It’s every players dream to make it into the Hall Of Fame. It’s where you are immortalized in the sport forever. A HOF induction is like getting the Nobel Prize, Medal of Honor, the Pulitzer Prize or any other prestigious award you can think of. It’s definitely a great honor and an amazing moment for everyone that has been inducted. But despite all of that, we HAVE to stop considering Hall Of Fame nods when debating who is the better player. Let me tell you why………………
Let’s get one thing understood, there are only two requirements to make it into the Hall of Fame: you have to be retired for 4 years (you are eligible for enshrinement in the 5th year) and you get enough votes. Outside of that, there is no specific criteria to make it in. If voters wake up tomorrow and decide to enshrine Olden Polynice, he will be a Hall Of Famer and there will be nothing anyone can do about it. Would this immediately make him better than any player who has not received that honor? Absolutely not.
People have a hard time determining what exactly makes one player better than another. They start talking about resumes, accolades and stats. That’s cool and all but I rarely hear folks talk about people’s GAME. To be perfectly honest, I put MVPs and All-Star selections in this same category. The guy with the most Oscars isn’t always the best actor. There are no prerequisites for these awards. Being a Hall Of Famer isn’t the tie-breaker. I use the eye test. If I can clearly see that you’re a better player than someone else no box score or golden bust is going to convince me otherwise. Folks usually decide who’s better much how most of these awards are decided, with their feelings.
Do you ever notice when you speak unfavorably about someone’s favorite player the first thing out of their mouth is “You just don’t like (insert player they inexplicably love and defend so much)”. Well here’s a secret, dislike has kept a lot of players out of the Hall Of Fame, left off All Star teams, left off All NBA teams, left out of MVP consideration. So think about that next time you try to wave all these unsubstantiated honors around as some flimsy badge of superiority. If you can’t breakdown why your guy is better on the court and not in the box score or by their Wikipedia page then guess what……………
SN: A couple of extremely important things to note about this post. First, if you don’t know the reference that’s being made in the title then you are a terrible person. No way around that. Additionally, I am not sneering at being inducted into the Hall Of Fame. I think it is the highest form of recognition for a basketball player and each player inducted should be exceedingly proud be honored in such a way. I stand by my sentiment that it in no way is a factor in deciding if one player is better than another. There is no precedent, scale or measuring stick for what makes a Hall Of Fame player. Still with all that being said, I’m glad they let my guy Bubba Chuck in.