Hoops Hall building up to great day
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame was gearing up for a great year: not just the all-but-certain election of NBA superstars like Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan, but also a chance to unveil a completely renovated museum.
Because of the coronavirus outbreak, the reopening has been pushed back two months to July 1 and the induction ceremony — which will posthumously honor Bryant along with longtime college coach Eddie Sutton — is being postponed, either to October or the spring. A commemorative coin that was supposed to be released at the Final Four will instead go on sale on Thursday.
“All of these things are going to happen. It’s just a matter of the timing’s going to be delayed,” Hall president and CEO John
Doleva said Tuesday in an interview with The Associated Press.
“We will have the most remarkable class ever, when that happens. We didn’t plan it this way and it’s not the way we would have chosen to do it,” he said. “But we’re fortunate that our plans were able to remain in place, even though the timing has changed.”
The Hall’s Class of 2020 includes Bryant, Garnett, Duncan and WNBA star Tamika Catchings — all elected in their first year of eligibility. Also to be honored by the Springfield, Massachusetts, shrine are Sutton, who died last month, and fellow coaches Rudy Tomjanovich, Kim Mulkey and Barbara Stevens, along with former FIBA Secretary General Patrick Baumann.
Doleva confirmed that induction weekend will not be held on Aug. 28-30, as originally planned; the Hall is hoping to announce a new date by mid-June. Complicating the potential possibility of a spring 2021 induction: The Hall doesn’t know what the NBA and college basketball seasons will look like then.