Basketball is immediate.  It's the youth game, the TV game, and along with the NFL the media favorite.  Internationally, it is the one American sport culturally accessible to the masses and acceptable to the elites.

It just doesn't have history.  Not the way baseball does.  Baseball has over a hundred years of stats, a century of legends, a sense of place and time.  Enough to make debates over membership in the Baseball Hall of Fame intense and passionate.  To make membership in the Hall of Fame something special.  The fulfillment of a life long ambition.

This week the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (yes, it's really called that) announced 15 finalists for election later this year.  America yawned and went back to watching American Idol, even those among us whose TV sets have become a spike stuck into the vein of our sports addiction.  I'm guessing even hard core basketball fans either didn't notice this news or didn't much care.

Why?  Beyond history the NMBBHOF (sounds like somewhere you'd get your taxes done or order waffles) is all things to all people.  There are four separate branches feeding into the ballot.  The North American Committee, the Veterans Committee, the Women's Committee, and the International Committee.

Which makes sense in the context of the Naismith Museum's mission to educate people about the sport.  But it lumps the NBA, the NCAA men's, NCAA women's, WNBA, and international game together.  What you get is a Hall of Fame class like this one from 2007:

Van Chancellor, Pedro Ferrandiz, Phil Jackson, Mirko Novosel, Mendy Rudolph, the Texas Western Team, and Roy WIlliams.  Six names, three of which you might have heard of.  No players of note.  (By way of information for younger readers, the Texas Western team changed basketball by defeating Kentucky for the NCAA championship in 1966 with an integrated roster.)

It is unlikely anyone debated the 2007 selections or even much noticed them.  Roy Williams and Phil Jackson were the "names" of the class, and dominated the scant media coverage.

This year's class at least has some star power.  Hakeem Olajuwon, Pat Riley, Patrick Ewing, Dennis Johnson, Don Nelson, Adrian Dantley, Chris Mullin, Don Nelson, and Dick Vitale crowd the ballot.

There are ten choices (which include the big names) on the North American ballot and you need 18 votes to get in.  There is a lone candidate on the women's ballot, two on the veteran's ballot, and two names on the international ballot.

That makes Cathy Rush alot more likely to enter the Hall than than Adrian Dantley.  Rush won three straight national titles at Immaculate in the 70's, but only coached seven seasons.  On a ballot with one name it will take seven blank ballots to keep Rush out of the Hall.

Kerr and Richie Guerin are the only names on the veteran's ballot.  Kerr is a Chicago basketball legend as an announcer, and played and coached in the NBA during the late fifties and sixties.  Guerin was a contemporary of Kerr.  Definitely a better player, possibly a better coach.  But he's been away from the spotlight and Kerr is a continuing TV presence.   Kerr has been a finalist for three years running, so he'll probably make it this time.

The international committee has sent a player or coach in every year since 2001 and will probably name Togo Soares this year.  He's a coaching legend in Latin America and deserves the honor.

Ewing and Olajuwon should go in this year, but haven't been finalists yet.  It should be Dick Vitale's year.  Pat Riley might have a shot.  But Adrian Dantley, a prolific scorer at Notre Dame and in the NBA might be left on the bench again.  He's been a finalist for six of the last seven years, and something tells me the small core voting against him by leaving his name off isn't going to relent.

Despite the awkward process, the Hall does seem to get things right.  If you look at the list of enshrinees it is difficult to argue with who is in, or more importantly identify worthy candidates left out.
 
http://www.hoophall.com/halloffamers/bhof-halloffamers-alpha.html

A few names stood out among the missing.  Charlie Scott, a great player at UNC under Dean Smith and the first great black athlete at that school.  Bernard King, a scoring machine at Tennessee and the pros.  Artis Gilmore and Mel Daniels, two great ABA centers.  Roger Brown of the Indiana Pacers also should be there for sure.

So what should be different?  There should be more research done and more finalists to choose from on the women's and international ballots.  And there should be a bigger pool of voters and a different criteria for selection off the North American ballot.

None of this will do as much for the Hall as what will be done next year.  Michael Jordan will have been out of the NBA for 5 years and become eligible.  This will bring the ultimate star power to bear on the ceremonies and maybe put the Hall, if not on the map, at least somewhere in the arena. 

The basketball hall will never have the glory of Cooperstown.  But it's an interesting discussion.  Plus, you can win a bunch of bar bets taking money from people who won't realize Michael Jordan IS NOT in the basketball hall of fame.

That's worth something.