By Jordan Long
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame has made the nominations for the class of 2020. Among them are Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan who led the way of 50 possible candidates. This is their first time on the ballot. Both of them have been retired for 3 years which is the minimum criteria to wait to have their name for consideration for membership.
Bryant and Duncan should be enshrined. Bryant played his whole career in an L.A. Lakers’ uniform. He became one of the best shooting guards in NBA history. Bryant averaged 25 points per game. His final total for points in a career was 33,643, ranking him 3rd All-Time in NBA history. For his play in the regular season, Bryant was the MVP once, 2008.
In the playoffs, an athlete wants to perform at the highest level. Bryant’s teams made the NBA playoffs 15 times, winning the NBA Championship in 5 of those runs. Bryant won the MVP of the NBA Finals twice. In 220 postseason games, he averaged 25.6 points per game
Besides Bryant’s points, he is one of the most accomplished basketball players to set foot on an NBA court. He appeared in 18 All-Star games, 2nd only to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who went 19 times. He took home the All-Star MVP 4 times. Looking at all this, Bryant should be a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
Duncan also needs to be voted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Duncan was like Bryant because he stayed in one place his whole career, the San Antonio Spurs, spending 19 years there.
Duncan became one of the top defenders in NBA history. Opposing teams found it difficult to make buckets in the lane on Duncan. He used his height at 6 foot 11 inches to block a shot, ending in 3,020 blocks, 5th on the NBA’s all-time list. Duncan boxed out to grab rebounds which started fast break opportunities or second chance points for his team. Those ended in 15,091 rebounds, ranking him 6th in NBA history.
Besides being a defender, Duncan was a threat to score near the basket. He averaged 19 points per game. Rival teams couldn’t stop him when he drove into the lane. Those were easy buckets for Duncan and extended the Spurs’ lead. Duncan made the NBA All-Star team 15 times for his play in the regular season. He was named MVP of the All-Star Game in 2000.
The Spurs went to the postseason 18 times with Duncan, winning 5 NBA Championships along the way. He was named the NBA Finals MVP in 3 of those championship runs. In the playoffs, Duncan averaged 20.6 points and 11.4 rebounds per game.
Bryant and Duncan will find out if they are finalists during All-Star weekend in Chicago February 14th to the 16th. Once that is done, during the Final Four on April 4th, they will announce the class of 2020. Both of them deserve this highest honor and hopefully, they will hear their name.
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