It’s time: Kobe, Duncan, Garnett to enter Hall of Fame

UNCASVILLE, CONN. » Vanessa Bryant got a private tour to see some of the newly remodeled Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday, viewing the exhibit that will honor the life and legacy of her late husband before the rest of the world gets their first look.

By the Hall’s description, it’s an exhibit like none other. Fitting, for a special Hall of Fame enshrinement class.

Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett officially become members of the Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday night, the headline event of a three-day celebration of the game. They were rivals for the better part of two decades, three of the faces of the league throughout a critical period of growth for the league, and there is some symmetry in how they’ll enter the Hall together.

“You can go through the list of NBA greats,” Garnett said Friday. “I couldn’t pick two better players — not just that, but two better people, to go in the Hall with. Both of these are class acts and unbelievable players. I’ve very privileged, if I’m being honest. Every since I stepped into the league it’s been like a big-ass dream and this is no different from it. I’m honored.”

The celebration kicked off Friday at the Mohegan Sun Casino — enshrinement weekend was moved there in part because that venue has more space to allow for social distancing — and will peak Saturday with the actual inductions. Then Sunday, about an hour away in Springfield, Mass., the remodeled Hall of Fame will be formally unveiled and the 2021 class will be announced.

It’s a group of nine being honored on Saturday night: Bryant, Duncan and Garnett are the NBA players going in; 1,000game winner Barbara Stevens, two-time NBA champion coach Rudy Tomjanovich, three-time NCAA champion coach Kim Mulkey and three-time Final Four coach Eddie Sutton are getting enshrined, along with four-time women’s Olympic gold medalist Tamika Catchings and longtime FIBA executive Patrick Baumann.

Some spoke Friday of their modest beginnings and how reflecting on those days made the emotions churn even stronger. Stevens said she thought she hit the jackpot when she landed her first coaching job as an assistant at Clark University for $400 in 1976, Tomjanovich said he didn’t feel ready when he was offered the Rockets job; Mulkey talked about her days as a pigtailed girl playing Pony League baseball with the boys in the little Louisiana town where she grew up.

“I just hope I don’t bawl like a big doofus,” Tomjanovich said.

Bryant is one of three members of the class who will be enshrined posthumously; longtime FIBA executive Patrick Baumann was represented by his son and daughter, and three-time Final Four coach Eddie Sutton was represented by his son Sean.