A 10-time All-Star, Carmelo Anthony was a scoring machine, while Dwight Howard was a defensive force and an 8-time All-Star.
SAN FRANCISCO – When it comes to dueling proverbs – “Absence makes the heart grow fonder” vs. “Out of sight, out of mind” – it’s clear which one the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame favors.
With the intent of getting players into its eligibility process while their careers and exploits still are ringing in fans’ and voters’ ears, the Hall shortened the waiting time between retirement and possible enshrinement to just two years.
That enabled recent NBA All-Stars Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard to earn spots as finalists for the Class of 2025 to be inducted in September.
“It makes sense,” said Jerry Colangelo, chairman of the Hall’s Board of Governors, after a news conference Friday at Chase Center. “If too much time elapses, everyone loses a little bit. We don’t have an opportunity to get a real return on somebody coming in. And the individual is hurt too.”
Anthony played his final NBA game on April 10, 2022. Howard wrapped up his career two days earlier.
“When someone’s just out of playing [for] a short term, he’s still fresh in the minds of fans. Why wait four or five years, how it used to be? We’ve gone the other direction, and I think it’s been well-received.”
Other major sports Halls of Fame have lengthier waiting periods. Baseball’s shrine in Cooperstown, N.Y., and the Pro Football Hall in Canton, Ohio, still require a candidate’s active career to have ended five years earlier. The NHL’s Hall in Toronto demands four.
The Naismith’s selection committee shortened the eligibility period from five years to four in 2017. That enabled Steve Nash and Ray Allen to speed up their enshrinement to a bulging Class of 2018 that also included NBA alumni Grant Hill, Jason Kidd and Maurice Cheeks.
Anthony and Howard are two of 17 finalists announced Friday from the North American, Women’s, Men’s Veterans, Women’s Veterans, International and Contributor categories. Results of voting by the Honors Committee will be announced on April 5 at the NCAA Men’s Final Four in San Antonio.
Finalists who earned spots in part or in full through their work in the NBA include players Marques Johnson and Buck Williams, coach Billy Donovan, and referee Danny Crawford. Micky Arison, managing general partner of the Miami Heat, is a finalist as a contributor.
Also, the 2008 U.S. Olympic men’s team – often referred to as “The Redeem Team” for reclaiming the gold medal after the 2004 edition managed only bronze – was nominated as a group entry.
Jerry Colangelo, Chairman of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, breaks down his connection to the 2008 'Redeem Team'.
Anthony seems the closest thing to a shoo-in to be enshrined at the ceremony in Springfield, Mass., in September. He was a 10-time All-Star in his 19-season career. As a freshman, he led Syracuse to its first NCAA championship – remember, the Naismith Hall captures all levels of the game, across borders and genders – and was the third pick in the 2003 NBA Draft. He spent most of his career with Denver and New York, before wrapping up with short stints with the Thunder, Rockets, Trail Blazers and Lakers.
Known for his scoring prowess, the native of Brooklyn, N.Y., averaged 22.5 points and ranks 10th all-time with 28,289 points. He never won an NBA championship ring but he did snag the 2013 scoring title (28.7 ppg). Anthony also got some of his best reviews for his work with Team USA, helping that squad win three gold medals in 2008, 20012 and 2016. He was voted to the NBA’s Top 75 team that was honored at All-Star Weekend in 2022.
“He was a great player,” Hall of Famer Spencer Haywood said after Friday’s announcement. “People always say he’s a great scorer, but he was so much more than that. I just loved his game.”
Anthony, 40, impressed some critics by merging his skills to suit the Olympic teams’ needs, rather than dominating the ball as he often did in the NBA.
“Even going back to my days [as an Olympian] in 1968, it’s always about the fit,” Haywood said. “We cut Pete Maravich, we cut Calvin Murphy, we cut Rick Mount, all great players. … That’s where Carmelo came in. He always fit.”
Howard was considered by some to deserve a spot on that NBA 75 team, only to fall short in the voting. He was an eight-time All-Star and three-time Defensive Player of the Year in 18 seasons. The first overall pick in 2004, straight out of high school, the 6-foot-10 native of Atlanta led the league in rebounding five times and in blocked shots twice.
Howard was a member of that ’08 Olympic team, led Orlando to the 2009 Finals and won a ring with the Lakers in the 2020 “COVID bubble.”
Compared to Anthony and Howard, Johnson and Williams have had to wait. The former has been a finalist four times and last played in November 1989. He was a five-time All-Star with the Milwaukee Bucks and the L.A. Clippers before injuries ended his career at age 33. Johnson was a part of UCLA’s NCAA title team in coach John Wooden’s final season in 1975 and was selected national player of the year as a senior in 1977.
Under coach Don Nelson with the Bucks, Johnson was a pioneer in the “point forward” role, initiating and directing Milwaukee’s attack. The Bucks won five division titles in Johnson’s six years there.
Williams was a bruising, 6-foot-8 forward who averaged 12.8 points and 10.0 rebounds. He played 82 games eight times and at least 80 in 12 of his 17 seasons. The Maryland product was the NBA’s Rookie of the Year in 1982, a three-time All-Star and a four-time All-Defensive selection.
Donovan has been an NBA coach for a decade, his first five seasons with the Thunder and the past five with the Bulls. His greatest success came when he led Florida to consecutive NCAA championships in 2006 and 2007, got the Gators to two other Final Four appearances and won over 500 games with Florida and Marshall. He was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016.
Crawford spent 32 seasons in the NBA, becoming one of the league’s most respected officials. He worked more than 2,000 games, 300 playoff games and 30 Finals, including 23 in a row that included his final game (Game 5 of the 2017 Finals).
Longtime Boston Celtics media relations chief Jeff Twiss was named the 2025 winner of the Hall’s John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award, considered the most prestigious honor short of actual enshrinement.
Also, the winners of the annual Curt Gowdy Media Awards were announced: Pistons play-by-play broadcaster George Blaha and former NBA player-turned-CBS analyst Clark Kellogg in the electronic category, and writers Michelle Smith and Adrian Wojnarowski as print winners.
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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
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