Basketball Hall

The Basketball Hall of Fame has blown it. Again.This week it announced the names of eight players who will be enshrined at Springfield, Mass., on May 10.And the name of former Baltimore Bullets player-coach Harry "Buddy" Jeannette is not among them.Some of the new inductees -- Julius Erving and Bill Walton -- were as good as they get in basketball.But this year the Hall of Fame has chosen to honor a Soviet woman, Ulyana Semyanova. It will also take in Dick McGuire, of the New York Knicks, and a former Baltimore Bullet, 6 foot 11 Walt Bellamy, who played here from 1961 to 1966.

Dec. 10, 2000: A 24-3 defeat of the San Diego Chargers earns the Ravens their first NFL postseason berth. Trent Dilfer passes for two touchdowns for host Baltimore (10-4), which wins its fifth straight game and will win six more. "The playoffs are great," safety Kim Herring says, "but we want it all. " Dec. 13, 1980: A dismal shooting night dooms fourth-ranked Maryland, which falls at defending NCAA men's basketball champion Louisville, 78-67 before a national television audience.

Former Baltimore Bullet Gus Johnson, known for his soaring dunks, will enter the Basketball Hall of Fame. PG 2

Basketball Bias, Holliday, Chenier to be inducted into Hall The late Maryland star Len Bias and longtime Terrapins radio voice Johnny Holliday will be inducted into the Washington Metropolitan Basketball Hall of Fame on Nov. 9, it was announced on Tuesday. Former Baltimore-Washington Bullets star Phil Chenier , former Bullets player and GM Bob Ferry and Montrose Christian coach Stu Vetter will also be among those inducted. The ceremony starts at 6p.m.

Margaret Wade, who coached Delta State to three national titles in six seasons in the 1970s and in 1986 became the first woman named to the Basketball Hall of Fame, died yesterday in Cleveland, Miss. She was 82 years old. The cause of death was cancer, family members said.

Former Maryland coach Lefty Driesell is making his first bid this year for the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., while Jim Phelan, Phil Chenier, Gus Johnson, Morgan Wootten, Charlie Eckman and Paul Hoffman are in the midst of repeat attempts to be inducted during ceremonies set for Oct. 13. If the seven men with close ties to basketball in the state of Maryland make it past the selection committee, they will go before an honors committee that...

Hall of FameThe gruffness was replaced with humility last night as Indiana coach Bob Knight was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass."

Magic Johnson will be elected to the basketball Hall of Fame.When? Someday.His enshrinement remains a first-ballot certainty. But now the date of the induction, having already been altered once, is up in the air now that Johnson has come out of retirement, again.His last regular season was 1990-91, so he should have been part of the class of '97 in Springfield, Mass., since players must skip five elections before they go on the ballot.Then he played in the 1991-92 All-Star Game and in the 1992 Olympics.

HE STOOD 5 feet 11 inches tall, hardly a giant by modern basketball standards -- or even by the vagabond standards of the 1940s. Yet Harry "Buddy" Jeannette was a giant in his time, and a fabled part of Baltimore's professional basketball history.Buddy Jeannette died Wednesday at age 80. Many younger sports fans won't recognize the name. But older basketball aficionados know what he did for the Baltimore Bullets. He was star player, coach and general manager for the team in three leagues.

Eckman deserves Hall nodThere was a glaring omission to the list of candidates for the Basketball Hall of Fame. The missing person is Charley Eckman, who was truly unique and whose feats in basketball were legendary and can never be duplicated.Many of your readers will remember Charley as a sportscaster on WCBM and WFBR. Some realize that Charley was the Babe Ruth of basketball referees, rated first or second in college and the pro ranks in the 1950s. He is the only person who ever refereed and coached in the NBA. He won two NBA divisional championships and tied for a third.

Her college jersey hangs from the rafters in the Comcast Center at the University of Maryland. Her name graces a road, Vicky Bullett Street, in her hometown in West Virginia. And on Saturday, her visage will light up the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame when Bullett is enshrined there in Knoxville, Tenn. It's an honor that Bullett, never one to tout herself, said she deserves. "I'm very modest, but I like finally giving myself a compliment," the former Terp and two-time Olympic medalist said.

Former Baltimore Bullet Gus Johnson, known for his soaring dunks, will enter the Basketball Hall of Fame. PG 2

Earl Monroe can still grab a crowd's attention, nearly three decades after he last played a pro basketball game. He proved it last week at the Men's Health Center on North Avenue, where he promoted prostate health awareness. Just by walking into the room, before officials from the city's Total Health Care program could introduce him, he got a standing ovation. Monroe - the former Baltimore Bullet who turned 64 on Friday - is glad to see his health topic get notice. He also hopes for widespread attention to his basketball-related mission: to get more of his fellow products of historically black colleges and universities into the Naismith Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.

It has been three days now, and the ground hasn't opened under the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., and swallowed up the building. So the selection of Dick Vitale didn't turn out as apocalyptic as one would have thought. Still, Vitale is in the most prestigious of basketball shrines and Jim Phelan is not. Not even Vitale, in his moment of glory on Monday, could understand that. But he believes he can explain it. So can one of his new fellow enshrinees, John Thompson, a coach who, like Vitale, thinks Springfield has an obvious void.

Jerry Colangelo expected a celebration at the Basketball Hall of Fame induction ceremonies in Springfield, Mass., earlier this month. Instead, everyone was commiserating over the demise of the U.S. team in the world championships. The team, which Colangelo put together as director of the U.S. men's international basketball efforts, won 13 of 14 games on its world tour and generally took the "ugly" out of "ugly American." "We were well-received," Colangelo said. "People were actually cheering for the U.S. team, which hasn't happened in a long time in international competition.

Award-winning children's author Robert Lawrence (R.L.) Stine of Goosebumps fame and four other nationally recognized authors will speak and sign books at Carroll Community College's eighth book fair this weekend. Wes Unseld, former Baltimore and Washington Bullets center, coach and a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, will be the honorary chairman of the event. "I'm looking forward to enjoying myself," said Unseld, a Carroll County resident. "I understand it's a fabulous event." Random House Inc., a publishing company with a distribution center in Westminster, partners with the college for the event.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - The story of Michael Jordan getting cut from his high school team as a sophomore has been well documented. Not so many know the same thing happened to Clyde Drexler. "They threw me out of the gym," Drexler said yesterday at the Basketball Hall of Fame. "I was terrible. It was a wake-up call. It let me know that only the best players are going to make the team." Drexler did make the team the next year. Clyde "The Glide" went on to play for the University of Houston's high-flying Phi Slamma Jamma team with Hakeem Olajuwon, then for 15 years in the NBA with the Portland Trail Blazers and Houston Rockets.

Magic Johnson will be elected to the basketball Hall of Fame.When?Someday.His enshrinement remains a first-ballot certainty. But now the date of the induction, having already been altered once, is up in the air now that Johnson has come out of retirement, again.His last regular season was 1990-91, so he should have been part of the class of '97 in Springfield, Mass., since players must skip five elections before they go on the ballot.Then he played in the 1991-92 All-Star Game and in the 1992 Olympics.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - The story of Michael Jordan getting cut from his high school team as a sophomore has been well documented. Not so many know the same thing happened to Clyde Drexler. "They threw me out of the gym," Drexler said yesterday at the Basketball Hall of Fame. "I was terrible. It was a wake-up call. It let me know that only the best players are going to make the team." Drexler did make the team the next year. Clyde "The Glide" went on to play for the University of Houston's high-flying Phi Slamma Jamma team with Hakeem Olajuwon, then for 15 years in the NBA with the Portland Trail Blazers and Houston Rockets.

Like many others Tuesday night, sports marketing analyst Dean Bonham watched Kobe Bryant knock down a late three-pointer that might have saved the Los Angeles Lakers' season. The lack of a white American superstar in Game 2 of the NBA Finals between the Lakers and the Detroit Pistons failed to register with Bonham, even as the issue was about to come front-and-center yesterday. Hall of Fame player and Indiana Pacers general manager Larry Bird prescribed more white stars in an interview scheduled to air tonight on an ESPN special.