IC Cold Links: Basketball Hall of Fame Weekend, Not NBA Hall of Fame Weekend

The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inducted their 2010 class last night. Among those honored were Karl Malone, Scottie Pippen and one of my all-time favorites, Dennis Johnson. Larry Bird was also on hand as part of the 1992 Olympic Dream Team.

This story on the event matched a couple of others I saw this morning that incorrectly describe the Hall as the NBA Hall of Fame. No, it's the Basketball Hall of Fame which should be obvious since last night's inductees included Cynthia Cooper, two Olympic teams and Bobby Hurley, Sr., a high school coach.

The class also included former Pacer, Gus Johnson who played for a couple of years with the Pacers toward the end of his career and was part of the 1973 ABA championship team. Bruno has all of the details on Johnson's time with the Pacers.

Fortunately for Johnson, he played the bulk of his career in the NBA thus garnering appropriate consideration for the Hall of Fame. For while it isn't the NBA Hall of Fame, there appears to be distinct bias against past stars of the ABA like Mel Daniels and Roger Brown, not to mention Slick Leonard who could make it on his college, coaching and "contributions to the game" credentials. The substance of Slick's body of work dwarfs any contributions that earned Dick Vitale the honor.

Deep breaths. Deep breaths.

OK, I'm fine. The topic always starts the blood boiling.

After the jump, a few links of interest including some comments from Larry Bird out at the Hall of Fame, more analysis of the trade and some info out of Team USA's workouts in New York.

• A look at each side of the Hornets/Rockets/Nets/Pacers deal
  Kelly Dwyer dives deep into all of the moving parts from Wednesday's trade and the impact on all of the participants.
• Larry Bird Says Another Pacers Trade Could Happen by Season Opener
  Chris Tomasson reports on Larry Bird's comments from the Hall of Fame that he's not done dealing. Bird basically repeated his comments from the trade press conference for the national audience.
• Miller eligible for Hall of Fame in 2011
  Reggie Miller is up for consideration for the Hall next year. That should be an interesting debate.
• The Works: Justice for Danny Granger
  Shoals considers the Pacers' trade from Danny Granger's perspective. He has to be happy to finally have a point guard as he heads into his prime years.

• Pacers Trade for Darren Collison: True Hoop Roundtable
  Tim Donahue reps the Pacers' vew nicely as a group of bloggers offer their comments on the departing players involved in the trade last Wednesday.

• Team USA: Who's on the bubble? - CBSSports.com
  Ken Berger considers which players may be cut by Team USA. Granger remains in the conversation but no longer as an assumed cut.
• Friday Scrimmage Impressions
  John Schuhmann offers his thoughts from Team USA's scrimmage on Friday. Granger remains in the mix and Eric Gordon continues to play well which will make it tough to cut him as most assume.
• New Jersey development project enriched Simons
  Cory Schouten reports that the Simon family may be losing money at the Fieldhouse but they're making up for it in other places.