We love to argue basketball at the Boxscore Geeks. It's no joke that a discussion of who the best players of all time can easily lead us down hour long discussions or super long email threads. So when we put Arturo to the task, he took the Hall of Fame seriously. Arturo came up with his own recipe for the standard he'd give any player before using his imaginary vote to get into the Hall of Fame (check out the original post here)
A reminder, Arturo looked at how a player performed in their prime and their whole career. A blend of being a dominant player or having a great career -- the two are not mutually exclusive. Sponsored by Tim Duncan! -- are the keys to getting Arturo's stamp of approval. Thankfully the top names have all already gotten their place. Sadly, Arturo's found a list of players that deserve a little more credit. Here's a big list of forty of them!
| Rank | Player | HoF Score |
|---|---|---|
| 21 | Buck Williams | 70.0 |
| 26 | Sidney Moncrief | 63.2 |
| 28 | Nate McMillan | 60.2 |
| 29 | Maurice Cheeks | 60.1 |
| 30 | Larry Nance | 59.8 |
| 33 | Horace Grant | 59.1 |
| 35 | Fat Lever | 55.1 |
| 37 | Michael Cage | 54.2 |
| 40 | Mark Jackson | 53.4 |
| 43 | Terry Porter | 51.9 |
| 45 | Cedric Maxwell | 50.3 |
| 46 | T.R. Dunn | 50.0 |
| 47 | Jeff Hornacek | 49.8 |
| 48 | Larry Smith | 49.4 |
| 49 | Dale Davis | 49.4 |
| 50 | Anthony Mason | 49.3 |
| 51 | Bobby Jones | 49.1 |
| 52 | Rodney McCray | 48.3 |
| 56 | Alvin Robertson | 44.5 |
| 58 | Kevin Johnson | 43.7 |
| 59 | A.C. Green | 43.5 |
| 60 | Bo Outlaw | 43.5 |
| 63 | Charles Oakley | 42.3 |
| 64 | Paul Pressey | 41.9 |
| 66 | P.J. Brown | 40.7 |
| 68 | James Donaldson | 40.2 |
| 69 | Hersey Hawkins | 40.1 |
| 70 | Tree Rollins | 40.0 |
| 71 | Bill Laimbeer | 39.8 |
| 72 | Marques Johnson | 39.5 |
| 74 | Dan Roundfield | 39.1 |
| 76 | Vlade Divac | 38.9 |
| 79 | Don Buse | 37.2 |
| 80 | Muggsy Bogues | 36.9 |
| 86 | Steve Mix | 35.1 |
| 88 | Eddie Jones | 34.7 |
| 90 | Foots Walker | 33.9 |
| 92 | Dan Majerle | 33.6 |
| 93 | Rod Strickland | 33.3 |
| 95 | Detlef Schrempf | 32.5 |
As a clarification, Arturo looked the top 100 players since the modern era (1978) of basketball -- the rank next to each player's name is where they rank on this list.. Letting in about three players a season since 1984, you'd think there'd be ample time to let all the players in. Not so fast! Now, the good news is that a good number of Arturo's top 100 players are either: already in the Hall; still active; or not yet eligible. And don't worry, we'll get to all of them. But these forty names are players that have been sadly denied their right! Here's what Arturo had to say on the subject
Much as I'd like to, we can't induct everyone on this list. I'd focus on the most egregious. Buck Williams, Sidney Moncrief, Nate McMillan, Maurice Cheeks, Larry Nance, Horace Grant, Fat Lever and Bobby Jones (who gets penalized a bit here for splitting eras) all should be in as quickly as possible. Michael Cage, Mark Jackson, Terry Porter and Cedric Maxwell can wait for a while.
I'll use Arturo as proof that Celtics fans just don't seem to appreciate Cedric Maxwell. What do you think? Who's the most egregious person not in the Hall? We'll be back soon with the best active players that have already stamped their ticket, and the no-brainer (to us) First-Ballot players.