Nine teams passed on Paul Pierce in the 1998 NBA draft, and if you think he doesn’t remember each and every one of them, then you don’t know Paul Pierce.
The newly inducted basketball Hall of Famer called out by name — in order — the teams with the first nine picks that year and thanked them for allowing him to slip to the Boston Celtics.
“I appreciate that. Thank you for passing on me. It added fuel to my fire,” Pierce, who had been expected to go as high as No. 2 overall, said in his acceptance speech in Springfield, Massachusetts, on Saturday night. “To this day I don’t understand how I slipped to No. 10. But you know everything happened for a reason. Going to the Celtics, I’m grateful.”
Four months after the pandemic-delayed induction of the Class of 2020, including Kobe Bryant, the Hall community gathered to enshrine 16 more new members — its biggest class ever. Many in the crowd wore masks. Three-time WNBA MVP Lauren Jackson wasn’t able to attend because she was back in Australia in lockdown.
Bill Russell, who was inducted as a player in 1975, was honored for his coaching career; he is the fifth person to be inducted as both a player and a coach. But to former President Barack Obama, his greatest role was what he accomplished off the court during the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
“Bill Russell, perhaps more than anyone else, knows what it takes to win, and what it takes to lead,” Obama said in a video. “As tall as Bill Russell stands, his example and his legacy rise far, far higher.”
Others joining the Hall were: Villanova coach Jay Wright, defensive Pistons star Ben Wallace, two-time NBA champion Chris Bosh, longtime Portland and Sacramento coach Rick Adelman, Washington and Sacramento All-Star Chris Webber and two-time Olympic gold medalist Yolanda Griffith.
WNBA President Val Ackerman, longtime coach Cotton Fitzsimmons and scouting pioneer Howard Garfinkel were inducted as contributors. Clarence “Fats” Jenkins was picked by the Early African American Pioneers Committee, Croatia and Chicago Bulls star Toni Kukoc was tabbed by the International Committee, Bob Dandridge by the Veterans Committee and Pearl Moore from the Women’s Veterans Committee.
Russell, 87, was honored as the first Black coach in NBA history. Taking over the Celtics from Red Auerbach in 1966 and staying on as a player-coach for two more years, Russell guided Boston to NBA titles in 1968 and ’69.
Russell was present and wearing a Celtics mask at the ceremony, but his speech was presented as a prerecorded video.
“Hey, Chris Weber, we’re going into the Hall of Fame with Bill Russell, bro,” Chris Bosh said. “That’s crazy.”
Bosh discussed his arrival in Miami, when Heat executive Pat Riley offered one of his NBA championship rings and said it could be returned when they won one together; they won two, and Bosh finally returned the bauble on Saturday night.
Three key members of those Heat teams — LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Ray Allen — were in attendance Saturday night.
Bosh also discussed his departure, at the age of 31, when he was forced to retire because of blood clots.
“After finally making it to the mountaintop with so much more to do, in my mind, so much more work to do, it all stopped,” he said. “I eventually came to realize that we all have it in our power to make the most out of every day despite what happens, to turn setbacks into strengths.”
Ackerman was the inaugural president of the WNBA, the first female president of USA Basketball and, since 2013, the commissioner of the Big East. With few female role models to look up to in the business of sports, she found one elsewhere.
“I’m inspired to this day by the example set by Billie Jean King,” Ackerman said, “and the many strong women and men who followed her in the quest to make the chance to play sports, and to do it on a big stage, a reality for girls and women in our country and our world.”
Kukoc chose Michael Jordan and Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf as his presenters and alluded to the tension over his arrival in Chicago that was laid bare in the documentary “The Last Dance.”
“I would like to thank this gentleman here, Michael Jordan, and Scottie Pippen, for kicking my butt during the Olympics in Barcelona, and that way motivating me to work even harder to become an important part of the Chicago Bulls,” he said.
play
1:45
Chris Webber thanks his parents for setting an example with their no excuses mentality during his Basketball Hall of Fame speech.
Wallace was emotional and poetic in describing his upbringing as an undersized big man who carved out a role on defense, winning Defensive Player of the Year four times.
“Basketball was not my life. Basketball was just in my life. I took basketball and I created a path for those who helped me,” he said. “I took. I received. I gave back. I laid a path. I laid a track. It should be easy to find, I was stuck in it for quite some time.”
He walked off the stage with a raised fist.
Wright’s speech touched on Philadelphia basketball history; Webber gave a shoutout to Detroit. Dandridge said NBA opponents who went to major colleges looked down upon him because he went to Norfolk State, a historically Black school.
“My experience in HBCU schools was not limited to basketball,” he said. “I saw what having class was like. I witnessed dignity and a sense of belonging.”
Most inductees thanked their families and teammates and the coaches who helped them along the way, but Ackerman also gave a shout-out to James Naismith, who invented basketball.
And Moore thanked the game itself.
“Basketball made it possible for me to travel the country and overseas, to earn a college degree,” she said. “And from shooting on a makeshift hoop in the yard in South Carolina to playing in the world’s most famous arena, Madison Square Garden.
“And tonight, having my name enshrined with the likes of those sitting in the hall is indeed a fairy tale come true.”
George Springer had a career-high seven RBIs, including his ninth grand slam, and the Toronto Blue Jays celebrated Canada Day by beating the Yankees 12-5 on Tuesday and closing within one game of American League East-leading New York.
The seven RBIs are tied for the second most by any Blue Jays player in a home game, behind Edwin Encarnación (nine RBIs in 2015), according to ESPN Research.
Andrés Giménez had a go-ahead, three-run homer for the Blue Jays, who overcame a 2-0 deficit against Max Fried. After the Yankees tied the score 4-4 in the seventh, Toronto broke open the game in the bottom half against a reeling Yankees bullpen.
Springer went 3-for-4, starting the comeback with a solo homer in the fourth against Fried and boosting the lead to 9-5 with the slam off Luke Weaver after Ernie Clement‘s go-ahead single off shortstop Anthony Volpe‘s glove. Springer has 13 homers this season.
Toronto won the first two games of the four-game series and closed within one game of the Yankees for the first time since before play on April 20.
New York went 2-for-17 with runners in scoring position, dropping to 3-for-24 in the series, while the Blue Jays were 5-for-7. After going 13-14 in June, the Yankees fell to 10-14 against AL East rivals.
DENVER — Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez has experienced a setback in his recovery from a broken right hand and will see a specialist.
Astros general manager Dana Brown said Alvarez felt pain when he arrived Tuesday at the team’s spring training complex in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he had a workout a day earlier. Alvarez also took batting practice Saturday at Daikin Park.
He will be shut down until he’s evaluated by the specialist.
“It’s a tough time going through this with Yordan, but I know that he’s still feeling pain and the soreness in his hand,” Brown said before Tuesday night’s series opener at Colorado, which the Astros won 6-5. “We’re not going to try to push it or force him through anything. We’re just going to allow him to heal and get a little bit more answers as to what steps we take next.”
Alvarez has been sidelined for nearly two months. The injury was initially diagnosed as a muscle strain, but when Alvarez felt pain again while hitting in late May, imaging revealed a small fracture.
The 28-year-old outfielder, who has hit 31 homers or more in each of the past four seasons, had been eyeing a return as soon as this weekend at the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now it’s uncertain when he’ll play.
“We felt like he was close because he had felt so good of late,” Brown said, “but this is certainly news that we didn’t want.”
Also Tuesday, the Astros officially placed shortstop Jeremy Peña on the 10-day injured list with a fractured rib and recalled infielder Shay Whitcomb from Triple-A Sugar Land.
Shohei Ohtani reached 30 homers for the fifth straight season, hitting a fourth-inning drive after fouling a pitch off the plate umpire, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago White Sox 6-1 on Tuesday night.
Ohtani fouled the ball off Alan Porter’s right knee in the fourth. Ohtani checked on the umpire and stood by watching until Parker got up under his own power. The three-time MVP then hit a 408-foot shot to center, snapping an 0-for-6 skid and extending the lead to 6-1. He tied Cody Bellinger in 2019 for most home runs before the All-Star break in Dodgers history; Bellinger won National League MVP that year.
Ohtani joined Seattle‘s Cal Raleigh (33) and Aaron Judge of the Yankees (30) as players with at least 30 homers by the All-Star break; it marks the fifth season that three players have reached the 30-homer threshold before the break (2019, 1998, 1994, 1969).
As for Ohtani, this is his third season hitting at least 30 home runs before the break, tying Ken Griffey Jr. for third most in MLB history (Judge and Mark McGwire each did so for four seasons).
During the seventh-inning stretch, Ohtani walked over and checked on Porter again before leading off.
Los Angeles scored its most runs this season in support of Yoshinobu Yamamoto (8-6), staking the Japanese right-hander to a 4-0 lead in the first inning.
The Dodgers won for the 13th time in 16 games and opened a season-high, eight-game NL West lead. They are 16-5 (.762 win percentage) since June 8, the best record in MLB during that span.
Every run Tuesday night was scored with two outs.
Yamamoto allowed one run and three hits in seven innings, struck out eight and walked one.