Something you should know about the Basketball Hall of Fame is that it plays fast and loose with the word "fame." Basically, most stars get in eventually. Michael Cooper never made an All-Star Game. Mo Cheeks averaged around 11 points per game.
The two-time champion Knicks of the 1970s had seven total Hall of Fame players, not including Phil Jackson or Red Holzman, who got in as coaches. If the hypothetical "Hall of Very Good" we joke about in other sports existed, it would just be the Basketball Hall of Fame.The Hall inducted its latest class on Saturday, with Amar'e Stoudemire serving as the NBA headliner. So when the CBS Sports NBA staff was posed with a handful of borderline Hall of Famers, you'll be shocked to hear that we leaned into the history and assumed most, despite in some cases relatively low Basketball-Reference probability, would eventually be enshrined.
Will these six veterans ultimately be in or out? Our picks and reasoning are below. The reputation as a non-winning softie is dead.
Towns has always been one of most talented and productive bigs in the game; he is the only player in history to hold career averages of at least 22 points and 11 rebounds per game while shooting 39% from 3. He's a six-time All-Star and three-time All-NBA selection. He was Rookie of the Year.
And now he's an NBA champion as the second-best player on the Knicks. Towns is only 30 and will be stretching the floor for another five years easy. If we had asked this question a few years ago -- or maybe even a few months ago, when the Knicks reportedly dangled him at the trade deadline during their post NBA Cup slump -- it might have elicited a shoulder shrug.
Now the answer is something much more emphatic. The self-professed best shooting big in NBA history has always racked up counting stats, but lately those numbers have come in service of something greater than himself. He was a critical component in delivering the Knicks' first title in 53 years.
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