Allen Iverson, Yao, Shaq lead 2016 Basketball HOF class
HOUSTON - Allen Iverson, Shaquille O'Neal, Tom Izzo, Sheryl Swoopes, Yao Ming and Jerry Reinsdorf have been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
The announcement was made in Houston in advance of Monday night's NCAA Tournament championship game between Villanova and North Carolina.
Iverson was an 11-time NBA All-Star who was named rookie of the year in 1996-97. The top overall pick in the 1992 draft, O'Neal was a 15-time All-Star who was the NBA MVP in 2000 and a three-time NBA Finals MVP.
In a 2014 "Real Sports" documentary on HBO, former 76ers coach Larry Brown told Bryant Gumbel that Iverson was the "greatest competitor of all time, toughest kid of all time, maybe the greatest athlete I've ever seen."
Izzo, the Michigan State coach, won a national title in 2000 and has taken his team to the Final Four seven times. Swoopes helped Texas Tech to a national title, won four titles with the Houston Comets, was a three-time WNBA MVP and won three Olympic gold medals.
Yao was the top overall pick in 2002 and was an eight-time NBA All-Star playing his entire career for the Houston Rockets. His contribution to the game's growth in China is hard to measure, but many credit him with basketball's soaring popularity there now.
Reinsdorf has been the owner of the Chicago Bulls and White Sox for more than two decades.
Other 2016 Hall entrants include "the first African-American coach in a professional league John McLendon," "Zelmo Beaty from the Veterans Committee," "27-year NBA referee Darell Garretson," and "Cumberland Posey from the Early African American Pioneers Committee."
"The impact the Class of 2016 has had on the game of basketball is gigantic," said John L. Doleva, President and CEO of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. "To have several icons of the game be recognized in the same year makes this class one of the most memorable to date. We look forward to honoring each of these inductees during Enshrinement in September."