West, Thompson, Laettner highlight college hoops Hall class

[GODUKEGO]

http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/W...e-class-022410

[Jeffrey]

I'm ignorant of the process. Why does it take this long for the greatest player in ACC history to get inducted? Seems like DT would have been in the first class.

[HateCarolina]

Talk about being inducted in fine company...Laettner's name would be in the small print on the marquee...congrats to everyone of these well deserving gentlemen.

[Duvall]

I'm ignorant of the process. Why does it take this long for the greatest player in ACC history to get inducted? Seems like DT would have been in the first class.

As members of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, David Thompson and Jerry West were inducted with the founding class. Thompson and West are being recognized at this ceremony, but they were already members.

[CDu]

I'm ignorant of the process. Why does it take this long for the greatest player in ACC history to get inducted? Seems like DT would have been in the first class.

Apparently, he and West were already selected along with 178 other players in the founding class since they were already in the basketball hall of fame. They are just being honored along with Laettner and Weeks (who were selected in 2010).

That said, apparently Charles Barkley was honored in 2008. I'm not sure why he was honored ahead of Thompson (2-time NPOY, 3-time 1st Team All-American, and a national championship) or even West. Not sure why Larry Bird and Magic Johnson went ahead of Thompson either (in 2009), though I'll quibble less about them. Russell and Robertson (2006) and Abdul-Jabbar (2007) make reasonable arguments to go in ahead of Thompson.