Cleveland – San Antonio Spurs legend and four-time NBA champion Manu Ginobili and WNBA legends Swin Cash and Lindsay Whelan have led the 11 finalists in the North American and women’s teams for the 2022 Nicemith Hall of Fame class.
The other eight finalists are: former Los Angeles Laker Michael Cooper; Former Milwaukee Bucks forward Marquez Johnson; Longtime NBA referee Hugh Evans; Long-time college coach Bob Hawkins; Longtime NBA coach George Carl; Women’s College and WNBA Coach Marianne Stanley; Five-time All-Star Tim Hardway; And Texas Girls High School basketball coach Letta Andrews.
Xenophilie – along with Hall of Famer Bill Bradley – one of only two winners of the Euroleak title, NBA degree and gold medal – to become one of the faces of the Spurs dynasty with Hall of Famer Tim Duncan and future Hall of Famer. Famous Tony Parker, and won the gold medal with Argentina in 2004 and the bronze medal in 2008. His desire to get off the bench for most of his career helped turn San Antonio’s second units into weapons of mass destruction.
Cash has won three NBA Championships, two NCAA Championships and two Olympic gold medals – Time All-Star. Valen is a four-time WNBA Champion with the Minnesota Lynx and a two-time Olympic gold medalist, building five All-Star teams and three WNBA top teams in his 15-year career with the Connecticut Sun and Lynx.
Cooper was one of the best Lakers defensive announcers of the 1980s, winning five NBA Championships, and five All-Defensive Team Awards and the League’s Defensive Player of the Year award in 1987. Formed five All-Star teams with Johnson Bucks. , And won the national championship during his college career at UCLA, while Evans was an NBA referee for 28 years, during which time he played in 170 playoff games, 35 NBA Finals and four NBA All-Star Games.
Hardway is a five-time All-Star and Olympic gold medalist who has wiped out his signature crossover opponents, primarily with the Golden State Warriors and the Miami Heat in his 13 NBA seasons. Carl holds the NBA Coach’s sixth win, 1,175, and reached the NBA Finals through the Seattle Supersonics in 1996 – one of six stops in 27 seasons as NBA coach. Hawkins has coached in Cincinnati, Kansas and West Virginia, was one of only six Division I coaches to win at least 900 games, and finished fourth in 1992 and 2010.
Stanley, currently coaching the WNBA’s Indiana Fever, won the College National Championship at the Old Dominion in 1985 and later coached at Ben, USC, Stanford and Call. Andrews has coached the Texas High School girls team for 51 years and amassed 1416 wins – more than any high school coach, male or female, of all time.
The 2022 class will be officially released during the final four on April 2 in New Orleans, and will be engraved on September 10 in the Hall in Springfield, Mass.
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