On September 12, 2007, FIBA will induct the 2007 class of international players into the new FIBA Hall-of-Fame. The inductees were chosen from a large list of nominees that numbered nearly 200 of some of the most influential players, coaches, referees and contributors not already in the hall. The ceremony will take place in Alcobendas (Madrid, Spain).

Some of the greatest legends around the world being inducted into the twenty-person 2007 class include Sergei Belov (RUS), Dražen Dalipagic (SRB), Nikos Galis (GRE), Hortência Marcari, the great Brazilian women’s player (BRA), Ann Meyers (USA), Bill Russell of the Boston Celtics (USA), and the Latvian giant Uljana Semjonova (LAT).

For obvious reasons, there is deeper focus on international contributions and because of their criterion — “outstanding achievement at the international level” is inherently biased against NBA players since they were disallowed from competition until 1989. It’s odd to see any basketball hall-of-fame that doesn’t include nominees Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson, and weird that Larry Bird and Wilt Chamberlain weren’t even nominated.

I’d argue that the entire 1992 US Men’s Olympic Team should be enshrined. Based on their presence in the tournament of the Americas and in the 1992 Olympics Games in Barcelona, it displayed just how important the NBA was admired in international basketball. Additionally, the NBA played a huge part, like it or not, in influencing what basketball is today. Their

I do, however, understand that FIBA wants to recognise international involvement, which up to this point has been somewhat ignored by the Naismith Basketball Hall-of-Fame. I am definitely in support of inducting 30-50 in their first class just because FIBA’s hall is so far behind, twenty is almost ridiculously low especially considering that the twenty inductees includes eight non-players – coaches, officials and contributors.

In addition to Magic, Jordan, Bird and Chamberlain – some of the players that didn’t make the first cut include Brazilian great Oscar Schmidt, Australian Andrew Gaze, Dino Meneghin, Jerry West, Cheryl Miller, Juan Antonio San Epifanio of Spain, Lithuanian legend Modestas Palauskas, Dejan Bodiroga and Oscar Robertson.