Philly takes center stage at Wright’s Hall induction
Jay Wright’s induction to the Naismith Memorial Basketball
Hall of Fame Saturday night will have a decidedly Philadelphia flavor. His list of presenters was the first clue.
Wright could have gone with former 76ers general manager Jerry Colangelo and Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who were instrumental in getting him involved with USA Basketball. Longtime Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim was another option. But as much as those men have meant to Wright and his career, they didn’t have the Philly roots that Wright wanted.
And so Wright chose Hallof-Famers Herb Magee, Billy Cunningham, Charles Barkley and George Raveling to introduce him.
“The Philadelphia basketball family has had such an impact on me, I wanted to go with the guys from my hometown that were a part of my Philadelphia basketball upbringing,” Wright said. “That’s exactly why I picked the four of them.”
Magee recruited Wright out of Council Rock High School in the late 1970s, and the legendary coach of Philadelphia Textile/Philadelphia University/Thomas Jefferson Unverisity has been a mentor to Wright throughout his coaching career. Magee this week announced that this season, his 54th, would be his last as coach of the Rams.
Cunningham is a legend in this town as a player and
coach. He was a player on the 76ers’ 1967 NBA championship team and guided the team to the title as a coach in 1983. More than anything, though, Cunningham was a close friend of the late Rollie Massimino, Wright’s former boss and mentor who passed away four years ago. Wright has said that having Cunningham there will be like having Coach Mass in attendance.
Barkley spent much of his Hall-of-Fame career in Philadelphia, and he and Wright have been friends for years. Barkley’s daughter, Christiana, is a graduate of Villanova.
Raveling played and coached at Villanova before going on to a successful head coaching career at Washington State, Iowa and USC.
All have been great ambassadors for the history of Philadelphia basketball, which is why Wright chose them. Wright is the quintessential Philly guy, as synonymous with the area as cheesesteaks and soft pretzels. He vacations at the Jersey shore. It doesn’t get more Philly than that.
Wright wanted the night to be as much about the Philly hoops history that has helped rear him as a coach as it is about him.
Wright is going into his 37th season as a college coach; 27 have been in the Philadelphia area. He spent a year as an assistant under Eddie Burke at Drexel, five seasons on Massimino’s staff at Villanova and is in his 21st season as the head coach of the Wildcats.
Of his 609 career wins, 489 have come on the Main Line. Only Magee (1,132), John Chaney (741) and Fran Dunphy (580) have won more games on the collegiate level among Philadelphia coaches.
When the Wildcats won the national title in 2016 and again in 2018 they had their championship parade down Market Street, not Lancaster Avenue.
Wright is the sixth coach from a Big 5 school to be selected to the Hall of Fame, joining Ken Loeffler (La Salle), Harry Litwack (Temple), Jack Ramsay (Saint Joseph’s), Chuck Daly (Penn) and John Chaney (Temple). He takes great pride in joining that pantheon.
Philly is home, which is why Wright has never left Villanova, even though he’s had opportunities at both the collegiate and professional levels. Kentucky came calling, but he said no thanks. Wright’s name pops up every so often when an NBA job opens up.
Wright has admitted on many occasions that the NBA intrigues him but that would mean leaving Villanova, his dream job, and that’s just not worth it in his mind.
“It’s flattering and I get it, but I just love my job at Villanova,” Wright said of the NBA interest following Villanova’s 2018 national championship. “I don’t see a better job for me. I have a great president and a great athletic director and I love being here. I love this. I’m in my hometown. It just doesn’t get any better for me.”
Philly has been blessed with many great college coaches over the years: Magee, Ramsay, Litwack, Daly, Chaney, Massimino, Fran Dunphy, Phil Martelli, Jim Boyle, Jim Lynam, Cathy Rush and many others. It is a history few cities can match.
That rich history and tradition will be on display Saturday night in Springfield, Massachusetts when Wright is inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
It’s the way he wanted it.