AP

Ginobili, Hardaway, Karl among 2022 Hall of Fame class

Apr 1, 2022, 10:54 PM | Updated: Apr 2, 2022, 5:29 pm

FILE - Former San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili jokes with the media at the NBA basketball team...

FILE - Former San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili jokes with the media at the NBA basketball team's practice facility, Saturday, Sept. 15, 2018, in San Antonio. NBA stars Manu Ginobili and Tim Hardaway are among five new Basketball Hall of Fame inductees. Also selected this year were WNBA great Swin Cash, former NBA coach George Karl and long-time college coach Bob Huggins. They will be enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, on Sept. 10, 2022 (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

(AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

George Karl, head coach for the Seattle SuperSonics, during a1997 game against the Chicago Bulls. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Allsport/Getty Images) PHOENIX - SEPTEMBER 05:  Swin Cash #2 of the Seattle Storm puts up a shot over Diana Taurasi #3 of the Phoenix Mercury in Game Two of the Western Conference Finals during the 2010 WNBA Playoffs at US Airways Center on September 5, 2010 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Storm defeated the Mercury 91-88 to win the series 2-0.  NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement.  (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) 
              FILE - In this Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2017, photograph, former NBA head coach George Karl talks about his new book, "Furious George," during an interview before a book signing event at a book store in east Denver. NBA stars Manu Ginobili and Tim Hardaway are among five new  Basketball Hall of Fame inductees. Also selected this year were WNBA great Swin Cash, former NBA coach George Karl and long-time college coach Bob Huggins. They will be enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, on Sept. 10, 2022. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)
            
              FILE - New York Liberty's Swin Cash reacts during the second half of a WNBA basketball game against the Connecticut Sun, Thursday, June 16, 2016, in Uncasville, Conn.  NBA stars Manu Ginobili and Tim Hardaway are among five new  Basketball Hall of Fame inductees. Also selected this year were Cash, former NBA coach George Karl and long-time college coach Bob Huggins. They will be enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, on Sept. 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File)
            
              FILE - West Virginia coach Bob Huggins talks to players during the first half of the team's NCAA college basketball game against Kansas State in the first round of the Big 12 Conference tournament in Kansas City, Mo., Wednesday, March 9, 2022. NBA stars Manu Ginobili and Tim Hardaway are among five new  Basketball Hall of Fame inductees. Also selected this year were Huggins, WNBA great Swin Cash, former NBA coach George Karl. They will be enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, on Sept. 10, 2022.  (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)
            
              FILE - Miami Heat guard Tim Hardaway looks out into the crowd during a timeout in the first quarter in a game against the Atlanta Hawks Wednesday, Nov. 24, 1999 at the Miami Arena in Miami.  NBA stars Manu Ginobili and Tim Hardaway are among five new  Basketball Hall of Fame inductees. Also selected this year were WNBA great Swin Cash, former NBA coach George Karl and long-time college coach Bob Huggins. They will be enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, on Sept. 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)
            
              FILE - Former San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili jokes with the media at the NBA basketball team's practice facility, Saturday, Sept. 15, 2018, in San Antonio. NBA stars Manu Ginobili and Tim Hardaway are among five new  Basketball Hall of Fame inductees. Also selected this year were WNBA great Swin Cash, former NBA coach George Karl and long-time college coach Bob Huggins. They will be enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, on Sept. 10, 2022   (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — When Manu Ginobili reflects on the odds of a kid from Argentina growing up to win four NBA titles and Olympic gold, he sounds in awe that that is in fact the story of his athletic life.

“It’s one in tens of millions,” Ginobili said Saturday after an official announcement that he has been inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. “The odds are very, very slim and it just happened to me. I don’t know what happened, but I was the one.

“I happen to be an important part of two very iconic teams of those couple decades of both FIBA and with the NBA. Incredibly lucky and fortunate to be a part of those two.”

Ginobili, five-time All-Star Tim Hardaway and decorated former coach George Karl were the household NBA names in the 2022 class of inductees announced in New Orleans at the site of the NCAA Final Four.

Also selected this year were former WNBA champion and two-time college national champion Swin Cash; long-time college coach Bob Huggins, WNBA champion and two-time Olympic Gold Medalist Lindsay Whalen; NCAA national championship coach and former WNBA Coach of the Year Marianne Stanley, and former NBA official Hugh Evans.

The class will be enshrined in Springfield, Massachusetts, on Sept. 10.

Ginobili, a two-time All-Star, spent his entire 16-year NBA career with San Antonio. He similarly credited his long stint with the Argentina national team that was regularly among the best in the world.

“I was a part of two incredible teams; if it wasn’t for being part of those two teams, I wouldn’t be here,” Ginobili said. “It’s not just about individual accomplishments. I never won a scoring championship, an MVP or even (All-NBA) First Team. I’m here because of my surroundings, of the players I played with, of the coaches I was coached (by) and the organizations. I know I’ve been very lucky.”

But Ginobili did leave his mark on the game in the way he employed lateral movement after picking up his dribble to get up shots in the paint. It became known as the “Eurostep,” because Ginobili had played for a EuroLeague championship-winning team in Bologna, Italy, before coming to the NBA.

“I never saw that I created anything or brought anything new. I just played the only way I thought possible,” Ginobili explained, bringing up the challenge of trying to score against 7-footer Shaquille O’Neal early in his career.

“I was not going to go over Shaq and dunk, I had to go around people,” Ginobili said. “That’s the way my skill set and physical abilities found to get to the rim. I’ve done it since I can remember.”

Ginobili recalled Steve Kerr bringing more attention to the move when he sport about “how weird it looked.”

“I looked like a squirrel crossing the street getting to the rim,” Ginobili said, referring to his recollection of Kerr’s description. “That’s when I started to realize I was doing something a bit different and people started mentioning the Eurostep. For me, it was completely natural.”

Hardaway played 15 NBA seasons from 1989 to 2003 with Golden State, Miami, Dallas, Denver and Indiana.

Karl played in the NBA for five seasons in San Antonio before coaching for 27 years, during which he won 1,175 games — placing him sixth all-time. He was voted NBA Coach of the Year in 2013.

Huggins has more than 900 NCAA wins in a college coaching career that began in 1977 and is currently at West Virginia.

Cash, who already has been elected to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, is currently an executive with the NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans. She won two NCAA national titles with Connecticut and a WNBA title with Detroit. She also worked as an executive with the WNBA’s New York Liberty.

Whalen is a five-time WNBA All-Star and four-time champion. She is now the head coach at Minnesota, where she also played in college.

Stanley, who is currently a WNBA head coach with Indiana, has spent 45 years in coaching, including 22 years at the college level with Old Dominion, Pennsylvania, Southern California, Stanford and California. She was WNBA coach of the year in 2022, when she also was elected to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.

Evans officiated more than 1,900 regular season games, along with 170 playoff games, 35 NBA Finals games and four NBA All-Star games from 1973 to 2001. He also was the NBA’s Assistant Supervisor of Officials for three years after stepping away from on-court officiating.

___

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Ginobili, Hardaway, Karl among 2022 Hall of Fame class