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Kevin Pelton, ESPN Senior Writer
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame welcomes its latest inductees, with former NBA stars Vince Carter and Chauncey Billups headlining the 13-member class.
The class of 2024 also includes Los Angeles Lakers legends Jerry West and Michael Cooper. West will become the first person inducted three times, with his latest election coming as a contributor to the game.
The 2025 group of inductees will be announced in April at the NCAA Division I Final Four in San Antonio, but with no certain Hall of Famers becoming newly eligible next year, let’s also look at the previous candidates on the ballot who might make it.
As for the 2026 class, there will be at least one likely first-time selection when Carmelo Anthony is on the ballot. LaMarcus Aldridge has an interesting case for 2026, as does his former Brooklyn Nets teammate Blake Griffin for the 2027 class.
Projecting Hall of Fame inductees isn’t always easy because of the lack of transparency in the process — as explained previously by ESPN’s Baxter Holmes — conducted by committees with unknown members behind closed doors. Still, we’ll do our best to consider who might soon be getting the call.
Looking to next year and beyond, let’s consider which former NBA players will be on the ballot four years after their retirement as we project classes in 2025, 2026 and 2027.
Newly eligible in 2025
None
The best player who retired from the NBA after 2020-21 was Marc Gasol, although he continued to play in Spain for the club he founded, Basquet Girona, until this January. The Hall hasn’t been consistent in terms of how it has handled such appearances in terms of the timeline for eligibility, but I don’t think Gasol will be on the ballot until 2028. His brother Pau Gasol was inducted in 2023.
New Lakers head coach JJ Redick is the next-best candidate. Without an All-Star appearance or a title, Redick’s candidacy would rely heavily on his accomplishments as a college player at Duke.
Newly eligible in 2026
1. Carmelo Anthony
The only retired member of the NBA’s 75th Anniversary team who has yet to be chosen for the Hall of Fame, Anthony will join the rest of that group as soon as he’s eligible. Anthony retired ninth in career NBA scoring with 28,289 points and was a 10-time All-Star, in addition to making six All-NBA appearances.
2. LaMarcus Aldridge
Will Aldridge’s career merit first-ballot selection? Whether it’s in 2026 or later, Aldridge will surely make it by virtue of checking the boxes both in terms of awards (seven All-Star appearances and five All-NBA picks) and career scoring (20,558 points). Although scoring at least 20,000 points no longer assures selection, every eligible player who has scored more than Aldridge is in the Hall.
Newly eligible in 2027
1. Blake Griffin
The No. 1 pick in the 2009 draft will be an interesting case for the Hall of Fame. His accolades — six All-Star games and five All-NBA seasons (three second-team and two third-team nods) — would typically merit selection, but Griffin’s prime was shortened by injuries. He played just 765 games and finished with fewer than 15,000 career points. When Griffin’s impact as a college star at Oklahoma and 2011 slam dunk contest champion are added, I think that pushes his candidacy over the top.
2. Andre Iguodala
If Michael Cooper can reach the Hall of Fame on the strength of winning five NBA championships and making the All-Defensive team eight times without ever being an All-Star, Iguodala should be an easy choice to add to the ballot. Iguodala made a single All-Star appearance (and was All-Defensive just twice), but advanced stats indicated he was among the league’s top perimeter defenders and underrated as a star. Add in Iguodala’s role in the Golden State Warriors‘ four titles, including winning Finals MVP in 2015, and I like his odds.
3. John Wall
On an ESPN broadcast during the NBA summer league, Wall said he still hopes to return to the NBA after last playing 34 games for the LA Clippers in 2022-23. Assuming that comeback never comes to fruition, Wall will be another No. 1 pick with a strong peak (five All-Star appearances) whose prime was interrupted by injuries. Wall played just 647 games, 118 fewer than Griffin, and made only one All-NBA team. I think he’s unlikely to make it.
Holdover candidates
Given the way the Hall of Fame operates, it makes the most sense to look at the finalists who have not made it in recent years to see which eligible players have a chance of filling out future classes. Remarkably only one NBA player to reach that stage in the past 15 years has thus far not eventually been selected: Kevin Johnson, last a finalist in 2016.
1. Marques Johnson
Johnson has been a finalist three of the past six years and with no likely first-time selections, 2025 seems as if it could be his year. Johnson’s career totals were limited by injury, but he’s a five-time All-Star who was also a legend at UCLA, where he helped John Wooden to his final championship in 1975 and later won national player of the year honors as a senior in 1977.
2. Amar’e Stoudemire
Like Griffin, whose career was remarkably similar, Stoudemire is on the borderline. He also had six All-Star appearances and five All-NBA selections, but the long-term effect of microfracture knee surgery also shortened Stoudemire’s prime. He finished with 15,994 points, a total that ranks 128th in league history. I would bet on Stoudemire making it, but he was not among the nominees for this class in what appeared to be his first year of eligibility.
3. Joe Johnson
Although Johnson hasn’t yet been nominated, as I noted during his playing career, his resumé is more typical of a Hall of Famer than you might think. Every eligible player with at least seven All-Star appearances in the modern era has made it, as have nearly all players with at least 20,000 career points (Tom Chambers and Antawn Jamison, the two players to clear the bar with fewer points than Johnson, are the exceptions). At some point as scoring proliferates, we might have to revisit the 20,000 mark as a Hall of Fame standard but given Johnson’s broad career similarity to Hall of Famer Mitch Richmond (six All-Star appearances, 90 fewer career points), I think he’ll eventually make it.
Who else should the Hall consider?
1. Shawn Marion
Thus far, Steve Nash is the only member of the “Seven Seconds or Less” Phoenix Suns that includes Marion and Stoudemire to reach the Hall. I tend to prefer Marion, who had the longer career and rated better than Stoudemire by advanced stats when they played together in Phoenix, but a heavier emphasis on awards would favor Stoudemire. Add in Joe Johnson and it’s amusing that three of the six players I’ve listed were teammates on the 2004-05 Suns.
2. Horace Grant
If the Hall wants to reward a defense-minded role player on championship teams, I think Grant is a better choice than new inductee Michael Cooper. He was an All-Star once, in 1993-94, and his career would perhaps be viewed differently had there been more emphasis on efficient scoring during Grant’s heyday. Per Basketball-Reference.com, Grant’s 118 career wins shares rank second among eligible players not in the Hall behind Buck Williams (120).
3. Jimmy Jones
The Hall did well recently to expand its ABA representation with the inductions of Indiana Pacers teammates Roger Brown (2013), Mel Daniels (2012) and George McGinnis (2017). That leaves Jones as the most deserving ABA candidate remaining. A six-time All-Star and three-time All-ABA first-team pick, he was also added to the ABA All-Time team. However, Jones’ short post-ABA career with the Washington Bullets and lack of an ABA title (his teams lost in the 1968 and 1974 ABA finals) has been difficult to overlook.