Ginobili among inductees for Basketball HOF 2022 class
Former San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili is among 13 inductees for the 2022 Hall of Fame class, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced Saturday, according to NBA insider Marc Stein.
Ginobili will be joined by former 13-year NBA veteran Tim Hardaway, four-time WNBA All-Star and two-time Olympic gold medalist Swin Cash, four-time WNBA champion Lindsay Whalen, and former NBA bench bosses George Karl and Del Harris.
Longtime West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins is also part of this year's class, according to the Hall of Fame.
Ginobili is a first-ballot Hall of Famer. The Argentine played 16 seasons in the NBA, all with San Antonio, winning four championships while earning two All-Star appearances and two All-NBA selections. The 44-year-old was also named the recipient of the 2008 Sixth Man of the Year award.
Internationally, he helped Argentina medal twice at the Olympic Games, winning gold in 2004 and bronze in 2008. He was also part of the squad that won silver at the 2002 FIBA World Cup.
Hardaway spent 13 seasons in the Association, making a majority of his 867 career appearances with the Golden State Warriors and Miami Heat between 1989 and 2001. Together with Hall of Famers Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullin, Hardaway was part of the Warriors' memorable "Run TMC" trio during his first two seasons in the league.
Cash, a 15-year WNBA veteran, played for the Detroit Shock, Seattle Storm, Chicago Sky, Atlanta Dream, and New York Liberty from 2002-16. Cash won a pair of national titles in college with UConn in 2000 and 2002, winning the NCAA Tournament's Most Outstanding Player award in the latter.
Huggins has been the men's head coach at West Virginia since the 2007-08 season. He's tallied a 326-188 record and led the program to 10 national tournaments, highlighted by a Final Four run in 2010. Prior to his time with the Mountaineers he spent 16 seasons at Cincinnati, going 398-128 and making the NCAA Tournament for 14 straight years.
Karl is best remembered for a lengthy coaching career in the NBA that spanned nearly three decades. He represented the Cleveland Cavaliers, Warriors, Milwaukee Bucks, Denver Nuggets, and, most recently, the Sacramento Kings. However, he might be better known for his seven-season tenure with the Seattle SuperSonics. He took the franchise to The Finals in 1996, where they fell to Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls.
The 2013 Coach of the Year went a combined 1,175-824 in his career. He ranks sixth on the all-time leaderboard for wins by a head coach.
Harris was a head coach for 14 seasons with the Bucks, Houston Rockets, and Los Angeles Lakers. He made 11 trips to the playoffs, including an NBA Finals appearance in 1981 as the Rockets' bench boss. The 84-year-old won Coach of the Year honors in 1995, and he sits 29th on the all-time wins list with 556 victories.
Whalen spent her first five seasons with the Connecticut Sun before joining the Minnesota Lynx for multiple title runs. The five-time All-Star was also part of two Olympic gold medal-winning squads with Team USA.