Open Thread: The Spurs have been part of some insanely deep HOF classes

Manu Ginobili was the only one who was the “headliner” of his class.

Tonight, Tony Parker, Gregg Popovich and Becky Hammon will enter the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. That alone is a deep enough class, but add more NBA legends like Dirk Nowitzki, Dwayne Wade and Pau Gasol, and once again a Spur is entering the HOF with an insanely deep NBA class.

In 2009, the class included David Robinson along with Michael Jordan and John Stockton (plus Jerry Sloan as a coach). That was eight championships between them, with obviously the most going to Jordan, but still a very deep class with three legends that won’t be forgotten any time soon. (I’ll always remember that night as being a time when, based on their speeches, people were reminded how grateful of a human being The Admiral was, while MJ came across as surprisingly bitter, still looking for revenge on those who had doubted him.)

Then, in 2020 (with the wait for when players were eligible was lowered significantly), it was Tim Duncan’s turn, although he wasn’t enshrined until 2021 due to the COVID 19 pandemic. Once again it was an extremely deep NBA class, also featuring Kevin Garnett and the late, great Kobe Bryant, plus Rudy Tomjanovich as coach. That group won a combined 11 championships on the court (plus two more as a coach from Tomjanovich) and again could hardly be more star-studded.

The only Spur who really didn’t enter in a deep NBA class this century was Manu Ginobili, who headlined the class, and Tim Hardaway was really the only other member who was there for his NBA career.

That changes this year, with the collective group of players and Pop as a coach bringing in a resume of a whopping 15 NBA championships between them. While the 2020 class just beats the players of this group by one in terms of total championships and carries more name recognition, Pop takes them over the top, and this just might be the deepest NBA class ever.

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