It’s one thing not to make the cut for the Hall of Fame when you should clearly be in.
It’s another to be told you are in, then find out you are not.
Spencer Haywood was told he was in and his former agent released that information last Friday afternoon (we ran it here at PBT as did many outlets). But later that day he found out he had been misinformed and had not made the cut. Yea, I’d be pretty pissed off, too.
Haywood spoke to the Las Vegas Review Journal about it.“I don’t know why there was confusion,” Haywood said Saturday from Atlanta, where he is attending the Final Four. “Someone from the NBA told me I was in, then I found out Friday night that I wasn’t in.
“This is so embarrassing. My stomach has been so bad I can’t eat, I can’t sleep. This isn’t a punch in the stomach. It’s below the stomach.”
The official announcement comes Monday in Atlanta, and we know Gary Payton and Bernard King are in (as are college coaches Jerry Tarkanian, Guy Lewis and Rick Pitino).
The other blow to Haywood is that he should be in — one of the most graceful big men ever to play the game he is an NBA champion, an ABA MVP and Rookie of the Year, a four-time NBA All-Star (plus one in the ABA) plus he has a gold medal. He averaged 20.5 points and 9.9 rebounds a game for his career. That is a killer resume.
He should be in anyway, but this is the Hall of Fame and this is what we always seem to get.
