Dennis Johnson: The Wrong is Righted

Peter Vecsey

UPON discovering Sunday afternoon that Dennis Johnson wasn't elected to the Hall of Fame as part of this year's exceptionally qualified inductee harvest - Pat Riley, Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, Adrian Dantley , Bill Davidson, Kathy Rush and Dick Vitale (be nice) - I sent the following e-mail to roughly 300 Hoop du Jour (most directly connected to the NBA) subscribers:

"D.J. got stiffed again."

Thirty-seven responded.

"How can there be a basketball Hall of Fame and exclude D. J.?"

"Unfreaking believable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"TERRIBLE!!!!!!!"

"I have no respect for the HOF!"

"That news is so discouraging. What does it take to get him to Springfield?"

"Sorry to hear that, I worked with him, great player, terrific guy, never big timed anyone."

"That defies explanation."

"Amazing D. J. keeps getting slighted!"

"Are these [24] committee members out of their minds? What did D.J. do to earn such non-respect?"

"If D.J. were alive I'd suggest he consult with Susan Lucci to get guidance through this trauma."

Chicago-based agent Mark Bartlestein said it best and speaks for us non-HOF-voters.

"Coaches, organizations and those handing out the honors love to talk about sacrificing personal statistics for the sake of success yet rarely reward it," he said. "Dennis Johnson epitomizes that. He did so many things that effected winning. Many were intangibles. Much of what he did gave his team's superstars the freedom to focus on what they did best.

"No, Dennis Johnson's stats aren't Hall of Fame. But his game was Hall of Fame. You actually have to understand the game to understand that."

Should Rodman be in the Hall?

Star Tribune

At first, it seems like a notion as ridiculous as the Spice Girls moving into Buckingham Palace.

Imagine Dennis Rodman, all decked out in six or seven years, making his induction speech into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

It could happen.

Rodman, after all, is a seven-time NBA rebounding champion, and his streak of titles (seven) is the longest in league history. Every other player with multiple rebounding crowns (who is eligible) has been enshrined: Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell and Elvin Hayes. Two more are certainties once they are eligible: Hakeem Olajuwon and Moses Malone. Only two rebounding champs have not been voted into the Springfield, Mass., shrine: Maurice Stokes (1957) and Truck Robinson (1978). - He is a two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year. Rodman has been a key member of teams in both Detroit and Chicago that won multiple NBA championships.

Then again, a rather formidable case could be made against Rodman.

There's his 7.5 career scoring average, which would make him the lowest-scoring player in the Hall. Currently, Buddy Jeannette, whose career started in the 1930s, holds that distinction with a 7.7 mark.

Of course, Rodman's antics, lifestyle, appearance and problems with authority have not been high points for the league. Yet for all his disciplinary problems, it's important to note that he never has been arrested. Fines, suspensions, civil suits - sure. But by current standards, with the names of NBA players decorating police blotters, Rodman has been as harmless as he is tasteless.

Remember, too, that character issues did not prevent George Gervin or David Thompson from enshrinement, despite their admitted drug problems.

Speaking of standards, one clause related to personal conduct in the Hall's constitution states that a candidate "must not have brought irreparable harm to the game." The only other one says that a candidate must not have "besmirched" the game.

That "besmirch" part might get a little tricky for the Bulls' rebellious forward.

TV analyst and former NBA coach Jack Ramsay questions Rodman's Hall-worthiness. "Hall of Fame players generally are complete players," Ramsay said. "Rodman is a great rebounder, but has no offensive game to speak of. And while it's true that great offensive players get in without being great defenders, I don't think he would merit enough consideration."

Not everyone agrees.

Many believe that Rodman, who has averaged 18.7, 18.3, 17.3 and 16.8 rebounds the last four seasons, deserves a place next to Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell as one of the greatest rebounders of all time. An informal SI poll of NBA players, coaches, executives and broadcasters placed Chamberlain at No. 1, Rodman No. 2 and Russell No. 3--with esteemed board men Malone, Paul Silas, Wes Unseld, Charles Barkley, Nate Thurmond, Bob Pettit and Jerry Lucas rounding out the alltime Top 10.

Defense, Rebounding, and the Hall

Dennis Johnson’s exclusion from the Basketball Hall of Fame irks me. After the last few days, no one would doubt me on that point. It’s not just that good one-way players like Bob McAdoo and Adrian Dantley made it to the Hall before DJ, but also that total headscratchers like Calvin Murphy got inducted long ago.

Someone tried to explain this to me by observing that the Basketball Hall of Fame is just that—a hall of fame for the sport of basketball. Induction is not restricted to NBA coaches and players.

This helps assuage my angst somewhat, as it does seem to explain how players like Murphy and even David Thompson, who’s star dimmed after six seasons and scored 4,000 points fewer than DJ, can be on the inside looking out at all-time great defensive players. Both Murphy and Thompson enjoyed impressive college careers.

At the same time, coming up with a post-hoc justification for induction of one-way offensive players does nothing to justify the exclusion of clear-cut, all-time defensive and rebounding giants, three of which come to mind:

Dennis Johnson

3-Time NBA Champion

Finals MVP

9-Time All Defense

5-Time All-Star

2-Time All-NBA

Immeasurably Clutch in Crunch Time

Sidney Moncrief

Two-Time Defensive Player of the Year

5-Time All Defense

5-Time All NBA

Dennis Rodman

7-Time Rebounding Champion (record)

7-Consecutive Rebounding Titles (record)

7-Time All Defense

2-Time Defensive Player of the Year

5-Time NBA Champion

2-Time All Star

2-Time All NBA

If defense and rebounding wins championships, the basketball overlords have dishonored this bedrock axiom by snubbing the players who defended and rebounded best. But rather than drone on over the injustice, I’ll focus my energies on posting some items that pay tribute to these skills.

Doin' the 'Doo

Lex's effort to be "fair and balanced"

Bob McAdoo, 2000 NBA Hall of Fame Inductee

--1973 Rookie of the Year

--1975 League MVP

--Three-time NBA Scoring Leader

--Four-Time All-Star

With good height at 6-foot-9, McAdoo punished largely with finesse and touch. He worked out his own style, almost hiding his face as his arms went up for the shot. Los Angeles Laker Jerry West, McAdoo remembers, once called it "the ugliest shot I have ever seen."

He played for seven different NBA teams and helped the Lakers win NBA championships in 1982 and 1985.

"Bob McAdoo never met a shot he didn't like," said his former coach, Jack Ramsey.

McAdoo's unique record is leading the NBA in scoring (30.6 points per game) and field goal percentage (.547) in the same season. Only three other players have equaled this record: Wilt Chamberlain (three times), Paul Arizin and Neil Johnston.

For McAdoo, the HOF nod more than made up for the oversight when he was not named to the NBA's Top 50, chosen during the league's 50th anniversary.

At first McAdoo didn't pay a lot of attention to being overlooked.

"My sons (Ross, 17, and Russell, 13), they're the ones who brought it to my attention," McAdoo said. "They researched it and said, 'how could you not make it, Dad? There are only 21 different MVPs in league history and you're the only one who didn't make it. You're the only multiple scoring champion that didn't make it.'"

--

Lex says:

If you twisted my arm far enough, I might concede that 'Doo deserved the induction, though not before DJ. Under no circumstances, however, will I concede that he deserved to be included on the top 50 list.

You need to play on both sides of the ball to make that list, or at least be a top-fiver on one side of the ball.

McAdoo's omission from that list was not an oversight.

It was by design.

End the Injustice

You undoubtedly have your favorite DJ memories. Mine would include the totality of Games 4 through 7 in 1984, when DJ scored more than 20 points in each game while guarding Magic Johnson better than anyone else could possibly even conceive of; the many traffic rebounds; the get-out-of-my-way drives; and, of course, the inordinate number of clutch jumpers. It never mattered what he had shot from the floor during the course of a game's first 47 minutes. When other throats were drying up and other palms were getting clammy, DJ would say, "Gimme the ball."

--Bob Ryan

We're picking teams today, and I get first pick, I'll take DJ over LeBron James without batting an eyelash. When the game's over, you'll be regretting I had the first pick.

Adrian Dantley?

Sir, I watched Dennis Johnson play basketball.

Dennis Johnson was a friend of mine.

Dennis Johnson was the NBA's second best guard from 1979-1986.

Adrian Dantley, you are no Dennis Johnson.

Dantley played for seven NBA teams during his 15-year career, scoring over 23,000 points, making six All-Star teams and leading the league in scoring twice. But he never felt that he got the respect he deserved.

Well, what did he ever do besides score to earn that respect?

Did he ever, oh, I don't know, win a Finals MVP award like Dennis Johnson did in 1979?

Speaking of the NBA Finals, did Dantley ever grab 18 rebounds in one game? 15?

Did Dantley ever block 7 shots in one game during the NBA Finals?

Oh I get it. Dantley never made it to the Finals, and it wasn't until the Detroit Pistons traded him away that they made it to the Finals themselves. Kind of odd that he made it to the Hall and the most famous thing he ever did was collide with a teammate and get knocked out of the 1987 championship series.

Did Dantley ever get credited with helping turnaround a championship series by shutting down the opponent's best player like DJ did in 1984?

Did Dantley ever play a lick of D, much less earn nine straight All-Defense honors?

Did he ever hit any big shots that won meaningful playoff games like DJ did over and over and over again?

Despite a career laced with such honors as Rookie of the Year, Comeback Player of the Year and All-Star, the 6-foot-5, 210-pound small forward just could not stick with a team.

Maybe that's because all he did was score?

Now there's a concept.

Maybe Bob McAdoo will get inducted next year (followed by Dave Kingman in baseball).

+++

UPDATE:

Thanks to TK, Bob McAdoo is already in the hall.

Scoring, Scoring Scoring.

Best yet, he scored 18,000 points, just three thousand more than DJ, and he didn't play a lick of D either.

He's even more Dave Kingman than Adrian Dantley.

Give me a break!!!

Lawrence Taylor in Gym Shorts

Bob Ryan

Images. Oh boy, did Dennis Johnson leave us with some images.

I can see him now, bringing the ball upcourt, those cheeks puffing in and out like some mini-Dizzy Gillespie. I can see him calmly dribbling the ball and then suddenly whipping that bullet pass to Larry Bird on the baseline for an easy two.

I can see him posting up some poor physically overmatched guard, making that turnaround jumper -- on which I swear he was a 70 percent lifetime shooter -- in situations big and small. I can see him lowering that shoulder and blasting to the basket like Larry Csonka heading into the end zone. Could this man drive. "I know DJ thinks it's a big game when he's taking it to the basket," Bird always said.

And who will ever forget the sight of DJ at the free throw line, first bouncing the ball low and hard once for each year he had spent in the league, then taking a deep breath and then softly tossing the ball into the basket? That trademark bounce-per-year ritual will always set DJ apart. Who would dare horn in on that unique statement?

The twists and turns of DJ's career included aspects unknown to the Boston fan. I was privileged, for example, to have an up-close-and-personal look at a Dennis Johnson that perhaps you never really got to see. That would be the frisky young late-'70s Dennis Johnson. The prevailing portrait of the Boston DJ was that of the serious, seasoned, cagey, energy-conserving veteran. By the time DJ was concluding his career, it was impossible for the Boston fan to envision him as a pup.

But the young DJ was a monster on the court. I have never, and I mean never, seen anyone play attacking defense the way Dennis Johnson did for the Sonics in the 1979 Finals against Washington. On a team featuring Jack Sikma, Lonnie Shelton and the mercurial Gus Williams, the riveting presence was Dennis Johnson, who not only averaged 23 points a game in his inimitable little-of-this, little-of-that fashion, but who also played a marauding defense from the big guard spot. There have been many brilliant defensive guards in the 45-year history of the NBA, but the young Dennis Johnson is the only one I would ever describe as destructive.

Among the achievements that earned him the 1979 championship series MVP award were his 11 blocked shots, four of which accompanied his 32-point, 10-rebound overtime effort in Game 4. He was such an imtimidating presence that the Bullets hesitated bringing the ball anywhere near him. He was Lawrence Taylor in gym shorts.

If the true test of a player's greatness is the capacity to adjust and expand his game, then Exhibit A may very well be Dennis Johnson. Remember the stated purpose of his acquisition? He came here as an Andrew Toney deterrent. Yes, indeed. He was the big guard who could score a few points, and in the most important games against the most terrifying individual opponent, he would slay the dragon at the defensive end. Which, by the way, he did.

No one spoke in terms of Dennis Johnson being a lead guard. In fact, the reason Phoenix even made him available was because the Suns thought that in DJ and Walter Davis, they had two non-complementary big guards. Gradually, however, he became a classic floor leader. He became so good at the task of running a team and getting the ball to the right people at the right time that Bird grew wary of playing without him.

But Dennis Johnson had been fooling and impressing people for a long time. He came out of Dominguez High School in Compton, Calif., unburdened by press clippings and bereft of college offers. As the ninth of 16 children, he wasn't going to be allowed to sit around the house, so he went to work, driving a forklift in a warehouse. A year and a half later, he enrolled at Harbor Junior College, and he eventually went up the coast a ways to Pepperdine, where, during his one varsity year, he averaged 15 points a game as an undersized forward.

He applied to the NBA as a hardship case and was drafted in the 1976 second round (the 29th pick) by the Sonics. Bill Russell took a liking to him, and if there is one good thing you can say about Bill Russell as a coach, it's that he never went on reputations. The frisky kid from Pepperdine deserved to play, so Russ played him. A more traditional coach might have ignored this untutored kid.

That launched a professional career that culminates tomorrow night with the raising of DJ's No. 3 to the Garden rafters. Can you imagine what will be going through his mind as he thinks about the frightening might-have-beens in his life? Not many go from forklift to a career that includes a playoff MVP, a spot on the first-team All-NBA squad (1980), five first-team All-Defensive citations, five All-Star Game appearances and, most important of all, three championship rings, the last two earned while playing for the team that honors him now.

You undoubtedly have your favorite DJ memories. Mine would include the totality of Games 4 through 7 in 1984, when DJ scored more than 20 points in each game while guarding Magic Johnson better than anyone else could possibly even conceive of; the many traffic rebounds; the get-out-of-my-way drives; and, of course, the inordinate number of clutch jumpers. It never mattered what he had shot from the floor during the course of a game's first 47 minutes. When other throats were drying up and other palms were getting clammy, DJ would say, "Gimme the ball."

The true legacy of a ballplayer isn't his numbers. What makes for athletic immortality is a style and an image. There are a lot of cookie-cutter players, a whole bunch of reminds-me-of guys. I'm here to say that there is no such thing as a "Dennis Johnson type." There is only Dennis Johnson. Unique Celtic. Unique Man.

Hall of Shame--How Can DJ be Left Out?

Peter Vecsey

UPON discovering Sunday afternoon that Dennis Johnson wasn't elected to the Hall of Fame as part of this year's exceptionally qualified inductee harvest - Pat Riley, Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, Adrian Dantley , Bill Davidson, Kathy Rush and Dick Vitale (be nice) - I sent the following e-mail to roughly 300 Hoop du Jour (most directly connected to the NBA) subscribers:

"D.J. got stiffed again."

Thirty-seven responded.

"How can there be a basketball Hall of Fame and exclude D. J.?"

"Unfreaking believable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"TERRIBLE!!!!!!!"

"I have no respect for the HOF!"

"That news is so discouraging. What does it take to get him to Springfield?"

"Sorry to hear that, I worked with him, great player, terrific guy, never big timed anyone."

"That defies explanation."

"Amazing D. J. keeps getting slighted!"

"Are these [24] committee members out of their minds? What did D.J. do to earn such non-respect?"

"If D.J. were alive I'd suggest he consult with Susan Lucci to get guidance through this trauma."

Chicago-based agent Mark Bartlestein said it best and speaks for us non-HOF-voters.

"Coaches, organizations and those handing out the honors love to talk about sacrificing personal statistics for the sake of success yet rarely reward it," he said. "Dennis Johnson epitomizes that. He did so many things that effected winning. Many were intangibles. Much of what he did gave his team's superstars the freedom to focus on what they did best.

"No, Dennis Johnson's stats aren't Hall of Fame. But his game was Hall of Fame. You actually have to understand the game to understand that."