Marbury to play last game Feb. 11 - Is he HOF worthy?

[CFAN38]

Given that its the Basketball Hall of Fame I would say yes

[Moranis]

He’s the greatest player in china of all time. There’s no argument for not putting him in

So should the best player in the history of the South American Basketball League also get in? How about the best player in the history of the Adriatic League? The Sengalese Basketball League? The Bundesliga? At what point does the level of the player and the league he plays in get taken into consideration? The CBA is a low quality basketball league. Just being the best player ever in a low quality league shouldn't be enough to get you in the HOF.

Um, a lot of those players are actually in the HOF.  I mean Lauren "Laddie" Gale, Angelo "Hank" Luisetti, John D. "Honey" Russell, John S. Roosma, and many others that played before the NBA even existed are in the HOF.  I mean Christian Steinmetz, played just 40 college games in the early 1900's and is in the HOF because he is considered the "Father of Wisconsin Basketball".  Marques Haynes, who was a Harlem Globetrotter is in the HOF.  Dino Meneghin, never played in the NBA, but is one of the greatest Italian players ever.  He played solely in Italy in the 70's (I suspect the quality of Italian league basketball in the 70's is on par with the Chinese league).  Kresimir Cosic, like Meneghin never played in the NBA (though he did play at BYU), played pretty exclusively in Croatia/Yugoslavia.  Fellow Yugoslavan, Drazen Dalipagic is in the HOF.  Then there are the foreign HOF players that had decent careers in the NBA, but are there for their international work like, Drazen Petrovic, Sarunas Marciulionas, and Arvydas Sabonis.  Then you have guys who are there from ABA time, like Zelmo Beaty.

It isn't a NBA HOF, it is a basketball HOF, which is why the Marbury question is a lot closer then one might expect.

I could add the newly elected member of HoF Nick Galis .....

The italian league in the 70s was the top league in the world not named NBA. Meneghin in the 70s lead his team Varese in 10 consecutive European Championship Finals and he is 2nd european ever drafted. He is not some guy who found a weak league in order to dominate. Cosic is one of the 10 best not American players ever.


All of them became legends playing in highest level (not counting NBA) ...Marbury played in China.

I wasn't meaning to imply that Meneghin was a scrub.  All of the players in the HOF were great players, but Meneghin played his entire career in an inferior league.  That is a fact.  Marbury played in the best league in the world for 13 years and finished averaging 19.3 ppg, 7.6 apg, and 3.0 rpg.  That 7.6 apg, ranks him 19th all time in NBA history and there are several active players barely ahead of him who haven't hit their end of the career downturn (so he could easily move back up).  He had 7 straight seasons scoring over 20 ppg.  He was far from a mid-tier player that couldn't hack it in the NBA and left to a lesser league because that was all he could do.  Frankly, I think he just needed to give his body a rest.  His last couple of NBA seasons he was banged up a lot.  The other pro leagues play a lot less games and provide more rest between games.  They are just easier on the body, which for an old guy is a good thing. 

[green_bballers13]

Certainly not the professional basketball hall of fame in Springfield, but maybe a local one. I'm sure he was a rockstar in his hometown.

[tarheelsxxiii]

I remember him being super dysregulated on some video chat website.  I think this was around the time he would transition to China.  He doesn't need the HOF, he's a legend in his own right... tho in a different sense of the word.