Paul Pierce, Chris Bosh, Chris Webber, Michael Cooper, Lauren Jackson, Ben Wallace and Yolanda Griffith are among the finalists in the 2021 class at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, announced Tuesday in The Jump, of ESPN.
Pierce, first nominated, spent 15 of his 19 seasons in the NBA with the Boston Celtics, winning a championship and Most Valuable Player of the Finals in 2008. He is 10 times All-Star and second highest scorer in the Celtics career behind John Havlicek.
Bosh was first nominated with the 2020 class, but was not named a finalist. His career as a player ended unexpectedly in 2016 after 13 seasons due to a blood clot problem. Bosh, an 11-time All-Star, two-time NBA champion and Olympic gold medalist, officially retired in 2019 as a member of the Miami Heat.
Webber, the first pick in 1993, was a five-time All-Star in his 17 seasons in the NBA and a lead role in the Michigan “Fab Five,” the legacy of which has reshaped college basketball for more than two decades.
Cooper spent 12 seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers as a member of the “Showtime” era, winning five championships. He was named NBA Defensive Player of the Year in 1987 and was included on the All-Defense team five times. After his career as a player, he coached the Los Angeles Sparks, winning two championships and WNBA Coach of the Year in 2000.
Jackson, meanwhile, is one of the most decorated female players, winning the WNBL Most Valuable Player award four times and the WNBA three times. She is a three-time scoring champion and seven-time WNBA All-Star. She won Defensive Player of the Year in 2007 and was named MVP of the WNBA Finals in 2010 when she led the Seattle Storm to a championship.
Wallace, one of the best defenders in NBA history, was a four-time All-Star. He won a championship in 2004 with the Detroit Pistons. With a career average of just 5.7 points per game, Wallace was nominated for six All-Defense teams and is one of only two players (Dikembe Mutombo is the other) to win four Defensive Player of the Year awards. .
Griffith, an eight-time WNBA All-Star, won a WNBA championship in 2005 and was named MVP of the Finals with the Sacrament Monarchs.
Five-time All-Star Mark Johnson and five-time All-Star Tim Hardaway are also finalists.
He was also named a finalist in this year’s class: coach Rick Adelman, the ninth-most winning coach in NBA history; Villanova coach Jay Wright, two-time NCAA champion; coach Marianne Stanley, who led Old Dominion to an NCAA title in 1985; coach Leta Andrews, the most winning high school coach of all time, male or female.
NBA legend Bill Russell is also a finalist, but in this case as a coach. Russell, who was admitted as a player in 1975, was the first African-American head coach in the NBA and led the Celtics to consecutive championships in 1968 and 1969.
Notable nominees who did not pass the cut for the 2021 class: Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton, Becky Hammon and Swin Cash.
The entire 2021 class will be unveiled during the NCAA Final Four, scheduled for early April.
The 2021 class is scheduled to be admitted to Springfield, Massachusetts, in September. The 2020 consecration ceremony, by a group full of stars led by Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett, was rescheduled and relocated and is scheduled for May 13 and 15 at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut.