Paul Pierce, Chris Bosh, Chris Webber, Michael Cooper, Lauren Jackson, Ben Wallace and Yolanda Griffith are among the finalists for the 2021 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Class, announced Tuesday on ESPN’s The Jump.
A first-time nominee, Pierce spent 15 of his 19 NBA seasons with the Boston Celtics, winning a championship and final MVP in 2008. He is a 10-time All-Star and second-best scorer in the career of the United States. Celtics. behind John Havlicek.
Bosh was first nominated with the 2020 class, but was not named a finalist. His playing career ended unexpectedly in 2016 after 13 seasons due to a blood clot problem. Bosh, an 11-time All-Star, two-time NBA champion and Olympic gold medalist, officially retired from the Miami Heat in 2019.
Webber, the top pick in 1993, was a five-time All-Star in his 17 NBA seasons and a leading role in Michigan’s “Fab Five,” whose legacy has reshaped college basketball for more than two decades.
Cooper spent 12 seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers as a member of the “Showtime” era, winning five championships. He was named NBA Defensive Player of the Year in 1987 and was on the All-Defense team five times. After his playing career, he went on to coach the Los Angeles Sparks, where he won two championships and the WNBA Coach of the Year in 2000.
Jackson, meanwhile, is one of the most decorated female players, winning the WNBL Most Valuable Player award four times and three times in the WNBA. She is a three-time scoring champion and seven-time WNBA All-Star. She won Defensive Player of the Year in 2007 and was named the 2010 WNBA Finals MVP when she led the Seattle Storm to a championship.
Wallace, one of the best defenders in NBA history, was a four-time All-Star. He won a championship with the Detroit Pistons in 2004. With a career average of just 5.7 points per game, Wallace was selected into six All-Defense teams and is one of only two players (Dikembe Mutombo is the other) to win four Defensive Player of the Year awards.
Griffith, an eight-time WNBA All-Star, won a WNBA Championship in 2005 and was named Final MVP with the Sacramento Monarchs.
Five-time All-Star Marques Johnson and five-time All-Star Tim Hardaway are also finalists.
Also named a finalist in this year’s class: Coach Rick Adelman, the ninth winning coach in NBA history; Villanova coach Jay Wright, two-time NCAA champion; coach Marianne Stanley, who led Old Dominion to an NCAA title in 1985; coach Leta Andrews, the most awarded high school coach of all time, male or female.
NBA legend Bill Russell is also a finalist, but as a coach. Russell, who was admitted as a player in 1975, was the NBA’s first African-American head coach, leading the Celtics to back-to-back championships in 1968 and 1969.
Notable nominees who missed the mark for the 2021 class: Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton, Becky Hammon and Swin Cash.
The entire 2021 class will be revealed at the NCAA Final Four, scheduled for early April.
Class 2021 is scheduled to be admitted in Springfield, Massachusetts in September. The 2020 dedication ceremony, for a star-studded group led by Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett, has been rescheduled and rescheduled for May 13-15 at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut.