Jim McIsaac. Getty Images.
Back in December, we were informed of the official list of nominees for the 2025 Basketball Hall Of Fame, and for the most part, the names were what most people expected to see
Whenever these class lists come out, it’s always a great opportunity to see who does or doesn’t know ball. With this particular class, there were two polarizing players that have a lot of people split as to whether or not they’re not only HOF worthy, but First Ballot worthy.
1. Carmelo Anthony
2. Dwight Howard
Frankly, I don’t know how any person could suggest these two aren’t HOFers, and I’ll go one step further and say I can’t even see the argument that both aren’t First Ballot players. The production is the production. You may not like the player, but that doesn’t change what they did over the course of their basketball careers.
Today, we learned that Melo is, in fact, a First Ballot guy
Again, to me, this is about as easy of a no brainer as it gets:
– 10x All Star
– 6x All NBA (2 Second Teams, 4 Third teams)
– Top 75 Team Member
– All Rookie
– 1x Scoring Champ
– 3x Gold Medal Winner
– College Champ
– 12th all time in scoring with 28,289 points (NBA/ABA, 10th in just NBA)
The fact is that despite not winning a title, Melo was one of the best scorers of his era. This is a fact, not an opinion. You don’t make the Top 75 team by accident, and every single player around him in that career point total is a first ballot guy. Current guys like LeBron, KD, and Harden will be too. There is no rule that says you need to win a title in order to be in the HOF, or that you can’t be a flawed basketball player. Was Melo perfect? No, but who is? That’s certainly not a reason to keep him out of the HOF or not have him be a First Ballot guy given what he actually did on the court.
This isn’t even a case of “the Basketball Hall Of Fame let’s everyone in nowadays” that you could apply to some guys who have gotten the nod recently. Melo’s case is bullet proof to anyone who actually watched him play and can evaluate his career without bias. I’m not a Nuggets or Knicks fan, I have no rooting interest in this. I’m just someone who lived through that era and knew what it was like trying to stop this guy. His scoring ability was truly ridiculous
My guess is we’ll get a similar announcement with Dwight Howard as well, and the same will be true for him. An easy lock to be a First Ballot player. One of the most dominant two-way players of his era, I can’t see how he doesn’t get the same nod.
With all these players from my era of NBA fandom now starting to get inducted into the HOF, it’s a not so needed reminder that we’re all getting old as shit. I feel like it was just yesterday we were seeing all of these guys be in their prime, and now you blink, and suddenly we’re talking about their HOF inductions. Where the hell has all the time gone?
So congrats to Melo. Even with this being a no brainer decision, it’s still a pretty awesome accomplishment to cap off what was one hell of a basketball career.
