Ranking the Best NBA Players Not in the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame
With Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard set to be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, it got us thinking: Who are the best NBA players yet to make the cut?
Entry into Springfield is not considered as difficult relative to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown or the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton. The process is also more opaque. That's why this exercise is so interesting. Looser-but-ambiguous criteria makes it harder to decide just how far down the Association's historical hierarchy we go.
Only one ground rule will be observed when building this list: Inclusions must have been eligible for at least one induction cycle and failed to gain entry. This rules out people like Blake Griffin and Derrick Rose.
Selections will be ranked based on how strong each player's case is to eventually get the HoF nod.
7. Larry Foust
1 of 7
Top Accolades: 8x All-Star, 2x All-NBA, 1x Rebounding Champion
Key Stats: 13.7 PPG, 9.7 RPG, 1.4 APG
Total Seasons: 12
Time and space from the 1950s have buried Larry Foust's Hall of Fame candidacy. His dearth of otherworldly counting stats doesn't help him, either.
Still, he is the only player with more than seven All-Star selections who hasn't received the go-ahead.
Say what you will about the era, and the narrower field of players against whom Foust competed. His credentials nevertheless give him a 94.2 percent Hall of Fame probability on Basketball-Reference—by far and away the highest of anyone eligible to make it who has not.
6. Jermaine O'Neal
2 of 7
Top Accolades: 2002 Most Improved Player, 6x All-Star, 3x All-NBA
Key Stats: 13.2 PPG, 7.0 RPG, 1.4 APG, 0.5 SPG, 1.8 BLK
Total Seasons: 18
Jermaine O'Neal might not need to be on this list if he didn't spend the first four years of his career buried in the Portland Trail Blazers rotation. His first break didn't come until season No. 5. And he didn't go kaboom until Year 6, when he won Most Improved Player honors.
That arrival marked the start of sustained stardom. O'Neal secured six All-Star selections and three All-NBA nods over the next six years. During this time, he entrenched himself as one of the Association's most versatile bigs on offense and a shot-blocking fiend.
Enjoying a six-season peak undermines O'Neal's candidacy. So does the Indiana Pacers' relative lack of playoff success during this stretch. They made it past the first round with him only once. O'Neal's production and availability then fell off a cliff by 2006-07, at the age of 29.
Even so, he retired having averaged at least 20 points, eight boards and two blocks in four separate seasons—tied for the 10th-most in league history.
5. Penny Hardaway
3 of 7
Top Accolades: 4x All-Star, 3x All-NBA
Key Stats: 15.2 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 5.0 APG, 1.6 SPG, 0.4 BLK
Total Seasons: 14
Penny Hardaway is one of the NBA's biggest what-ifs, period. Injuries derailed his availability long before his prime could hit a 10-year benchmark. He managed to become an All-NBA mainstay anyway.
By the end of his sophomore campaign, Hardaway had already appeared on the MVP ballot. He then finished third in the race during Year 3…while scooping up his second All-NBA First Team selection.
The impact he had as a 6'7", highly athletic primary ball-handler put him on an all-time trajectory. And it was good enough to keep the Orlando Magic in the playoff conversation after Shaquille O'Neal's departure.
What Hardaway lacks in longevity he makes up for with esteemed company. He cleared 15 points, five assists and 1.5 steals six times during his first seven years.
Just five other players his size or taller have as many such seasons: Larry Bird (nine), Scottie Pippen (nine), Magic Johnson (11), Clyde Drexler (12) and LeBron James (12).
4. Joe Johnson
4 of 7
Top Accolades: 7x All-Star, 1x All-NBA
Key Stats: 16.0 PPG, 4.0 RPG, 3.9 APG, 0.8 SPG, 0.2 BLK
Total Seasons: 18
After Larry Foust's eight All-Star selections, Joe Johnson's seven lead the list of eligible players outside the Hall of Fame. With only one All-NBA selection on his CV, he never quite hovered around megastar territory. But Iso Joe could get buckets.
Over the course of an 11-year span, Johnson averaged more than 19 points per game and banged in 37.5 percent of his threes. This stretch included five consecutive seasons of eclipsing 20 points, as well as earning back-of-the-ballot MVP consideration. Johnson still ranks inside the top 50 of total career points.
Known predominantly for scoring, he doesn't receive enough credit for the positional malleability he displayed later in his career. His salad days also featured more dime-dropping than you'd expect. He had four seasons in which he dished out more than four per game.
More impressively, he's one of just 20 players to cross both the 20,000-point and 5,000-assist threshold. Out of that group, he's the sole player not to make the Hall of Fame or be considered a first-ballot lock.
3. Shawn Kemp
5 of 7
Top Accolades: 6x All-Star, 3x All-NBA
Key Stats: 14.6 PPG, 8.4 RPG, 1.6 APG, 1.1 SPG, 1.2 BLK
Total Seasons: 14
Prime Shawn Kemp was a human highlight factory. His speed, explosion and dexterity are Hall of Fame-worthy on their own.
Having a shorter peak hurts his case. He was coming off the bench in a significantly reduced role by the age of 31, and his conditioning looms as one of the NBA's great what-ifs even now.
Still, the peak itself was mesmerizing.
Kemp averaged around 18 points, 10 boards, one steal and 1.5 blocks for an entire decade. His dunks earn all the air time, but his footwork and physicality deserve just as much. It's not like he was all flash, no substance, either. He made four cameos on the MVP ballot during his 10-year zenith.
If Kemp had just stayed in shape for longer or made more than two deep playoff runs, he'd be a Springfield shoo-in.
2. Amar'e Stoudemire
6 of 7
Top Accolades: 2003 Rookie of the Year, 6x All-Star, 5x All-NBA
Key Stats: 18.9 PPG, 7.8 RPG, 1.2 APG, 0.8 SPG, 1.2 BLK
Total Seasons: 14
Amar'e Stoudemire's absence looks egregious when working off unofficial baselines. Kevin Johnson is the only other player who has five All-NBA selections and remains outside of Springfield.
Though Stoudemire's peak was more abbreviated due to injuries, he cleared 20 points and eight rebounds per game seven times and racked up four top-10 MVP finishes. There is also no measuring the impact he had on offensive philosophies during his heyday.
STAT's face-up mid-range game and ability to play at faster clips were once upon a time an anomaly for his position. The "Seven Seconds or Less" Phoenix Suns do not happen without him, his pick-and-roll synergy with Steve Nash or an athletic profile that would pop even in today's game.
1. Shawn Marion
7 of 7
Top Accolades: 1x champion, 4x All-Star, 2x All-NBA
Key Stats: 15.0 PPG, 8.7 RPG, 1.9 APG, 1.5 SPG, 1.1 BLK
Total Seasons: 16
Shawn Marion's Hall of Fame case is often presented through a "Well, he doesn't have a traditional argument, but…" lens, as if a four-time All-Star was some role player. His scoring arc doesn't square away with conventional stardom, but he averaged over 19 points per game from 2000-01 through 2006-07 as a member of those elite Phoenix Suns squads.
More credit should be given to Marion's across-the-board impact. He thrived within a host of different ecosystems and was among the most versatile defenders of his era. The absence of an All-Defense selection, in hindsight, verges on egregious when you consider he finished in the top 10 of DPOY voting three times.
Marion hasn't suited up since 2015 and still comfortably ranks inside the top 65 all-time of total rebounds (41st), steals (21st) and blocks (62nd). That's absurd stuff for someone listed at 6'7", and his longevity buys him a spot on the top-100 scoring list, if you're into that sort of thing.
Dan Favale is a National NBA Writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Bluesky (@danfavale), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes.
