Sloan and Stockton: Doing the Honors

Jerry Sloan and John Stockton made some interesting choices as to who will present them as members of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, this week.

Sloan went with Charles Barkley and Stockton chose Isiah Thomas.

Neither is extremely close with their presenter, so I was trying to figure out why they chose who they did. Apparently it was a matter of professional respect.

Since inductees choose from current Hall members, that narrows the field considerably. Otherwise, Sloan probably would have picked someone like Dick Motta or Frank Layden. And there are only three former Jazz players that I could pick out who are in the Hall: Gail Goodrich, Pete Maravich and Adrian Dantley. Goodrich never played for Sloan or with Stockton. Dantley is a rival coach in Denver and has never had especially good vibes with the Jazz organization. Maravich died in 1988.

Jack Gardner, who died in 2000, might have been a nice choice. He was a former consultant for the Jazz and had a hand in bringing John Stockton to Utah.

Actually, there is one other former Jazz player (sort of) who is in the Hall, and could have presented an award: Lusia Harris-Stewart. She’s the former Delta State All-America whom the Jazz drafted in 1977 when they were still in New Orleans. She never played with the Jazz. Still, it would have been interesting.

Elgin Baylor coached the Jazz in New Orleans.

A trio of other Hall of Famers who might have made interesting presenters are Clyde Drexler, Magic Johnson and Hakeem Olajuwon. All had extensive experience playing against Sloan’s and Stockton’s Jazz and all would probably have been effusive in their praise.

Who else do you think would have been good candidates to present Stockton and Sloan? Why?