V Carter should be a shoe in. 18,000 points. Good for 61st all time. 7 all star games. Two 1st, three 2nd and and three 3rd all nba teams. Umm, led the league in scoring a couple of times. No playoff success, and sorry injuries are part of the decision.
IMO, Tmac was the 2nd best SG (behind Mr. Mamba) for a great portion of his career. It didn't translate into playoff success and he had talent around him a few years, but IMO, he definitely deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. Vince will get in too.
TMAC at his peak was something to watch. Back injuries are killer, but that guy could score with the best of them. I didn't realize he was drafted the year before Vince Carter, but knew he was younger.
I disagree. "Shoulda-woulda-coulda" doesn't amount to the actual success. Putting the likes of T-Mac into HoF devalues it, period. It should have been an exclusive "club", but now... You have to BE something... and T-Mac was never more than a fun-to-argue-about Kobe's adversary. So was Vince, aside from the most important part -- dunks. f***.... Horry might get in...
How do his career stats stack up with others? Next to no playoff success makes it a little puzzling though...
AI's got 6k points over him, VC does too, as well as Ray Allen. Reggie's got 7. He never made an all defense team. So scoring was his calling card and he didn't do it for long enough.
27, 26, 32, 28, 26, 24, 25, 22, 16. Scoring averages over a 9 year period. Then the injury happened and he was pretty much done. in the playoffs he averaged 17, 34, 31, 32, 31, 25, 27. How many people did that that aren't in the Hall of Fame ?
So.... scoring in regular season... that's the criteria? To me, averaging 25/4/4 or whatever, without actually having any tangible success is the definition of empty stats. Was he ever out of the second round?
So, let's count... 9 seasons of 25+ scoring and 6 season of 25+ in playoffs without getting out of first round? Yeah... #notmyhof
Without Shaq or Gasol, Kobe never got out of the 1st round. Up 3-1 in one of those series. Should we hold that against him when it's his time for Hall of Fame voting? McGrady was the 2nd best SG for 7 or 8 straight years. Couple scoring titles. Anyone else with a better resume than him not in the Hall of Fame ?
Nope. I don't give a flying f*** what PC Kobe says... Did you expect him to protest or not react, considering he and T-Mac are close? As for "Should we hold that against him when it's his time for Hall of Fame voting"... there is a vast difference. The reality is -- Kobe had Shaq etc. and he took advantage of that. He had Pau and took advantage of that. T-Mac didn't take advantage of anything, Yao or whatever. You can't deal with hypothetical of the "What if T-Mac was on LAL instead of Kobe". This would be akin to affirmative action. Screw this s***, along with NBA pussification.
Did TMAC get your sister pregnant? Such a strong reaction! If the people who vote on this said yes, I don't have an issue with it. But I can understand wanting The Hall of Fame to be a Hall of Greats, and not a Hall of Really Good I just can't muster a Jim Buss or Lebron or C bag level of distate in this case.
Merit. Justification. I am big on these, as far as rewards go. Not getting out of the first round... doesn't cut it for me.
If accolades were all that important, many of our early Lakers wouldn't be considered Hall of Famers either. Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, Gail Goodrich. West and Goodrich at least had a ring, but Baylor was awarded his by the team. He retired before they won the title. Is Karl Malone a Hall of Fame player? Is Robert Horry? I'm not disagreeing that McGrady is probably the lowest I would set the bar, but there's more nuance here than you're giving credit to.
Making it deep in the playoffs most years, finals appearances does not equal 1st round and or missing the playoffs every year. In a really bad east. Without a LeBron team as an excuse. The Horry/Kerr bs that people like to throw around is just that. We're talking about the #1 option, not a spot up shoot and 4th option on offense. I don't many 18,000k points, in the last 40 years, that pretty much only contributed in that way in the Hall of pretty goods.
At TMAC's peak, I remember struggling with the thought he might be a little better than Kobe. I didn't like that AT ALL. In 02-03 TMAC averaged 32.1 PPG, and Kobe was 30. He outscored Kobe in PPG for 3 straight years, but Kobe set himself apart by doing it year after year after year. In career averages, many of their numbers are not far off from each other. Here is a list of the best scoring season averages in the history of the NBA. I think they might all be HOF's He had a 7 year stretch that was phenomenal, but actually hurt his back in Orlando before the age of 24. He's one of those guys I used to wonder about "If Kobe had his talent...., what would he be able to do with it." TMAC probably had more natural talent. Spoiler: Kobe's career just as a reference.
