Michael Jordan was inducted into the Hall of Fame and here is a youtube of part of his speech. Michael is called the greatest player ever and that is what he discusses in this youtube. There is also a great joke at the end of the video so make sure you play it until the end.

In other parts of his speech Michael Jordan called out Byron Russell and made a little fun with him. The highlight of Michael making the game winning shot over Utah in the 98 finals with a double clutch move was made over Byron Russell. The comments were not meant to cut on Byron, it was all in fun. Byron, for his part, was even proud to be a part of the most famous play of all time, but would love one more shot at Jordan in a game of one on one.

Was Michael Jordan the greatest player of all time? That is a great argument, because you have to set some parameters. Anyone that saw Wilt play would notice that Wilt scored at will even scoring 100 points in a single game. Anyone that watched Bill Russell play would notice that Bill almost beat Wilt every time they played. So is the winning more important than the stats?

All we know is that in Jordan’s era he was the best player and no one as arrived yet to take that away. Maybe before LeBron James is done he will be greater than Michael, but for now it is all Jordan!

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Post from: NBA Obsessed

John Stockton is going into the basketball Hall of Fame on Friday and these are just some of my recollections of his career.

For your intrepid author it was a rare treat to see John Stockton play basketball with Karl Malone. It was always Stockton and Malone, Stockton and Malone, those two were inseparable and they made the Utah Jazz. The Jazz at times seemed like an afterthought in the Western Conference of the NBA and there was always a team that was just slightly better to nose ahead of them. This still did not stop me from watching the Jazz whenever they were on TV, which was not very often from my perch in Michigan.

Stockton would always find Malone on a fast break or pick and roll play multiple times a game and it showed in the final stats for the National Basketball Association assists leaders. Every year it was a given that Stockton would be at or near the top of that list and when all was said and done he was the out right leader with 15,806 assists. In case you were wondering, John Stockton also scored 19,711, so he was not just a one option wonder.

Stockton owns five of the top six assist seasons in NBA history, holds the record for most seasons and most consecutive games played for one team and he’s third behind only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Robert Parish in total games played.

In 19 grueling NBA regular-season marathons, he missed only 22 of 1,526 games, 18 of those in a single year when doctors told him he needed knee surgery, but Stockton chose merely to sit out a few weeks and returned to finish out the schedule.

“He worked harder than you,” said Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan. “That was his secret.

“He’s one of the most unique players you’ll ever run across. You can talk about all the things he tried to do. But first of all, you’ve got to look at his stature. He’s not a very big guy. And yet he played as strong and tough as anybody could.”
source

John Stockton and Karl Malone

The vision of Stockton and Malone working together on the floor is a special kind of athletic poetry. There may have been more rewards for them if they had only had one or two more talented players to allow them to compete with the Lakers and other great teams, but my reward was to watch John Stockton play.

Image: Zuma Press

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As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

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Post from: NBA Obsessed

Adrian Dantley guarding Larry Bird

source newscom

Wow! That is all you can say about a Hall of Fame class including Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, Pat Riley.

But for me there is a double Wow for Adrian Dantley.

Pat Riley had this story about Adrian Dantley and it says it best.

Dantley was playing for the Los Angeles Lakes in the late ’70s, and Riley was the traveling secretary.

It was Riley’s job to assign seating on planes, and he always sat Dantley next to the reticent Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Dantley always wanted another seat, but Riley kept rejecting his request.

“He was the only guy who wasn’t scared of Kareem,” Riley said.

source

Adrian just had a knack for scoring that you can’t teach.

NBA Adrian Dantley factoid - Dantley led Notre Dame in scoring in 1974-75 (30.4 points per game) and 1975-76 (28.6 points per game), while also leading the team in rebounding those two seasons with marks of 10.2 and 10.1 rebounds per game, respectively. He was also the leading scorer on the 1976 US Olympic team that captured the gold medal in Montreal and was drafted sixth overall, by the Buffalo Braves, in the 1976 NBA draft. He became the third Buffalo player in five years to receive the NBA Rookie of the Year Award when he won it after the 1977 season.

Adrian played briefly for my Detroit Pistons (Ok, Bill Davidson is the owner, not me, and he is also going into the Hall of Fame, not me. Go figure, could have been me.).

The Pistons were in their glory years with Isiah Thomas, Bill Laimbeer, and Joe Dumars, but Adrian was so good offensively in the half court that the Pistons would be caught just standing around as Adrian stared his man down and then took off for the hoop with some amazing move that resulted in a basket or foul. The Pistons wanted to run more so Adrian was sent packing and an aging Mark Aguirre was brought in.

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Post from: NBA Obsessed

Ray Allen shooting over Rodney Stuckey and Antonio McDyess has had his struggles in the playoffs

Image details: Detroit Pistons v Boston Celtics – Game Five served by picapp.com

Ray Allen for Hall of Fame

Had a friendly discussion with my best friend RonB about the possibility of Ray Allen making the Hall of Fame. My choice is that he is a lock. RonB feels he has to win something. Winning was not done a whole lot in those years with Milwaukee and Seattle.

So for comparison sakes here are the stats.

Reggie Miller will be used as a comparison.

Reggie played for 18 seasons
averaged 18.2 points
scored 25,279 regular season points.
(please note Reggie’s last 3 seasons were subpar at 12.3, 10.0, and 14.8)

Ray Allen has played 13 years (-5 to Reggie)
averaged 21.1 points (+2.9 to Reggie)
scored 18,227 regular season points (-7,052 to Reggie in 5 less years)

Ray scored 1,273 points this past year (down for him). 1,273 X 5 years = 6,365. Putting him very close to Reggie Miller.

Let’s compare that to the player known as the next Reggie Miller, Rip Hamilton.

Rip Hamilton has played 9 years (-9 to Reggie)
averaged 17.9 points (-.3 to Reggie)
scored 12,059 regular season points (-13,220)

Rip scored 1,244 points this past year (down for him). 1,244 X 9 = 11,196. Putting him a few thousand from Reggie Miller.

Reggie Miller is 13th on the NBA All Time scoring list with his 25K points. For comparison purposes Kobe Bryant is 24th with 21,619, AI is 20th with 22.9K, and Shaq is 11th with 26K+. They are still active players on the list.

Ray Allen will move into the top 30 in the next two years with his current pace.
(NBA special note: Kevin Garnett will be in the top 30 early next year!)

The Top 30 NBA scoring list reads like a who’s who of the Hall of Fame.

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Post from: NBA Obsessed