This weekend the 2012 Basketball Hall of Fame class will be enshrined in Springfield, MA. The 12 inductees include: Don Barksdale, Lidia Alexeeva, Mel Daniels, Chet Walker, Phil Knight, the All-American Red Heads, Katrina McClain, Reggie Miller, Don Nelson, Hank Nichols, Ralph Sampson, and Jamaal Wilkes.
HHSR wants to take a quick second to focus on two of these individuals: Don Nelson and Reggie Miller.
I respect Don Nelson’s accomplishments, particularly being the winningest head coach in NBA History with 1,335 victories. He also won NBA Coach of the Year three times and was a member of five NBA Championship teams with the Celtics in the 1960’s and 70’s. However what I find hard to accept is that this guy never made any attempt at trying to coach defense. EVER.
As the saying goes, “Offense sells tickets, defense wins championships.” It’s no wonder that Nelson never won a championship as a head coach. In fact, he never even won a conference title as a coach, despite 31 SEASONS (THIRTY-ONE!) on the bench in the NBA! Maybe this is why he had yet to be elected to the Hall of Fame until now, but he was always an overrated coach. He was named one of the 10 best coaches in NBA history, yet he’s the only coach on the list to have never won a championship. Don’t get me wrong, Nelson has forgotten more about basketball than most will ever know, but he’s probably the most overrated coach in the history of American sports.
Reggie Miller, on the other hand, is one of the great shooters and clutch scorers of all-time, and should already be in Springfield. People occasionally forget how big this dude came up consistently in crunch time. Reggie admirably spent his entire 18-year career with the Indiana Pacers, and holds the franchise records in points and steals. Miller is a five-time NBA All-Star, three-time All-NBA Third Team selection, and won an Olympic Gold Medal in 1996. He retired #1 in league history in three-pointers made and is one of the 10 best shooting guards of ever, and you could argue he deserves to be in the top five.
We all remember Reggie dropping eight points in 8.9 seconds on the Knicks in 1995 (a game I remember watching live…still incredible) and his shot against the Bulls where he gives Jordan the Bryon Russell treatment just weeks before Jordan gave Bryon Russell the Bryon Russell treatment, but HHSR wants to look back at Miller cookin’ John Starks to the tune of a 25 point 4th quarter in the Garden against the Knicks in 1994.
Spike Lee is a truly great film director, but when he dies, they’re gonna carve the YouTube link to this game on his tombstone.
Sorry Spike, but shooting like this can get you a full ride to Big State!