The Naismith Basketball Hall Of Fame Class of 2018 will feature at least a trio of former NBA legends as first ballot entrants. While the official announcement won’t be made until Saturday, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski broke the news on four of the former players that had been alerted they would be in this year’s class.
Grant Hill, Jason Kidd and Steve Nash have been notified that each will be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame's Class of 2018, sources tell ESPN. Formal announcement comes at Final Four weekend.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 29, 2018
Maurice Cheeks will be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2018, league source tells ESPN. He will join Nash, Hill and Kidd as part of starry group.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 29, 2018
It’s not known as of now whether those four will be joined by any others when the official announcement comes down, but it’s hard to argue against any of the inductees mentioned. Hill’s career as both an NBA player and college player, even being injury-shortened, was worthy of the honor, while Nash and Kidd are two of the best point guards to play in the NBA in the last 25 years.
The bigger questions come when looking at who may find themselves not in the Hall of Fame this year, most notably Ray Allen who seemed like all but a lock to be among the first ballot Hall of Famers this year. Allen’s status as one of the all-time great three-point shooters in NBA history and importance to two NBA championship winning teams seemed like more than enough to warrant his selection this season. It’s possible he will be included and Woj simply didn’t have confirmation on his name, but if the list stands as is reported now he would seem to have plenty of gripe as a snub.
