Castelli and Brooks deserve HOF looks
If you’ve got a two-sided hammer, you might as well use it while you can.
I’ve got one. As a member of the Upstate New York Basketball Hall of fame, media division, I’m permitted to have some influence in nominating candidates for future inclusion.
And, in this forum, I’m permitted to make my opinions about that publicly.
First, let’s recognize that the local Hall has done a marvelous job of honoring our area’s best on the hardwood, whether they be players, coaches, officials or, even, media members.
But, nothing is perfect. People get overlooked.
And, here are two. My nominations for inclusion in the Hall are Gina Castelli and Rod Brooks
Both are already multiple Hall of Famers elsewhere, Gina for her playing career at Canisius and as a member of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference’s “Honor Roll” for her overall body of work as a player and coach.
Brooks is also in the Siena Hall, as well as his high school’s, Notre Dame of Utica.
Both have spent the entirety of their basketball days in upstate New York, so there’s no geographic issue.
As for accomplishments ... let’s start with Castelli.
She was the head coach of the Siena women’s team for 22 years, believed to be longer than any other coach of a women’s team at any local college in our area.
She had an overall record of 336-296, including 225-146 (a .606 winning percentage) in MAAC play.
She was the MAAC’s Coach of the Year five times, her teams won seven MAAC regular-season titles and took Siena to its first (and only) NCAA Tournament appearance and its first two (and only) WNIT appearances.
Her players were the MAAC’s Player of the Year seven times, Rookie of the Year four times and Defensive Player of the Year twice.
For the past four seasons she has been the head coach of LeMoyne, which by its Syracuse lo-
cation adds to her upstate New York resume.
That team’s record in the four years prior to her hiring, was 28-77. Her fouryear record there is 60-54.
Brooks, a 1974 Siena grad, finished with 1,315 career points, second-best in school history at the time. His total remains secondhighest for any Siena player who played only three seasons (freshmen weren’t allowed to play on college varsity teams back then).
His 522 points scored in the 1973-74 season set a school record and, since then, there have only been eight seasonal point-pergame averages higher than his 19.3 ppg. rate that year.
His high school work, at Utica’s Notre Dame H.S., adds to his upstate resume. There, he had a 43-point effort in one game, still thirdbest all-time in that school’s history, and was that program’s MVP as a senior.
A 6-4 guard, he was good enough coming out of Siena to be invited to an NBA preseason camp, but has to turn down the opportunity when his employer at the time refused to grant him time off to pursue the pros.
They are two glaring oversights in our area’s basketball Hall, and ones I’m proudly using my two-sided hammer to support.
While on the subject of basketball … there have been some wild claims being made about greatness recently that need debunking. And, what better space to debunk them than right here.
We’ll start with local product, Pat Riley (Linton High School graduate) claiming recently that Magic Johnson is the best NBA player of all time.
That supposition comes only a few years after Riley previously proclaimed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the sport’s all-time best.
It probably didn’t hurt that both Magic and Kareem played for Riley’s Los Angeles Lakers teams. And both, certainly, rank on any top 10 list of all-time greats.
But, someone should bring Michael Jordan to Riley’s attention.
Jerry West, in a book about his life, claims that Rick Barry was as good a player as Larry Bird.
One can see the similarities: Both multi-talented small forwards were great shooters and superlative passers.
But, Barry was “Bird Light.”
Bird’s career statistics are better than Barry’s in every category. Plus, Bird was a three-time NBA MVP, something Barry never earned. End of that debate. Robert Horry, during a recent interview, let loose with this gem of an evaluation: “Hakeem Olajuwon was 20 times better than Tim Duncan.”
Let’s see, Duncan is arguably the all-time greatest power forward, who also logged some time at the center position. Hakeem spent most of his time in the pivot, while also playing some at the power forward spot.
They are both among the top 20, or so, players of all time. I’d say that Duncan rates the slight edge, but if you want to take the other side I won’t debate much. But, 20 times better?
Methinks Mr. Horry might have misspoke a bit.
Jeff VanGundy is a terrific basketball analyst, but his tongue worked faster than his brain when, during a recent telecast of the NBA Finals, he called Golden State Warriors’ teammates Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry the best duo of all time.
Some might want to alert the former coach about Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, Larry Bird and Kevin McHale, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson, Kareem and Oscar Robertson, Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry West and Bill Russell and Bob Cousy, among others.
Durant and Curry might have been the NBA’s best tandem this year. But, latest doesn’t equate to greatest.
And, to wind up, I have a friend who believes that Shaquille O’Neal is the best center of all time (discounting Wilt, Russell and Kareem), that Lebron James is the best-passing forward of all time (discounting Bird) and that Jason Williams was a better passer than Pete Maravich.
He might be the only basketball follower on earth who truly perceives all three of those opinions to be true.
Everyone, I guess, has an opinion. Not all of them are good ones. Steve Amedio’s column appears every Sunday in The Record. He can be reached at hoopscribe1@ aol.com