SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Michael Jordan, maybe the greatest of them all, has taken his place alongside basketball’s other greats.
And he never forgot anyone who motivated him to get there.
Jordan was enshrined in the Hall of Fame on Friday night, a final honor that followed all the championship rings and MVP trophies he collected during his career.
“I’d do anything to win,” Jordan said.
He joined David Robinson and John Stockton, two of his 1992 Dream Team teammates, and coaches Jerry Sloan and C. Vivian Stringer in a distinguished class.
“It all started with that little, round ball. I think if you take that away from any of us, I’m pretty sure we would have struggled in life, because that’s how much the game meant to us,” Jordan said. “It’s truly a pleasure for me to be a part of this, and contrary to what you guys believe, it’s not just me going into the Hall of Fame. It’s a group of us.”
Still, none of them can compare to Jordan — perhaps no one ever will — after he led the Chicago Bulls to six NBA championships while often being considered the best player ever.
Jordan said he cringes when he hears that label, because he didn’t get to earn it by playing others who might have deserved it.
“It’s a privilege, but I would never give myself that type of accolade because I never competed against everybody in this Hall of Fame,” he said. “So it’s too much for me to ask and too much for me to accept.”
Most of the attention was on Jordan, a five-time NBA MVP, but the others in the class are some of the most accomplished in the sport. Stockton is the career leader in assists and steals, Robinson won an MVP trophy and two titles in San Antonio, Sloan is the only coach to win 1,000 games with one team, and Stringer was the first woman’s coach to lead three schools to the Final Four.
Jordan and Robinson were All-America college players who entered the NBA with high expectations. Sloan acknowledged he wasn’t so sure about Stockton at first — and turns out, neither was Stockton.
“I was pretty sure I was a one-year- and-out guy,” said Stockton, who ended up playing 19 seasons in Utah.
Robinson spent 14 seasons with the Spurs, and he is still an enormous presence in San Antonio through his charitable work.
“That’s one of the things I think I loved most about San Antonio. When you get out in the community, you really feel like you’re making a difference. You feel like you’re impacting people there and families there,” Robinson said. “So anybody who has followed my career, it’s been as important as what we did on the court, being involved in the community, making a difference.”
Stringer also talked of making a difference in the lives of others, such as the pride she feels watching women’s basketball grow into a sport in which her former players can now earn a living playing professionally in the United States. Those contributions to the game, along with her 825 wins, had her sharing a stage with Jordan.
“I once paid to come into the Naismith Hall of Fame,” she said, “and now here I am.”
