Philly imprint on Basketball Hall of Fame nominees
Is the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame ready for Allen Iverson? Iverson is eligible this year and it's impossible to imagine a Basketball Hall of Fame without such a generational iconic player.
Is the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame ready for Allen Iverson?
Iverson is eligible this year and it's impossible to imagine a Basketball Hall of Fame without such a generational iconic player.
The former Sixers great leads the list of eligible first-time nominees along with Shaquille O'Neal. A selection committee will make their choices and announce them the weekend of the Final Four.
From the list of nominees, the Hall of Fame could stick to Philly connections alone and put together a pretty impressive class.
Among the eligible nominees released Monday by the Hall of Fame are former Villanova coach Rollie Massimino and just-retired Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan, a Chester native.
More former Sixers legends have been nominated again: Mo Cheeks, George McGinnis and Bobby Jones, along with former Philadelphia Warriors star Al Attles.
Another leading first-time nominee is Michigan State coach Tom Izzo. Women's committee nominees include a pair of former Delaware County high school stars, former Immaculata Mighty Macs greats Theresa Grentz, now Lafayette's coach, and Marianne Stanley. Grentz is listed as a player and Stanley as a coach. The Mighty Macs as a group were inducted in 2014.
A repeat nominee is Franklin and Marshall coach Glenn Robinson, who grew up in Yeadon and is the winningest NCAA Division III men's coach of all-time, four wins away from becoming the fourth men's coach in any division to win 900 games. The other three - Philadelphia University's Herb Magee, Mike Krzyzewski and Bob Knight - are all in the Hall of Fame.
Simon Gratz High graduate Zack Clayton, most famous for refereeing the Muhammad Ali-George Foreman fight in Zaire, is nominated to be considered by the early African American Pioneers committee. Clayton, a former city fireman who died in 1997, played for the New York Rens and Harlem Globetrotters and also played professional baseball in the Negro Leagues. He lived in Mount Airy when he died. Another nominee and former Rens great, the captain of the team for 15 years, is Clarence "Reds" Jenkins, who was running a hotel in Philadelphia when he died in 1968. Call him the Mo Cheeks of his day.