Last weekend, the ceremony was held to enshrine the 2023 class into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, the sport’s ode to legends. And it was a legendary class, featuring Becky Hammon, Gregg Popovich, Tony Parker, Dwyane Wade, Dirk Nowitzki, and many more.
It will be hard to live up to such a stacked class anytime soon. That shouldn’t stop the Class of 2024 from trying, though.
With this year’s ceremony in the past, it’s time to look ahead to who could be honored next year.
Who will be celebrating their enshrinement in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2024 next year?
Next year’s prospective class definitely doesn’t look as elite as this year’s class. While there are a lot of interesting discussions to be had about those who become eligible, there’s probably only one player who is guaranteed to be enshrined, at least in their first year of eligibility.
First, let’s take a glance at some honorable mentions who may get in eventually, but likely don’t need to book tickets to Springfield for 2024.
Kyle Korver: He won’t be making the Hall of Fame, but he is one of the greatest three-point shooters of all-time and his contributions to the game should be recognized somewhere.
Tyson Chandler: Playing for a billion teams in two decades, Tyson Chandler was one of the best defensive centers in the league, winning one Defensive Player of the Year award and one NBA championship while bringing the tap-out rebound into vogue.
Amar’e Stoudemire: Someone who may make it eventually, Amar’e Stoudemire made six All-Star teams, but only one All-NBA First Team. His team success also lacked, having never made it to the NBA Finals.
Joakim Noah: He feels like a player that will get in eventually, but not immediately. Around the same time as Chandler, Joakim Noah was one of the preeminent defenders in the NBA. He won NBA Defensive Player of the Year once and made the All-Defensive First Team twice.
Jamal Crawford: The toughest rejection. Jamal Crawford is probably the best sixth man in NBA history and racked up more than 19,000 career points. His place in history is guaranteed, even if role players don’t get a lot of love from the Hall.
So what Hall of Fame contenders does that leave?
Larry Foust
A relatively weak class of first-year eligible players could give Larry Foust the boost he needs to finally crack the Hall of Fame, 40 years after his death.
Foust played in the NBA from 1950 to 1962 and has been forgotten in some circles despite being a great player. Frankly, he played so long ago that none of the teams he played for still compete where they did at the time.
He was the fifth overall pick of the Chicago Stags out of La Salle in 1950 but never played a game for the franchise, which folded before his rookie season, relegating him to the Fort Wayne Pistons.
The 6-foot-9 big man quickly became one of the best big men in the league. He averaged a double-double over the course of his tenure with the Pistons, leading the NBA in rebounding one year and in field goal percentage another.
For his career, Foust averaged 13.7 points and 9.8 rebounds per game. He was one of the best players of his long-ago era, making eight All-Star Game squads during his career; he’s the only eligible player with that many All-Star nods without a Hall of Fame jacket.
Foust’s dominance was long enough ago that many younger fans aren’t aware of how much of a force in the low-post he was. He’s long gone, having died of a heart attack in 1984, but it’s time he was celebrated properly at the Hall of Fame.
Shawn Marion
Shawn Marion was always a star when he was in the NBA, yet remains underrated well after his playing career ended. The Hall of Fame could change that.
Marion spent 16 seasons in the NBA, filling a versatile role on both offense and defense. He made the All-NBA Third Team twice and was a four-time All-Star, spending the majority of his career in the desert with the Phoenix Suns.
In the league, Marion averaged 15.2 points and 8.7 rebounds per game, recording more than 17,000 points and 10,000 rebounds in his career. He also won an NBA title with the Dallas Mavericks, the fourth of five teams he played for.
He is one of the only players in the league to reach 17,000 points, 9,000 rebounds, 1,500 steals, and 1,000 blocks in his career. Additionally, Marion was the first to hit 15,000 points, 10,000 rebounds, 1,000 blocks, and 500 3-pointers.
While Marion’s counting stats may not always seem Hall of Fame-worthy, the advanced stats are impressive, as is the fact that he led the league in steals twice. Those legendary Suns teams commanded by Steve Nash couldn’t have hummed without Marion’s contributions on both ends of the court.
Marion was a winning player, simple as that. Even if he was never the best player on a championship team, team success for several of his franchises wouldn’t have come without the defensive menace with the unique shooting form.
In much the same vein as Foust, Marion doesn’t have too many overwhelming moments to prop his Hall of Fame case. But his consistency year after year – combined with a weak class – could be enough to boost the Matrix into the basketball motherboard.
Chauncey Billups
There is certainly some off-court things we can’t ignore when discussing Chauncey Billups. Based on his play on the court, however, he’s made a strong case to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Billups earned his “Mr. Big Shot” moniker due to his penchant for hitting clutch shots as a member of the Detroit Pistons. He’s so beloved by the franchise that he had his number hoisted to the rafters there seven years ago.
Like Marion, Billups has one title to his name. He played a much bigger role, however, avering 21 points, 5.2 assists, 3.2 rebounds, and 1.2 steals per game while shooting 50.1 percent from the field, 47.1 percent from three, and 92.9 percent from the charity stripe. The Pistons point guard won Finals MVP in 2004 as the Pistons topped the Los Angeles Lakers in five games.
Billups played for many teams over the course of his career. He was an All-Star fives times, made All-NBA Second Team once, and All-NBA Third Team twice. He was even an All-Defensive Second Team player twice. For his career, Billups racked up more than 15,000 points and 5,600 assists.
On the international stage, Billups won gold medals with Team USA at the 2007 FIBA Americas Championship and 2010 FIBA World Championship. He may have been part of the Redeem Team in 2008, too, but pulled himself out of consideration beforehand.
These days, Billups is the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers. He doesn’t project as a Hall of Fame coach right now, but that’s irrelevant.
The relevance of what happened in 1997 is unclear. That year, Billups and teammate Ron Mercer were accused of sexual assault. No criminal charges were filed, but a civil suit was settled three years later. The allegations reared their ugly head when Portland was weighing hiring Billups as its head coach.
If that ugliness doesn’t factor into consideration – and character clauses have never seemed as readily evident for basketball’s Hall of Fame as baseball’s – then Billups has the combination of numbers, longevity, and big moments to break through.
Vince Carter
Vinsanity feels like the only surefire inductee who will be part of the Hall of Fame’s Class of 2024. Vince Carter has an unassailable resume, especially when considering his longevity and the indelible memories he left on a generation of NBA fans.
It feels like just yesterday when Carter was hooping. Many fans may not even remember a day from their childhood without Carter taking the court. It’s still bewildering to think that his 22-year career ended on the same day the NBA suspended the 2019-20 season due to the pandemic.
Longevity alone makes a compelling case for Carter. He’s the only player in the history of the league to appear in games in four separate decades. Unsurprisingly, the counting stats look good: he’s one of six in NBA history with at least 24,000 points, 6,000 rebounds, 2,500 assists, 1,000 steals. and 1,000 3-point field goals made.
Obviously, that longevity means Carter was no scrub. He made eight All-Star teams and placed on an All-NBA squad twice. He’s the holder of several Toronto Raptors franchise records, the first of eight teams he played for.
Carter earned two gold medals for Team USA, including one at the Summer Olympics in 2000. That was the tournament featuring Carter’s acrobatic game-changer, a dunk over the 7-foot-2 Frenchman Frederic Weis.
He’s arguably the greatest dunker in the history of the game. His 2000 Slam Dunk Contest performance will outlive us all. That’s the competition that featured a 360-degree windmill, a between-the-legs bounce dunk and a dunk where Carter got his elbow in the rim.
After one of those dunks, Carter famously signaled that it was all over. The same could be said about his Hall of Fame candidacy – Vince Carter’s wait should be over before it gets past the first year.