warning: this is kinda a lot of writing and effort from a truly basketball obsessed person, who needs no more incentive to post this other than fun and enjoyment.

this is one of those school lunch table conversations that you have with your homies. i find myself thinking about this a lot, and embarrassingly, i have put a lot of specific thought into this question. especially because the consensus with most fans seems to be that the current NBA HOF is too easy to get into? the current NBA HOF has just under 450 people have entered it. so this post is for you to respond with your own NBA HOF criteria. it could be anything? do you think it should be a certain number, or top percentage of all players in history? do you think it depends on rings, awards, something else? how would you go about it?

now, me personally, i think the best way to approach this is by talking about the most obvious ways to get in, and then kind of going down the list of significant NBA achievements. if somebody actually reads this whole thing, you’ll see at the end, this criteria would nominate just about 200 players in NBA history to be HOF worthy. so here we go.

its kinda tough, but for me, the first thing to talk about is winning MVP. i do believe that if you ever win MVP, you’re in the HOF. done deal. i know that is basically already the rule, im just saying. i like it. some people think thats a given, but i honestly know people who disagree with that, so who knows? we’ll get to the other awards later, although only one other award really matters.

then we have what i like to call the 6-Time-Team qualifier. which says that if you were any of the following at least 6 times in your career, and i mean that one specific kind of team, you’re immediately in: All-Star team, all-NBA team (any level), all-Defense team (any level), Championship team. and again, i do NOT mean all of these things added up. i mean you made one of those given teams 6 times. at least, at this stage of the process. there will be some discussion on that “added up” scenario later.

first thing to address there is the Championship team thing. because i know there’s a lot of people who are gonna be like “oh, so does Robert Horry belong in the HOF then?” and here’s my answer: after looking at all of NBA history, honestly, maybe he does! because he is the exception, in ALL of merged NBA history that anyone has won 6 championships while also not being that great of a player. okay, him and one dude from the 50s Celtics. everybody else in history that’s won 6? deservedly HOF. to institute a rule like this, i am willing to allow entry to the extremely EXTREMELY rare occasion that a relative nobody just happens to win 6.

as for the other teams, i think its fairly self explanatory. only 107 players have ever been a 6-time all star, and of course, an even smaller number have been 6-time all-NBA/Defense. don’t think that one is super controversial. although… i will say, a few years ago, i wanted that number to be 8, which would be pretty crazy!

now for the other important award: DPOY. in my book, if you’ve won it twice, you’re in. this one is interesting because this is a relatively new award- it started in 1983! but i think this is a fair standard, because we’ve seen guys win DPOY as a one-off, and that alone isn’t quite worthy of being admitted. and for anybody who thinks twice is too low- i disagree. it’s REALLY hard to win it twice. all the other awards, to me, aren’t worthy of special rules.

and for the last of these “instant entry” rules, stat titles. namely, scoring titles, assist trophies, and rebound trophies. to me: 3 scoring titles, 4 assist trophies, or 5 rebounding trophies. achieving those should all get you in.

at this point we have something over 100 players who would qualify. and then there’s a huge grey area. guys that have done amazing things, have mix and matched a lot of these achievements, but technically fall short of immediate entry. it would take way too long to discuss all these things, but here’s my general solution for everybody else.

if you’re not in from the previous rules, if you can satisfy any 3 of the below, you’re in:

• win an NBA championship

• finish career in top 200 all time points scored (rankings at time of career end)

• … top 75 all time assists (r.a.t.o.c.e)

• … top 75 all time rebounds (r.a.t.o.c.e)

• …top 20 all time blocks (r.a.t.o.c.e)

• 8+ combined All-Star and All-NBA/Defense nominations

• win DPOY

lastly, as a measure for any very special occasions, sitting HOF members should be able to propose any given player for consideration, and take votes among the entire group for if they should be admitted.

so all told, my personal NBA Hall of Fame would have about 200 players, which is about 4% of all players in NBA history. half of what exists now. that… honestly seems just a little selective now that I'm thinking about it. but i like it! im sure over time my opinion will change. whenever i think about this stuff, im sure there's some player in history that wouldn't qualify that would make me have to reconsider everything

and don’t even get me started on coaches LMFAOOO. i have been thinking about win rate vs games played for a while, and still don’t have the perfect math equation to decide which coaches are HOF.

would love to hear your criteria and any other thoughts you have! thanks for the read!