Hornets Hype

I’m not sure I even knew where the Basketball Hall of Fame was until this weekend. (For all of you who are similarly oblivious, it’s in Springfield, MA.) But here we were driving down the Mass Pike on our way to a wedding, and we see a sign on the side of the highway that says “Basketball Hall of Fame.” We’re like, really? Here? Why? And then we thought, well, of course we have to go. It was the randomest of things. But I thought I’d share some of the pictures we took. Most of them are of weird stuff. Because I like weird stuff.

First of all, if you mean to go to the Basketball Hall of Fame, you cannot miss it. It’s right off the exit, for one thing, and for another, it’s the place with the giant basketball on top of a big white tower (see left). Oh, P.S.– at any time feel free to click on the pics to biggify them; I had to shrink them to thumbnails just to get them all into the post. Your $16 will get you a ticket with the names and pictures of the current year’s inductee class on it. This year, that’s Michael Jordan, David Robinson, C. Vivian Stringer, Jerry Sloan, and John Stockton, but none of their stuff is there yet because they don’t get inducted until September 10th. There was, however, construction tape roping off a section on the 2nd floor where they were ripping some walls out, and a sign informing us that this is where the MJ exhibit is going to be.

The Hall of Fame is set up around a three level dome. You walk in, they put you on an elevator, which whisks you up to the third floor. The third floor is where all the Hall of Famers are. Their pictures are on the walls (see left), and below them are boxes containing basketball artifacts, the HOFers’ biographies, some videos, and a neat historical timeline matching the history of basketball to other events that were going on in the world. Basically, you start in the 1800s and walk around the circle. On the second floor are specific exhibits– they have one for great high school teams and another for great college teams, one dedicated to pro dynasties, one for broadcasters (that one’s interactive, which is cool for the kids), one for coaches, as well as random jerseys and shoes and stuff from popular players. And on the first floor is a basketball court, so at any time you can wander over to the railing and look down and see all the kids playing (right).

Now, to have a good time at the Basketball Hall of Fame, I am going to posit that you have to be something of a nerd. In particular, a history nerd. And you have to be willing to read a lot. Which is why I’m sure, for instance, we probably got more out of the third floor than the group of high school ballers who were wandering through at the same time as us. If you want to see people you’ve heard of, you might as well skip the first two thirds of the top floor, because they’re not going to be there. Remember, most people you’ve heard of aren’t in the Hall. Even Jordan’s not yet. So, non-history buffs beware– you might want to proceed downstairs and do the silly stuff like sticking your foot in Shaq’s shoeprint (left). But you would be missing out.

Anyhow, basketball was invented in 1891 by Dr. James Naismith. He was Canadian! I bet you didn’t know that. So you enjoy your basketball heritage, Raps fans. The first game was played at the YMCA at what is now the location of Springfield College, hence the random location of the HOF. But it was quickly picked up by colleges who wanted a way to keep their athletes in shape between football and baseball seasons. Women’s basketball was started only a year later in 1892 by Senda Berenson Abbott (left), who was a gymnastics instructor at nearby Smith College. Yet– go figure– she didn’t get into the HOF until 1985! Yay for sexism, right? She was appropriately the first woman inducted, and there have been lots more since. Of course, I took her picture.

The old stuff in the HOF is hilarious. Here’s an early Knicks uniform on the right. It’s made out of sweater and has a belt! They used to also wear knee pads. They didn’t even have sneakers until 1917, when the Converse Chuck Taylor’s were invented (yup, they’ve got one on display). I got a huge kick out of the gear from the early 20th century. Also the totally random factoids. Like: Did you know the basket used to have to be opened by the ref after a team scored, to let the ball out? It wasn’t until 1906 that it dawned on someone to leave the bottom of the basket open. (There wasn’t a lot of scoring in early basketball.) And they had to invent the backboard because games were often played in crazy places like opera houses and there would be people reaching down over the wall from their seats to interfere with baskets? And they had to move the basket a few feet out from the wall because players used to try to run up the wall to lay the ball in? (I don’t know, doesn’t this seem like kind of a cool thing to put back in the game? Just for an exhibition at the All Star Game or something? With the athleticism of the players these days? I totally wanna see this!)

One of the cooler things in the early days of basketball was barnstorming. There were several organized leagues– it was more like in Europe than anything else we have in the U.S. But some teams, like the New York Renaissance, the first all-black team, and the Harlem Globetrotters, weren’t allowed in a league, so they would barnstorm– which was basically getting on a train or a bus and traveling around challenging whatever teams would play you. There was even a women’s team called the Red Heads (they all had red hair) who barnstormed and won something like 80% of their games against men’s teams. Because of the travel, basketball pretty much stuck to the eastern part of the U.S. for many years. We also learned that, in addition to the Boston Celtics (speaking of which, there’s one of Red Auerbach’s cigars, left), there was also a New York Celtics. You always think the players today are huge compared to 50 years ago, but I don’t know. Some of those guys in the 1920’s pictures clearly worked out. Dudes had pretty big arms, even if they weren’t as tall.

After awhile, we worked our way around the circle to the guys I’ve heard of. One of the things I liked were the commemorative balls. They’re all painted and written on with the names and dates of the accomplishments, and some of them are really old. This one on the right isn’t– it’s the ball from when the 1995-96 Bulls hit their 70th win. Then there was the quirky stuff. They’ve got Red Auerbach’s cigar– imagine anyone lighting up on the bench these days, even after the game was won. It would never happen. They’ve got Pistol Pete Maravich’s socks. Yep, his socks. I guess he used to wear tall floppy socks. And there is an actual pair of them in a glass case (see left). Pistol Pete is one of the jerseys retired in New Orleans Arena, even though he never played for the New Orleans Hornets (you know, I was just thinking, if we’re gonna do that, it seems like we’d also retire Larry Brown, who played for New Orleans’ ABA team, the Bucs, doesn’t it? But which jerseys are appropriate to retire where is another topic for another day). And he was, as far as I could tell, the first Louisiana guy in the HOF.

Oh, and small shorts! Let me tell you, there is a plethora of small shorts. The Hall of Fame is like an ode to the small short. There’s Bill Russell’s small shorts. And Wilt Chamberlain’s small shorts. I took pictures of several pairs of small shorts, but I will only grace you with one. These are Dave Cowens’ small shorts from the 1979-80 season. Now, it may be hard to get the proper perspective in this picture, but I am telling you, I own shorts the same size as these shorts. Am I a six foot nine man? Am I? I ask you. Amazing. The small shorts just slayed me. If you are a fan of small shorts, you should definitely check out the Basketball Hall of Fame. (Interestingly enough, the shorts started out long in the early days of basketball, got short, and then got long again. The era of the small short was fleeting yet legendary.)

One of the weirdest things about the HOF is that all of today’s great coaches… are already there! You need to be retired at least five years to be eligible if you’re a player, but coaches need to have been retired for five years or to have coached for 25 years. So Phil Jackson and Pat Riley and Larry Brown and Jerry Sloan… these guys are already in, even though their careers are still going. On the left was one of my favorite things– that’s Pat Riley’s pre-game speech to the Miami Heat the night they won the championship in 2006. His handwriting’s kind of hard to read, but I just found it amazingly cool to see all written out. What he thought was important, what he underlined, the quotes he picked. So did he deliver it like it was on the paper? Or just use it as a reference? I guess we have to ask James Posey.

On the second floor there are interactive displays where you can measure your wingspan (70″, and mine was longer than mW’s despite him being taller than me), see if you can palm a basketball (uh, the baby sized one), figure out your vertical leap (only like a foot, but I was wearing flip flops and hungover), and do other silly stuff like that. On the right, we can see that I am shorter than Manute Bol …. but! Taller than Muggsy Bogues. There are also more jerseys, sneakers, and team histories. There was also a small case full of Paul Pierce stuff (I suspect there is rather more Celtics stuff in the HOF than other teams because of its location less than 2 hours outside Boston). Which included– I shit you not, why did I not photograph this?– a bottle of Minute Maid lemonade. Like, seriously. Jerseys from Kansas and Boston, sneakers and some memorabilia… and a lemonade. I couldn’t decide if someone left it in there by accident or Paul Pierce just really, really loves lemonade. Someone needs to tell me the significance of the lemonade!

Finally, I am going to wrap up with a comment–and a plea– to the Denver Nuggets. I was not aware of these jerseys. I do not know how, because they are clearly one of the awesomest things in the history of the word awesome. Well, that oversight has been corrected, and I know about them now. And thus I must beg– bring back the rainbow unis, Nuggets! How many teams in the league have stupid light blue now? It’s overplayed. Not to mention three of them (Nuggets, Jazz, and Thunder) are similarly located in the middle of the U.S., so it’s not like you are helping people tell you apart there. No one has this. No one. Look at the rainbow on the legs of the warmups! This is a great uni. Bring it back, Nuggets. And then we can have idiotic conversations like this:

Melo: Pause.
Chaunce: … WTF? You didn’t say anything.
Melo: Oh, just cause I’m wearing this jersey. No homo.
Chaunce: …..

Make it happen, Nuggets. You know you want to.

Posted in General NBA News |

Mood Right Now:

Kickin it in flip flops