Former Bucks Dandridge, Kukoc enter Hall
Nine teams passed on Paul Pierce in the 1998 NBA draft, and if you think he doesn’t remember each and every one of them, then you don’t know Paul Pierce.
The newly inducted basketball Hall of Famer called out by name – in order – the teams with the first nine picks that year and thanked them for allowing him to slip to the Boston Celtics.
“I appreciate that. Thank you for passing on me. It added fuel to my fire,” Pierce, who had been expected to go as high as No. 2 overall, said in his acceptance speech in Springfield, Massachusetts, on Saturday night. “To this day I don’t understand how I slipped to No. 10. But you know everything happened for a reason. Going to the Celtics, I’m grateful.”
Four months after the pandemic-delayed induction of the Class of 2020, including Kobe Bryant, the Hall community gathered to enshrine 16 more new members – its biggest class ever.
Bill Russell, who was inducted as a player in 1975, was honored for his coaching career; he is the fifth person to be inducted as both a player and a coach. But to former President Barack Obama his greatest role was what he accomplished off the court during the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
“Bill Russell, perhaps more than anyone else, knows what it takes to win, and what it takes to lead,” Obama said in a video. “As tall as Bill Russell stands, his example and his legacy rise far, far higher.”
Others joining the Hall were: Villanova coach Jay Wright, defensive Pistons star Ben Wallace, two-time NBA champion Chris Bosh, longtime Portland and Sacramento coach Rick Adelman, Washington and Sacramento All-Star Chris Webber and two-time Olympic gold medalist Yolanda Griffith.
WNBA President Val Ackerman, longtime coach Cotton Fitzsimmons, scouting pioneer Howard Garfinkel were inducted as contributors. Clarence “Fats” Jenkins was picked by the Early African American Pioneers Committee, Croatia and Chicago Bulls star Toni Kukoc was tabbed by the International Committee, Bob Dandridge by the Veterans Committee and Pearl Moore from the Women’s Veterans Committee.
Russell, 87, was honored as the first Black coach in NBA history. Taking over the Celtics from Red Auerbach in 1966 and staying on as a player-coach for two more years, Russell guided Boston to NBA titles in 1968 and ’69.
Russell was present and wearing a Celtics mask at the ceremony, but his speech was presented as a prerecorded video.
“Hey, Chris Weber, we’re going into the Hall of Fame with Bill Russell, bro,” Chris Bosh said. “That’s crazy.”
Bosh discussed his arrival in Miami, when Heat executive Pat Riley offered one of his NBA championship rings and said it could be returned when they won one together; they won two, and Bosh finally returned the bauble on Saturday night.
And he discussed his departure, at the age of 31, when he was forced to retire because of blood clots.
“After finally making it to the mountaintop with so much more to do, in my mind, so much more work to do, it all stopped,” he said. “I eventually came to realize that we all have it in our power to make the most out of every day despite what happens, to turn setbacks into strengths.”
Ackerman was the inaugural president of the WNBA, the first female president of USA Basketball and, since 2013, the commissioner of the Big East. With few female role models to look up to in the business of sports, she found one elsewhere.
“I’m inspired to this day by the example set by Billie Jean King,” Ackerman said, “and the many strong women and men who followed her in the quest to make the chance to play sports, and to do it on a big stage, a reality for girls and women in our country and our world.”
Kukoc chose Michael Jordan and Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf as his presenters and alluded to the tension over his arrival in Chicago that was laid bare in the documentary “The Last Dance.”
“I would like to thank this gentleman here, Michael Jordan, and Scottie Pippen, for kicking my butt during the Olympics in Barcelona, and that way motivating me to work even harder to become an important part of the Chicago Bulls,” he said.
Wright’s speech touched on Philadelphia basketball history; Webber gave a shoutout to Detroit. Dandridge said NBA opponents who went to major colleges looked down upon him because he went to Norfolk State, a historically Black school.
“My experience in HBCU schools was not limited to basketball,” he said. “I saw what having class was like. I witnessed dignity, and a sense of belonging.”