Give and Go: Pick up the pace

Subject: Re: Give and Go

Date: April 6, 2009 11:51 AM PDT

First off – the Basketball Hall of Fame class of 2009 was announced today. Headliners are Michael Jordan, John Stockton and David Robinson. And I’m thinking – why did they even bother to vote on those three? C’mon … why bother even having a Hall of Fame if Jordan, Stockton and the Admiral aren’t in it? And shouldn’t there be some sort of extra honor for the likes of Jordan? A hall of the super- duper-really-incredibly great, separate and apart from the run-of-the- mill hall of famers, where Jordan and Magic and Bird and Dr. J and Wilt and Russell get run of the place?

Speaking of today’s announcement – Henry Abbott of TrueHoop and Kevin Pelton of Basketball Prospectus ran an article today using stats to compare this year’s class of Hall of Fame nominees to players of today. It makes for an interesting read, if only because it gets us away from the obvious comparisons we all tend to use between players of different eras. One might immediately compare John Stockton to Steve Nash – for both statistical high assist totals and … other reasons little white guys who played for small West Coast schools – but Pelton’s formula says Rajon Rondo is a better match, mostly due to steals.

Abbott rightly points out that most fans wouldn’t think Kevin Durant when looking for a parallel to Chris Mullin, either, but the stats put ‘em together.

As an aside – I continue to be disappointed that Mullin doesn’t get more love from the Hall of Fame voters. Dude won the Wooden Award, played in a Final Four, was on the Dream Team … that says Springfield to me. And yes, I realize I just made a Hall of Fame argument for Christian Laettner. I’m OK with that. It’s not the NBA Hall … it’s the basketball hall. Contributions outside the NBA are supposed to factor in.

via Give and Go: Pick up the pace – Fantasy – Yahoo Sports.