony Hall. WWLP-TV was on the scene this morning.

Hell of a Hall Tribute...

This story ran on Page 1-A of the Springfield Republicaan and is currently posted on the home page of MassLive.com - as it breaks the news of the details of the "Celebration of Basketball" to take place this coming August when the Basketball Hall of Fame welcomes its Class of 2010.

Story is by Columnist Ron Chimelis:

Basketball Hall of Fame expands 2010 enshrinement celebration to bring 70 basketball greats, week-long schedule of events to Springfield

 SPRINGFIELD - John L. Doleva said the dazzling nature of last year’s Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinement celebration, with the induction of superstar Michael Jordan, created an assumption that 2010 would be quiet by comparison.

Not true, the Hall of Fame’s president and chief executive officer said Wednesday.

Instead, the Hall of Fame has unveiled a weeklong program of Enshrinement 2010 events that dwarfs all previous celebrations of the game’s Springfield’s origins and will involve the city itself to an unprecedented degree.

And Jordan is expected to be among the greats of the game who will be in town for the festivities; in fact, it’s predicted this enshrinement will have the greatest number of Hall of Fame alumni returning to the city of basketball’s birth and ever gathered in one venue, officials say.

“We found that our greatest asset was our Hall of Famers,” Doleva said.
Featured in the weeklong festivities will be the unveiling of a monument at the corner of State Street and Wilbraham Road in the city’s Mason Square neighborhood to showcase the site where the first basketball game was played in 1891.

Enshrinement Week will begin Aug. 7 and run through Aug. 14, a shift from the September schedule of recent years.

Induction of eight individuals - including late Boston Celtics star Dennis Johnson, Karl “The Mailman” Malone, one of Jordan’s teammates from the NBA championship Chicago Bulls, Scottie Pippen - and two entire teams - the 1960 and 1992 U.S. Olympic teams - will take place at Symphony Hall on Aug. 13.

The calendar move accommodates basketball personalities involved with the World Basketball Championships, which will be held from late August to mid-September in Turkey.

Enshrinement Week is expected to pump $5 million into the local economy, Doleva said. It is hoped the move to August will spark additional interest and attendance with the dates in the midst of the summer travel season, he said. It’s also likely the scheduling time frame could become permanent, according to Doleva.

This year’s enshrinement should also provide a spectacular follow-up to the 2009 celebration, which put the global spotlight on Springfield. It was that collection of talent, who also included this year’s individual inductees Malone and Pippen, which introduced the term “Dream Team” to the American vocabulary.

The lead-up to enshrinement will bring the city of Springfield into the Hall of Fame celebration as never before, Doleva said.

Central to that effort will the installation of a permanent monument in Mason Square to identify the site of the first basketball game.

It was played in 1891 in the gymnasium of what was then known as the School of Christian Workers; the school later became Springfield College. The location is now occupied by a McDonald’s restaurant.

Proposed by a Mason Square resident, Aaron Williams, the monument has a projected cost of $200,000, and fund-raising efforts have yielded donations from the world of basketball, the Chicago Bulls, and from the Western Massachusetts community, including Springfield College, MassMutual Financial Group, Bay State Gas and Palmer Paving.

The monument will have two facets, an installation near the McDonald’s restaurant and a second installation, including two brass statues of vintage and modern-day players and information panels, across State Street near the current home of the Urban League. The two pieces, as well as the Hall of Fame on the riverfront, are to be linked by beams of light.

The monument unveiling and celebration, widely endorsed by municipal and neighborhood groups, will see a section of State Street shut down on Aug. 8 for a “First Game Celebration.” It will coincide with the Nike World Basketball Festival in New York City and include a game here between the Puerto Rico 18-Under National Team and a New England all-star team of young players.

The week’s activities will also include wheelchair basketball and performances by the U.S. men’s and women’s Paralympic teams on Aug. 9, a Children’s Day on Aug. 10, and a recognition ceremony for great high school coaches and a 96-team AAU “Enshrinement Classic” tournament on Aug. 11.

The tournament is expected to bring approximately 1,000 players, in addition to family, coaches and friends, to Springfield.

A separate Hoops & Heroes 12-team tournament will be inaugurated on Aug. 7 and played at Springfield College. The final four of that tournament, which will feature teams of police, fire and other “first responder” personnel from across Massachusetts, will be played on the Hall of Fame’s center court on Aug. 8. It will benefit the Special Olympics.

Also being organized is a tribute to Hall of Fame player and coach John Wooden, who died June 4 at 99. Doleva said many of Wooden’s players, fellow coaches and Hall of Fame members have expressed an interest in having a tribute to Wooden.

For the enshrinement ceremonies, Jordan will be joined in Springfield by fellow Dream Team members and 2009 Hall of Fame inductees John Stockton and David Robinson, as well as Magic Johnson, Charles Barkley and others.
Confirmation is being awaited on a handful of 1992 Olympians, including Boston Celtics great Larry Bird, and it remains possible the entire team will attend.

Along with Pippen, Malone and Johnson, the Class of 2010 includes the late Gus Johnson, WNBA superstar Cynthia Cooper, high school coaching legend Bob Hurley, Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss and Brazilian great Maciel “Ubiratan” Pereira.

Coach Don Meyer to Receive John W. Bunn Award from BHOF

The Basketball Hall of Fame is a little more than a month away from its Enshrinement Festivities.  Here is an announcement made today, June 30, that names Don Meyer winner of the most prestigious honor aside from actual enshrinement.  Read on:

Coach Don Meyer, the all-time wins leader for NCAA/NAIA men’s college coaches, has been selected to receive the 2010 John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

The Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award was instituted by the Board of Trustees of the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1973 and is the most prestigious award presented by the Hall of Fame outside of Enshrinement. Named in honor of Hall of Famer John W. Bunn (Class of 1964), the first chairman of the Basketball Hall of Fame Committee who served from 1949-1964, the award honors coaches, players and contributors whose outstanding accomplishments have impacted the high school, college, professional or international game.

“Coach Don Meyer is the embodiment of what the John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes,” said John L. Doleva, President and CEO of the Basketball Hall of Fame.  “He has amassed more wins as a coach in men’s NCAA and NAIA combined play than anyone and his life’s work has touched a tremendous amount of young men with his passionate coaching, teaching, and mentoring. He has faced and overcome significant adversities in his life and yet remained true to his players and his love of the game. He has truly committed his life to basketball and as importantly to those who played for him.”

Meyer’s outstanding 42-year coaching career began when he joined Western State College of Colorado as an assistant from 1968 to 1970, a year after graduating from the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley. He went on to the University of Utah, where he served as an assistant from 1970-72 and earned his Ph.D.  Later in 1972, Meyer began his head coaching career, joining Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota (Div. III), where he worked until 1975. From 1975 through 1999, Meyer was the head coach at David Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn (NAIA).  At Lipscomb, Meyer’s teams averaged 32 wins per season over a ten-year span from 1987-97, including a college coaching record 41 wins in 1989-90 when he went 41-5. Meyer led Lipscomb to 13 postseason appearances, and his team led the country in scoring for five years (1989-90, ’92-93 and ’95). Meyer guided Lipscomb to the NAIA National Championship in 1986.

In 1999, Meyer was named head coach at Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota (Div. II) where he remained until announcing his retirement in February. At Northern State, Meyer enjoyed seven consecutive 20-plus win seasons from 2001-08, winning Northern Sun Inter-collegiate season championships in 2002 and ’03, and tournament championships in ’04 and ’05.

Among the many honors accumulated during his career, Meyer was named NAIA National Coach of the Year in 1989 and 1990. He was enshrined to the NAIA Hall of Fame in 1993 and was awarded with the Charles A. Kriegel Award in 1986 and 1996. Last July, Meyer was presented with the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance after coping with a near-fatal automobile accident that occurred during a team retreat on September 5, 2008. In surgery after the accident, Meyer lost much of his left leg and was later diagnosed with inoperable cancer. He continued courageously to coach, using a wheelchair and cane on the sidelines during the past two seasons. Meyer’s career has been chronicled by ESPN’s Buster Olney in “How Lucky Can You Be, The Story of Coach Don Meyer” which will be published in September 2010.  In addition to his many coaching honors, Meyer’s series of instructional coaching DVDs/videos and his Don Meyer Coaches Academy are legendary tools for nearly all coaches in the profession. The Wayne, Nebraska native continues to serve at Northern State as a professor and is a highly respected and sought after national speaker.

Coach Meyer will be presented the John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award during the 2010 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame ceremonies, to be held at the “Hall of Fame Family Reunion Dinner” on Thursday, August 12. The annual Enshrinement Ceremony will be held on Friday, August 13.  For ticket information, please visit http://www.hoophall.com

Three to Be Honored by Hall of Fame with Mannie Jackson Award

This announcement was made by the Basketball Hall of Fame... A terrific salute to Sam Dalembert's efforts in his native Haiti, plus recognition for Coach Jim Boeheim and Mass. native Alfreda Harris:


SPRINGFIELD – JUNE 28, 2010 – The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame today announced that Sacramento Kings center Samuel Dalembert of Haiti, Hall of Fame Coach Jim Boeheim of Syracuse University and Alfreda Harris, a community leader from Massachusetts, have been named winners of the 2010 Mannie Jackson – Basketball’s Human Spirit Award, presented by CSX. The winners will be recognized on August 12 during events leading up to the 2010 Basketball Hall of Fame Enshrinement Ceremonies.

“The Mannie Jackson – Basketball’s Human Spirit Award is presented annually to individuals who have honored the game of basketball by virtue of their personal growth and life-long accomplishments,” said John L. Doleva, President and CEO of the Basketball Hall of Fame. “We are proud to recognize three distinguished members of the basketball community for their many contributions on and off the court.”

The basic criteria for award winners includes embracing the core values of the game, hard-work, striving to improve the community and making a commitment to others.  Beyond the game, award winners must reflect the values of Mannie Jackson’s life-long mission to overcome obstacles and challenge the status quo, while taking responsibility for his or her actions and seeking the highest standard of excellence.

Dalembert, Boeheim and Harris were chosen from a group of six finalists after nominations were screened by a selection committee, appointed by the Hall of Fame and Mr. Jackson. Beginning in 2009, the finalists were grouped in three categories, representing the professional, amateur and grassroots levels of basketball.

Previous winners of the award include former Georgetown University center and NBA Global Ambassador Dikembe Mutombo; Philadelphia legend Sonny Hill; Hall of Famer David Robinson, along with 2009 tri-winners, former NBA official Ken Hudson, Hall of Famer Bob Lanier and former NBA All-Star and Georgetown standout Alonzo Mourning.

2010 Mannie Jackson – Basketball’s Human Spirit Award Winners

Representing the Professional ranks:

Samuel Dalembert, Sacramento Kings center – A UNICEF national ambassador for Haiti who donated more than $125,000 to assist earthquake relief efforts in his homeland. In 2007, he started the Samuel Dalembert Foundation to help better the lives of people in Haiti. Dalembert, recently traded to Sacramento from the Philadelphia 76ers, was an active participant in NBA Cares activities while with the Sixers and he frequently participated in the Basketball without Borders program.

Representing the Amateur ranks:

Jim Boeheim, Syracuse University head coach – A member of the Coaches vs. Cancer Council who has helped raise $2.9 million over the past nine years by conducting the annual “Basket Ball” Gala in Syracuse. Overall, he helped raise more than $4.5 million for the American Cancer Society. Boeheim volunteers his time and services to charitable organizations, including Crouse Hospital’s Kienzle Family Maternity Center, the Children’s Miracle Network, the Eldercare Foundation, the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the Special Olympics.

Representing the Grassroots ranks:

Alfreda Harris – Founded the SAT Preparation Program serving high school students in Boston while founding and coordinating girls’ basketball leagues and AAU teams for the city.  Harris also founded the Owen Wells Fitness Center and the Reebok Educational Athletic Partnership that provides students with community programs in social development, computer skills and tutoring. Serves as a Board member for the Shelbourne, Mass. Community Council, Boston Neighborhood Basketball League and the Police Athletic League.

Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame works with Ugolyn Foundation to dedicate new Court in Indy

This story ran in the Indianapolis Star on March 31, a few days before the Final 4.  The Hall of Fame works with the Ugolyn Foundation, the NCAA and the YMCA to refurbish and dedicate basketball courts in tribute to Tyler Ugolyn.  See:

Every Friday was boys' night out for the Ugolyn clan of Ridgefield, Conn.
They'd head to the local YMCA and shoot hoops: Victor, the father; Tyler, the oldest son; and Trevor, three years behind his brother.


"Wonderful memories," said Victor, 62, a hint of sorrow in his voice.
"Tyler had an incredibly strong faith. And that's important for anyone in life."
So it's fitting that after Tyler died on 9/11, his father would use basketball -- and faith -- to turn unbearable grief into triumph that would one day play out in Indianapolis.
The Tyler Ugolyn Foundation, started shortly after Tyler, 23, died on the 93rd floor of World Trade Center Tower 1, strives to build character and provide educational opportunities for urban youths through basketball.
In a tradition that began in 2008, the foundation has committed to renovating a basketball court each year at a local YMCA at the NCAA men's basketball Final Four host city. This year's recipient is the Ransburg Branch, 501 N. Shortridge Road, on Indianapolis' Eastside.
The 50-year-old YMCA basketball court recently underwent a complete makeover, the results of which will be unveiled at a dedication on Easter Sunday.
The floor was sanded down and refinished. Walls received a new coat of paint. Old wooden bleachers were replaced with two metal sets. Two heating units "that sounded like airplanes taking off" were replaced with an efficient new model, said Ellie Pauley, Ransburg's executive director. The two backboards are brand-new.
Like other renovated courts, Ransburg's will bear the name "Tyler's Court" and display a plaque with Tyler Ugolyn's favorite quote: "I just love playing the game."
At Ransburg, half the members receive financial assistance, a major reason Victor Ugolyn, his wife, Diane, and son, Trevor, 28, selected it.
Tyler, who was a 6-foot, 4-inch basketball player at Columbia University, co-founded a basketball clinic for Harlem youths that continues to this day: the Tyler Ugolyn MVPs of Character Basketball Clinic, hosted each year by the Columbia basketball program.


"It's an honor for them to choose us," said Pauley, who unofficially opened the renovated court on Jan. 14, the day before the start of the YMCA's basketball season. "We've been blessed with this all the way around."
The timing of the gift could not have been better, as the struggling economy has forced organizations such as the YMCA to delay or even eliminate improvement projects. The renovation cost $30,000 -- $25,000 of which came from the foundation. The rest was funded by the Y.


Without the foundation, "we couldn't have done the work," Pauley said. "It was a much-needed renovation. It just could not have been done right now in these economic times."
Damian Roark, 14, who has been visiting the Ransburg Branch since 1997, likes what he sees.
"You actually don't slide. You stick," Damian, a student at Franklin Township Middle School West, said about the new floor.
"It's just better equipment," he added. "They went up, quality-wise."
Count Doug Walker among the Ransburg YMCA's devotees: He's been visiting the Y since 1960.
After a fire in 2002 forced a remodeling of the facility, officials decided to make the gym the centerpiece. After you check in and turn the corner, the gym beckons through a wall of glass.
"We wanted to have that 'wow' factor," said Walker, the chairman of Ransburg's board. "We've always had a 'nice' factor. Now we have a 'wow' factor."
The Ransburg project is the fifth Tyler's Court: The first was created in 2008 in San Antonio, followed by two during enshrinement weekend at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., in 2008 and 2009, and last year at the Final Four in Detroit.
At the Boll Family YMCA in Downtown Detroit, new scoreboards and bleachers were installed. Other funding paid for youth programs and a large display board that alerts the community to upcoming programs.
"You can't help but feel better about what you do and how you do it after meeting the Ugolyn family," said John Harris, executive director at Boll. "Obviously, something tragic affected the family. Through that tragedy, they've really grasped onto something that will continue to give back for generations to come."
From San Antonio to Springfield, thousands of youths, basketballs in hand, continue to benefit from Ugolyn's gift.
"My son gave back in so many ways," said Victor Ugolyn, who still lives in Ridgefield. "We're just continuing what our son would be doing. That's what it's all about."