Recently, "The Great General" Arenas expressed his dissatisfaction with the Hall of Fame selection criteria in a podcast, believing that the threshold for Hall of Fame induction was too low.
Arenas said: "The success of the team should not be related to the threshold of the Hall of Fame, if you have five championships, then congratulations, that's great. 20 years later, you go for an interview and then you put on your 5 rings. But you can't get into that door like Jordan and Bird. You can't just go in there with a mediocre statistic, I don't know what the hell is going on, a lot of people shouldn't be there. Because the names that can get in there should be the top stars. Hall of Famers are the team's first offensive choice, or a very good second offensive choice. And what team you're talking about as fourth and fifth choice, or the length of your career, get out, you should be a top star.
What Arenas means is that the threshold of the Hall of Fame should reflect the individual strength of the player, and those who are not the first and second choices of the team, even if there are many championships, should not be eligible for the Hall of Fame.
The 2023 Hall of Fame induction ceremony has ended, and Wade, Novitsky, Parker, and Gasol have joined hands to be selected. According to Arenas, some of them are the first choice of the team, some are excellent second choice, and they all have championships in hand, and they are undoubtedly worthy of being inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Hall of Fame induction is still difficult, although the criteria are simple, with only one rule: outstanding contributions to basketball. But being selected is complicated, the first qualification is three years after retirement, after nomination, at least 5 of the 7-member preliminary review team passes, and then the 24-member review team, which requires the consent of 18 people to be selected.
In general, those who can be inducted into the Hall of Fame do have successful careers in the NBA, have beautiful statistics, and usually prefer offensive players. In contrast, it is more difficult for defensive players to be selected. For example, 4-time DPOY Ben Wallace retired for 9 years before being inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Since the establishment of the NBA, those who have won MVPs and met the conditions for inclusion have been inducted into the Hall of Fame. But those who have won FMVP are not necessarily, such as Billups retired in 2014 and nominated many times, but has not been selected so far.
Being able to win the scoring championship in the NBA means that you have super scoring ability, and those who have scored points in the NBA over the years that meet the conditions for selection have also been selected. For example, Maddie, who was questioned by many fans about not having an MVP and no championship, was also selected.
Gorgeous play, many fans, is the core of the team, with these factors, it is relatively easier to be selected into the Hall of Fame, after all, there are many fans, which also represents influence, and influence is the contribution to the basketball cause.
Of course, more than that, after all, since the Hall of Fame standard is a contribution to the basketball cause, it is natural not only to look at the achievements of the NBA, but also to the contribution to the basketball cause worldwide.
Arenas said players with mediocre stats in the NBA don't deserve to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, but they may have contributed to the world arena or elsewhere. For example, Kukoc is only a role player in the Bulls, averaging only 11.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game in his career, winning 3 championships with the Bulls, in addition to winning an honor in the NBA is the best sixth man, but this is undoubtedly insignificant for the Hall of Fame.
However, on the international stage, especially in Europe, Kukochi is a legend. He has won 2 Olympic silver medals, 2 European championships, 1 World Championship champion, and 3 times named the best basketball player in Europe.
Arenas may be dissatisfied that those who are not as strong as his own have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, but he cannot be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
That said, for Arenas, the chances of being inducted into the Hall of Fame are quite slim. There are no great honors, no MVP, no championships, no scoring titles, and the results of leading the team are only divisional semifinals. The most important thing is that Arenas's gun incident is an extremely adverse scandal, or a scandal at the end of his career, and there is no chance to re-use performance to "turn back", and it is even more difficult to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Do you agree with Arenas?