Not enough offense. If you let Rodman in, you might as well let Mark Eaton in:p
hijack
Leaving Rodman aside for a moment, is it enough to be one of the best ever at your position in the history of the game, or is everyone subject to the same standards?
If membership in the BBall HOF requires offensive and defensive superiority with at least one championship considered a plus, I would imagine there would be many, many more 2’s, 3’s and 5’s in the HOF than 4’s. Anyone have a problem with that?
Fours are generally expected to rebound, play defense, occasionally defend the opposition’s center and discourage 2’s and 3’s from driving the lane. On many teams, there aren’t enough balls to go around for a 4 to get many shots, Karl Malone notwithstanding. Is it reasonable to require a 4 to score a lot of points for HOF membership?
It wasn’t that Rodman was a bad offensive player–he led JUCO with 25 points and 15 rebounds per game, and once led the NBA in shooting percentage. In the NBA he chose to concentrate on defense because he observed that not many other players at the time were doing it. During his time, NBA defense has become such that scoring has lowered at lot. It was probably not because of him, but he was ahead of the curve.
The Basketball Hall of Fame is a squirelly institution. It inducts pros, college players, coaches, international players, both male and female.
So the choices available every year are limited. The BB HOF hasn’t yet inducted an NBA star who was just a defensive star without any offense to offer. That’s not to say that defensive players don’t deserve recognition. It’s just more likely it will be a player far less controversial than Rodman.
I agree with BobT, although Rodman was a supreme rebounder, his 7.3 ppg, will not get it him in the Hall.
Incidently, most of the great NBA players averages go up during the playoffs, as they step up their game a notch.
Rodman’s went down in both points and rebounds, from 7.3 ppg, 13.1 rpg to 6.4 ppg, 9.9 rpg.
When the games meant something, he wasn’t able to elevate his game.
HOFers are able to give that extra effort.
I think it would be reasaonble to state that you should have as many 4’s in the Hall of Fame as any other position. You can’t play basketball with four guys, and each position is more or less equally valuable. Or if not QUITE equally important, it’s not like football where there’s a huge difference. A smart voter will apply appropriate logic to the statistical standards of the position. I don’t see anyone saying “Boy, this point guard has a .445 shooting percentage, and all these centers are around .500. Obviously, the point guard can’t shoot.” Everyone knows each slot has different statistical illusions.
It’s normal, of course, for some positions to become overvalued at the HoF level than others. There ARE fewer 4’s in the Hall that centers or point guards. There are fewer defensemen in the Hockey Hall of Fame than centers, IIRC. There are fewer third basemen in the Baseball Hall of Fame than any other position, in some cases by an amazingly wide margin.
I don’t think you can say that Rodman chose not to score.
I don’t care how many points he scored in JUCO. Kurt Thomas led the nation in scoring (and rebounding, btw) one year at Texas Christian, but has averaged only 10 a game in the NBA, and as a Knicks fan, I can assure you that when he’s on the court, he tries to score. Besides, there’s a big difference between JUCO and NCAA 1-A, not to mention the NBA.
The reason why Rodman led the league in field goal percentage one year was mainly because he refused to take shots other than point-blank layups off of offensive rebounds. If he put up more shots off his offensive rebounds instead of just dishing the ball out, he would have averaged more points per game. If he either had a decent offensive game or the desire to employ it, he would have scored more.
Besides, it’s hard to concentrate on defense when one’s team has the ball. When on offense, concentrate on offense! Rodman concentrated on rebounding while on offense and did a good job at it. Unfortunately, when he got the offensive rebound, he concentrated more on dishing the ball out than putting it back up.
Focusing on offense when on offense shouldn’t diminish a HOFer’s defensive game. Many of the best defenders ever were also great offensive players, and I never saw one part of the game hurt the other with these players.
To address another poster, an NBA player can be great offensively and only average defensively and make the HOF (for example, George Gervin).
Most fans remember Michael Jordan’s last shot as a Bull and many will remember Michael’s steal that lead to that fateful shot, but how many know what a critical role Dennis Rodman played in that steal?
Years later while reminiscing about that steal for his IMAX movie, Michael, no Rodman cheerleader, said that right before the steal, the Bulls were in trouble and needed a steal or a turnover. He knew that if Utah got the ball to Karl Malone that Rodman would be banging the hell out of Malone and that Malone would be banging right back and Michael was pretty sure that with the two of them beating the shit out of each other, that would be enough of a distraction to Malone that Michael could sneak up from behind the baseline and steal the ball. The rest, as they say, is history.
Anecodotal, yes, but Rodman helped to make all kinds of good things happen with a surprising frequency.