A dozen of basketball’s greatest earned the highest honor Friday night in Springfield, and it was a big night if you liked UCLA (Reggie Miller, Jamaal Wilkes and Don Barksdale) or Nike, sneakers and ad campaigns (Phil Knight, period). But that’s glossing over the fun of the night, where you always get to hear some stories from the greats that seem to peel back the cover of what basketball was like in their day. Read More »

The Lakers confirmed Thursday what we knew for a while, that they’re building the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar statue. After publicly testifying how upset he was last year that he didn’t have his honor, he must be smug knowing on the same day the Lakers announced the move, he had a little bit of his spotlight stolen. The team’s also going to retire the jerseys of Shaq (No. 34) and Jamaal Wilkes (No. 52) on Nov. 16, the same day his bronzed likeness is unveiled. Read More »

Reggie Miller waited patiently, but now is in. Nellie, too. Jamaal Wilkes and even Nike’s Phil Knight are alongside them.

The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced its 2012 class of inductees today at an event in New Orleans and 11 individuals and one team made the cut. The well-known inductees are Miller, Ralph Sampson, Wilkes, Don Nelson and Chet Walker, the seven-time All-Star for 76ers. Read More »

We’ve been spoiled the past two years with ridiculous Hall of Fame crops: Michael Jordan, John Stockton, David Robinson and Jerry Sloan in 2009, followed by Karl Malone, Scottie Pippen and the 1992 Dream Team in 2010. With that said, this has now opened the door for superstars left on the ballot to finally break through. Today, NBA.com’s Scott Howard-Cooper unveiled the nominees for the 2011 Hall of Fame class, but we’ll leave it up to you to decide. Here we go: Read More »

There’s an old-school saying: The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Whether that means the person who speaks up gets the attention, the person who asks for help receives help, or just the person who most obviously needs assistance gets it, the term can apply to everything from school to dating to self-promotion.

In basketball, it seems the grease doesn’t necessarily go to the squeaky wheel, but rather, the biggest wheel. Read More »