Sure, 6 time all star on a perpetually shitty team. Then he rode the Gravy Train to a ring with the Lakers. That's not HOF material.
Yeah, I guess he was a volume scorer on a terrible team. There's no way his career should be a Hall of Fame career though. Shit, didn't even break .500. He played in 23 playoff games total. Lillard's already played 27 games in the playoffs.
The point is to pick the worst of the best. Saying Mitch Richmond isn't Hall of Fame in our mind doesn't mean he isn't damn, damn good. Someone is the worst of the best of recent inductees. Mitch might just be that person unless you can point out someone else.
Which nation is that? He didn't even play NCAA Division I ball. I once averaged over 40 ppg and 20 rpg in a rec league, Does that count, too? Then he definitely did not lead the nation in scoring. Those three seasons, the official NCAA Division I scoring leaders were: 1983-84 - Joe Jaubic, Akron - 30.1 ppg 1984-85 - Xavier McDaniel, Wichita State - 27.2 ppg 1985-86 - Terrance Bailey, Wagner, 29.2 ppg So, not only was Rodman playing in the much weaker Division II, guys playing in Division I scored more points per game than he did. BNM
Again, it's the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, not the NBA Hall of Fame. Can you name 5 players that had a better college career than Walton. Jabbar/Alcindor is one. After that, maybe Sampson, if you only consider individual achievements, or Laettner if you only consider team success, but if you consider both individual achievements and team success, Walton trumps them both. Throw in Walton's two NBA titles, MVP award and finals MVP award and his overall body of work is HoF worthy. BNM
I also thought of Richmond. Good individual stats, and I'd forgotten he'd even won a ring with the Lakers. Then I looked up his post season stats and it became clear why I'd forgotten his championship season. He played a total of 4 minutes in the playoffs that year. He did average at least 21.9 ppg every year for the first 10 years of his NBA career. Even though that was mostly on bad teams, that is a significant achievement. Not sure if it's HoF worthy, but not many guys have done that. BNM
He scored 26.8 ppg in 84-85, Xavier McDonald outscored him, 27.2 PPG. I remember he led the nation in scoring. Must be that he lost the scoring lead in the end. Anyhow, the point is he was a huge scorer in college. Didn't look like a scorer in the pros, though he had 30/20 games, which are rare. He led the NBA in rebounding for 7 straight seasons, averaging 16.7 per game for that whole stretch. He literally was the best rebounder since guys who played in the 1960s and grabbed ridiculous numbers of rebounds.
My favorite was Charles Carney. Cann and Peck were overrated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1920_NCAA_Men's_Basketball_All-Americans
I was unimpressed with Richmond even when he played. Ditto for many Don Nelson stars...flashy/muscular offenses, while losing games. Stotts needs to improve his defense or he'll get classified in the same boat. I loved Walton, who played heroically.
