Reggie Miller passed over for the HOF

[Roy H.]

When the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announces its finalists for the class of 2011 on Friday, one name will be conspicuous in its absence: that of Reggie Miller, the former Indiana Pacers sharpshooter, who is in his first year of eligibility.

Miller, 45, who retired in 2005 and will be in Los Angeles this weekend as an analyst for TNT during All-Star weekend, was not on the Hall of Fame’s list, according to a person who was made aware that Miller had not been chosen and who asked for anonymity because the results had not been made public.

Four groups from the Hall take part in the voting: the North American, the Veterans, the International and the Women’s Committees.

To become a finalist from the North American group, nominees must receive approval on at least seven of nine ballots. The other committees require approval from at least five of the seven. To be selected for the Hall, a finalist needs at least 18 of 24 votes from what is known as the Honors Committee, a group consisting of Hall of Famers, basketball executives, members of the news media and other contributors to the game. Committee members are not aware of one another’s identities.

Miller, a 6-foot-7 swingman, played his entire 18-year career with the Pacers. Members of the committee may have taken into account that he never was named a most valuable player and was not on a championship-winning team. But Miller made five All-Star teams, won an Olympic gold medal in 1996 and held the N.B.A.’s record with 2,560 3-pointers until Ray Allen of the Boston Celtics passed him last week. He averaged 18.2 points per game and led the league in free-throw percentage five times.

Miller was also known for terrorizing the Knicks for much of the 1990s, most notably in Game 1 of the 1995 Eastern Conference semifinals, when he scored the final 8 points of the game to turn a 6-point Knicks lead with 18.7 seconds left into a Pacers victory.

Told that Miller was not among the finalists, Donnie Walsh, the Knicks’ president but a Pacers executive when Miller played, said he was surprised.

“I just know this, if he’s not a Hall of Fame guy, I don’t know who is,” said Walsh, who drafted Miller 11th over all out of U.C.L.A. in 1987, taking a pass on the in-state favorite Steve Alford.

“He took a very troubled franchise and ended up in the Eastern Conference finals six times,” Walsh said of Miller. “That’s pretty impressive for a guy who weighs about 185 pounds, and in the years that he did it, he was a marked guy and he relished it. I feel very thankful to Reggie to what he did for the Pacers and I just feel he deserves that honor, whether it comes now, later or whatever.”

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I guess there must not be any room for Miller, with all the coaches, women, and foreign players who will no doubt be inducted this year.  What a sham.

[Chris]

This was his first chance, right?  I am OK with this.  Miller is probably a Hall of Famer, but not a first ballot one IMO.  I think of him as one of the greatest shooters in history, but not really one of the greatest players.

And yes, he is probably my most hated player ever, so I am biased. 

[Fafnir]

Basketball Hall of Fame is a joke. Just not enough players in there compared to broadcasters/coaches/owners/etc....

And Johnny most should be in if Chick Hearn is in....

[Donoghus]

Pretty ridiculous.

He should be on that final ballot.  Being elected in his first year is whole other thing but he, most certainly, should be a finalist.

[Fan from VT]

It is a sham, but i don't know if Miller's not making it is why.

i think it's  sham that players of great "fame" have a hard time making it, but if you win one NCAA tourny as a coach you're basically in automatically.

however, I like it when halls of fame are a little exclusive. for instance, here were the MLB inductees this year: burt blylevin and roberto alomar; it was not the first ballot try for either of those two, and alomar was a 10x gold glover and .300 hitting second baseman. here was the rest of the voting:

so, the question is, at a time of watered down nba talent, was reggie miller better at basketball than most of these were at baseball? I see miller as exactly halfway between rip hamilton and ray allen (obviously ray decidedly better, and hamilton worse).

Player   Total Votes   Percentage
Roberto Alomar (2)   523   90.0
Bert Blyleven (14)   463   79.7
Barry Larkin (2)   361   62.1
Jack Morris (12)   311   53.5
Lee Smith (9)   263   45.3
Jeff Bagwell (1)   242   41.7
Tim Raines (4)   218   37.5
Edgar Martinez (2)   191   32.9
Alan Trammell (10)   141   24.3
Larry Walker (1)   118   20.3
Mark McGwire (5)   115   19.8
Fred McGriff (2)   104   17.9
Dave Parker (15)   89   15.3
Don Mattingly (11)   79   13.6
Dale Murphy (13)   73   12.6
Rafael Palmeiro (1)   64   11.0
Juan Gonzalez (1)   30   5.2
Harold Baines (5)   28   4.8
John Franco (1)   27   4.6
Kevin Brown (1)   12   2.1
Tino Martinez (1)   6   1.0
Marquis Grissom (1)   4   0.7
Al Leiter (1)   4   0.7
John Olerud (1)   4   0.7
B.J. Surhoff (1)   2   0.3
Bret Boone (1)   1   0.2
Benito Santiago (1)   1   0.2
Carlos Baerga (1)   0   0
Lenny Harris (1)   0   0
Bobby Higginson (1)   0   0
Charles Johnson (1)   0   0
Raul Mondesi (1)   0   0
Kirk Rueter (1)   0   0

[fairweatherfan]

Pretty ridiculous.

He should be on that final ballot.  Being elected in his first year is whole other thing but he, most certainly, should be a finalist.

Yeah, I don't have a problem with Miller not being a first-ballot inductee, but not even making the finalists is pretty bizarre.

[Roy H.]

It is a sham, but i don't know if Miller's not making it is why.

i think it's  sham that players of great "fame" have a hard time making it, but if you win one NCAA tourny as a coach you're basically in automatically.

however, I like it when halls of fame are a little exclusive. for instance, here were the MLB inductees this year: burt blylevin and roberto alomar; it was not the first ballot try for either of those two, and alomar was a 10x gold glover and .300 hitting second baseman. here was the rest of the voting:

so, the question is, at a time of watered down nba talent, was reggie miller better at basketball than most of these were at baseball? I see miller as exactly halfway between rip hamilton and ray allen (obviously ray decidedly better, and hamilton worse).

Player   Total Votes   Percentage
Roberto Alomar (2)   523   90.0
Bert Blyleven (14)   463   79.7
Barry Larkin (2)   361   62.1
Jack Morris (12)   311   53.5
Lee Smith (9)   263   45.3
Jeff Bagwell (1)   242   41.7
Tim Raines (4)   218   37.5
Edgar Martinez (2)   191   32.9
Alan Trammell (10)   141   24.3
Larry Walker (1)   118   20.3
Mark McGwire (5)   115   19.8
Fred McGriff (2)   104   17.9
Dave Parker (15)   89   15.3
Don Mattingly (11)   79   13.6
Dale Murphy (13)   73   12.6
Rafael Palmeiro (1)   64   11.0
Juan Gonzalez (1)   30   5.2
Harold Baines (5)   28   4.8
John Franco (1)   27   4.6
Kevin Brown (1)   12   2.1
Tino Martinez (1)   6   1.0
Marquis Grissom (1)   4   0.7
Al Leiter (1)   4   0.7
John Olerud (1)   4   0.7
B.J. Surhoff (1)   2   0.3
Bret Boone (1)   1   0.2
Benito Santiago (1)   1   0.2
Carlos Baerga (1)   0   0
Lenny Harris (1)   0   0
Bobby Higginson (1)   0   0
Charles Johnson (1)   0   0
Raul Mondesi (1)   0   0
Kirk Rueter (1)   0   0

I think it's very hard to compare across sports like this, but the only guy on that list who I'd say was better than Miller relative to his piers was Alomar (who should have made it in on the first ballot).  Larkin is arguable, but nobody else comes close, in my mind, including Blyleven.

Beyond just stats, Miller led a pretty poor franchise to the ECF a half-dozen times, and to the Finals once.  The Pacers had so okay talent, but Miller carried them farther than they probably should have gotten.

[JSD]

Tough year for Reggie so far.

[Moranis]

The NBA needs its own HOF.

[Redz]

The NBA needs its own HOF.

good point

[Celtics4ever]

It should be the Hall of Shame after the way they treated DJ!  Reggie would have been a lock if he had joined us for the title run.   He should get in next year but lack of titles hurt him.

[KobeShesNotConsenting!]

i agree with whoever said the nba needs its OWN hall

[pearljammer10]

Wow...


Miller is 6 foot 7?

[Jon]

I agree with Chris.  While I think Reggie should make it, I don't believe that it's an outrage he didn't make in the first time. 

Reggie, for all of his heroics, was fairly one dimensional as a scorer, as he wasn't much of a slasher, and certainly wasn't known for his playmaking, rebounding, or defense. 

And for a guy who hung his hat on his scoring ability, he only averaged 18.2 PPG for his career, which is only marginally better than Antoine Walker's 17.9 PPG. 

To top it all off, he never won a title, which somewhat hurts the notion that he was a player who always rose to the occasion. 

He was also only a 5 time All Star (compared to our Big Three, who are all in double digits).  I mean Rondo might have more appearances than Reggie by his late 20s. 

Again, were all of these things necessarily his fault (like having to face MJ all the time)?  No.  Do I think he should eventually get in?  Yes.  However, I have zero problem with him not going in right away. 

[fairweatherfan]

I agree with Chris.  While I think Reggie should make it, I don't believe that it's an outrage he didn't make in the first time. 

True, but remember this isn't about not making it, it's about not even making the final list to be voted on for entry.  I guess it's more or less moot if he wasn't getting in anyway, but it's very surprising that he couldn't even make the finalists.

He'll get in sooner or later regardless, so it's not much to get worked up over either way.  I bet PacersBlog is burning down right now though - wouldn't Miller be their first real HOFer?