Hakeem Olajuwon and Patrick Ewing were two of the seven inductees that were enshrined into the Basketball Hall Of Fame.Joining the two centres were fellow NBA player Adrian Dantley, former Miami Heat coach Pat Riley, Detroit Pistons owner Bill Davidson, ESPN personality Dick Vitale and former Immaculata women's coach Cathy Rush. Davidson and Vitale were both inducted as contributors.
Both foreign-born players, Olajuwon grew up playing more soccer than basketball as a child in his native Nigeria while Ewing was born in Jamaica before eventually moving to the Boston area as a child. While Olajuwon was busy forging the footwork skills in soccer that would later make him one of the greatest centres in NBA history, Ewing used to take class field trips to the Hall of Fame, located in nearby Springfield, Massachusetts.
But Ewing never believed that he would one day be among the greats honoured there. "I just remember looking at the greats, Russell, Wilt," he said. "I never thought that I would be among them. It was not until college that I had an idea how good I could be."
One of Ewing's coaches during his 17-year career was Riley, who is one of the most successful coaches in the history of the NBA. A three-time NBA Coach of the Year, Riley has won five championships, four with the Los Angeles Lakers and one with the Miami Heat. He also appeared in the NBA Finals nine times, including with the New York Knicks in 1994.
Meanwhile, Dantley caught the tail end of what has been considered the golden age of big man, playing 15 years with such teams as the Buffalo Braves, the Detroit Pistons, Utah Jazz and the LA Lakers. A six-time All-Star and the league's leading scorer in 1984, Dantley collected 23,177 career points, ranking 23rd on the all-time scoring list.
One of the owners that Dantley worked under was Davidson, who has served as the owner of the Pistons since 1974. He has won three NBA titles in that time, and claimed another two in the WNBA as the owner of the Detroit Shock.
A former coach of the Pistons, Vitale made his real mark on the game of basketball as a college basketball analyst for ESPN. A two-time finalist before being inducted, Vitale was his normal colourful self during the announcement.
"I thought I was going to be the Susan Lucci of Hall of Fame nominations," Vitale joked.
An individual that had to go through five previous nominations before being inducted was Rush, who was one of the top coaches at the start of women's basketball in the 1970s. Rush guided Immaculata to three consecutive AIAW national titles starting in 1972. Overall, she made six straight appearances in the AIAW Final Four.
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