Jazz Honor Dantley

Well, at least the Utah Jazz got it right. Ten days after the 24-member selection committee of the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame shot an air ball in not including Adrian Dantley (or any NBA player for the matter) among the class of 2007, at least the NBA’s 18th leading scorer received the ultimate team honor when the Jazz retired No. 4 to the rafters.

Yet the Hall of Fame snub still stings. How can a player who won two NBA scoring titles, amassed 23,177 points and earned six All-Star appearances get passed over for basketball’s ultimate enshrinement a sixth time? A finalist since 2001, Dantley has yet to break through and will he ever? It’s simply unconsciousable to think that he won’t.

How good was Dantley? Check out his year-by-year scoring averages in Salt Lake City alone.

1979-80 28 PPG
1980-81 30.7 PPG
1981-82 30.3 PPG
1982-83 30.7 PPG
1983-84 30.6 PPG
1984-85 26.6 PPG
1985-86 29.8 PPG

Dantley averaged 29.6 points per game as a member of the Jazz and at 6-4, dominated small forwards three and four inches taller than him.

“From 15 feet on in, he was the best basketball player I’ve ever seen,” said Kiki Vandeweghe who often guarded Dantley. “You just couldn’t stop him. There was nothing you could do. One-on-one, absolutely not. He just got in, somehow close to the basket, threw up some garbage shot, you thought was garbage but that was his normal shot and he just found a way to score.”

In measuring Dantley’s impact, you merely can’t look at his numbers without factoring in the era in which he played. The small forward position ruled the ’80s. It was the golden era for the 3 spot: Larry Bird, Julius Erving, Alex English, Bernard King, James Worthy, Vandeweghe, Mark Aguirre, Marques Johnson and let’s not forget Jamaal Wilkes.

“It seemed like everyone who was great was at that position,” said Vandeweghe. “Every night, you played against a guy who could drop 30 on you, easily. It was just an amazing time to play basketball and to be a small forward.”

Hours prior to his jersey retirement, Dantley expressed relief that the team finally honored his contributions. Imagine what he'll feel like when the moratorium is lifted in Springfield in honoring all-time great NBA players.