Reggie Miller Shows What's Wrong With The Basketball Hall Of Fame

In his first year of eligibility, Reggie Miller didn't even qualify as a finalist for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. There's obviously a problem here, and it doesn't lie with Miller.

Unlike Cooperstown or Canton, basketball's hall of fame doesn't strictly deal with the American professional game. There are foreign players, college players, entire teams inducted. Instead of his contemporaries, Miller's competition to get on to the ballot could have been a barnstormer from 60 years ago, or some coach in Russia. We have no idea, because of the voting committee's unconscionable secrecy — yes, even worse than the Pro Football HOF's process. All we know is that he didn't appear on the necessary seven out of nine ballots.

I get that basketball wants to embrace the entire sport, from its amateur beginnings to its international explosion. But isn't American pro basketball important enough in size and scope to warrant its own temple? Baseball has separate institutions for the amateur and international games. Same for ice hockey. There's a College Football Hall of Fame. But if Reggie Miller gets inducted, his picture will hang next to two of last year's inductees: high school coach Bob Hurley Sr. and Brazilian sensation from the '60s Maciel "Ubiratan" Pereira. Strange bedfellows indeed.