2024 Hall of Fame: Journeys of 4 NBA icons

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The Class of 2024 being enshrined this weekend at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and Museum doesn’t feature a GOAT. There is no Mt. Rushmore guy, as far as NBA legends go, not even a Top-15 or Top-20 denizen among them.
All of which speaks to the depth of all-time greats the NBA has enjoyed. This crop of four inductees from the North American Committee, out of 13 overall to be honored in the Hall ceremony Sunday in Springfield, Mass., features plenty of excellence and superlatives.
One of the men, Chauncey Billups, made his mark through perseverance and leadership of an unlikely championship team. Another, Vince Carter, was a paragon of longevity who willed and worked himself through 22 seasons while splicing together two dramatically different styles.
Michael Cooper waited for this weekend for 34 years after playing in his final NBA game, a period of time it might have taken some voters to fully appreciate the selfless, tireless brand of defense he brought to one of the most entertaining offensive crews in hoops history.
As for Walter Davis, his career veered out of the spotlight due to injuries, substance abuse and a decline in the quality of his Phoenix Suns teams. But as a shooter and scorer, he burst on the NBA scene with success and consistency rarely seen.
The Hall of Fame spreads its arms wide to honor players, coaches and others who thrive in the game at multiple levels: pro, college, high school and international. These four earned their bit of immortality almost entirely for their work in the NBA.
Chauncey Billups
• Career summary: “Late bloomer” is a good way to describe Billups’ NBA career. He was the No. 3 pick in the 1997 Draft, traded by Boson four months into his rookie season, largely because he wasn’t Tim Duncan (the Celtics were cranky after bad lottery luck). The 6-foot-3 point guard from Colorado played for five different teams in his first six seasons and seven different franchises overall. He was traded five times, signed elsewhere four times as a free agent and was waived once. He’ll have a permanent home in Springfield.
• Hall of Fame credentials: Counting stats don’t tell the story of Billups’ impact. He ranks 24th all-time in 3-pointers made and 25th in 3-point attempts, 51st in assists and 63rd in free-throws made across his 17-year career. But starting in his ninth season, he made five All-Star teams and three times landed on second or third All-NBA squads. He earned All-Defensive Second Team honors twice and two times finished in the top six for MVP voting. Then there were his 146 playoff games played, including two Finals trips.
• Most memorable moment: Billups reportedly interrupted coach Larry Brown after Game 2 of the 2004 Finals, played in the old 2-3-2 home/road format. Tied 1-1 after two games at Staples Center (now Crypto.com Arena), Billups told the Pistons’ bus: “We’re not coming back to L.A.” And they didn’t, sweeping the next three in Detroit to beat the heavily favored Lakers. The aging Lakers had big names, but the Pistons had a cohesive ensemble that included Richard “Rip” Hamilton, Ben Wallace, Tayshaun Prince and Rasheed Wallace. Their defense was their star of the series, and Billups was named Finals MVP after averaging 21 points and 5.2 assists while shooting 50.9% overall, 47.1% on 3s and 92.9% from the line.
Vince Carter
• Career summary: “Half-man, half-amazing!” with just a dash of giant tortoise or Timex. The No. 5 pick in 1998, Carter was traded on Draft night for UNC teammate Antawn Jamison, then played — and played and played — for a record-setting 21 seasons (six more than Jamison). Only three players have topped 20, with LeBron James set to match Carter’s mark with his first appearance of 2024-25. But of Carter’s 1,541 games, 959 came after age 30 — more than Jerry West, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and some other legends played, period. Carter’s remarkable longevity only ended on March 11, 2020 — and it took the global COVID-19 lockdowns to do it.
• Hall of Fame credentials: Carter’s tenacity and ability to earn roster spots and contracts with eight franchises gets a lot of run now. But he started his NBA career flashing across the sky like a meteor. His eight All-Star selections came before his age-30 season, by which time he was averaging 24.1 points per game. The Rookie of the Year in 1999 made All-NBA in his second and third seasons with Toronto. Over Carter’s final nine seasons, he averaged 8.5 ppg off various benches and three times finished in the top 15 of Kia Sixth Man balloting.
• Most memorable moment: He retired at 43, but Carter was an explosive 23 when he took over the dunk contest at the 2000 All-Star Weekend. His repertoire of high-flying theatrics made him a household name in two countries, not just one, and furthered comparisons to that other former Tar Heel, Michael Jordan. Carter was the Raptors’ first All-Star, the first star to lead them to the playoffs and a playoff series victory, but nothing topped his rim-rattling display in Oakland.
Michael Cooper
• Career summary: An argument could be made that Cooper filled his role more completely (and certainly more successfully) than any other supporting player in NBA history. He started only 94 of 873 games played in 12 seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers, averaging only 8.9 points — fewer than every post-NBA/ABA merger Hall inductee besides Dennis Rodman (7.3) and Ben Wallace (5.7). But it was Cooper’s defense that defined him and completed the Lakers’ fabled “Showtime” era in the 1980s, and only he, Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played on all five of L.A.’s NBA championship teams in that run.
• Hall of Fame credentials: Cooper never made an All-Star team but at 6-foot-7, 170 pounds, with quick feet, toughness and arms out to here, he was a prototypical defender who made life miserable for opponents’ biggest scorers. If you added the points he whittled off performances of the most lethal scorers of that period like Larry Bird, Julius Erving, Alex English, George Gervin, Dominque Wilkins and others and moved them to Cooper’s side of the ledger in a plus/minus way, his career total of 7,729 might feasibly double. He was an eight-time pick for All-Defensive teams, was named Defensive Player of the Year in 1986-87 and five times finished in the top five in balloting for that award.
• Most memorable moment: Bird unequivocally called Cooper the best defender he ever faced, but it was a game when Cooper added offense that looms larger than most. In Game 2 of the 1987 Finals, Cooper hit a then-record six 3-pointers, and scored or assisted on all 20 Lakers points in their 20-10 second-quarter run, breaking open a 141-122 victory. Their fifth ring followed four games later. Bird finished with 23 points and three turnovers in 36 minutes, shooting 9-of-17. Cooper went 7-of-10 for 21 points and three steals in 26 minutes off the bench.
Walter Davis
• Career summary: Davis flashed onto the NBA scene as a smooth, sharp-shooting wing for the Suns as the No. 5 pick in 1977. He spent his first 11 seasons with Phoenix, most of his final four with Denver and closed up with a 32-game stint in Portland. Davis’ career suffered in the mid-1980s due to injury and an off-court battle with substance dependency, for which he sought treatment. The 6-foot-6 product of North Carolina never won a ring or reached the NBA Finals, but he got to the Western Conference Finals three times. His 15,666 points with the Suns still rank first in franchise history.   
• Hall of Fame credentials: Davis’ 24.2 scoring average in 1977-78 remains one of the highest by a rookie. Plus, his 27.23 points per 36 minutes rank second all-time among rookies to Wilt Chamberlain’s 29.19. That made Davis an easy choice for Rookie of the Year. He added All-NBA honors in his first two seasons and finished in the top 10 of MVP voting both years. He was an All-Star in his first four seasons (six times overall), and averaged more than 20 points in six seasons. Upon retirement in 1992, he ranked 18th on the all-time points list.
• Most memorable moment: Davis never was better than on Feb. 25, 1983 in Seattle. He scored 34 points in the game’s first 47 minutes, hitting all 14 of his field goal attempts and going 6-for-6 from the line for what would have been the NBA record for most points without a miss. But he went 1-for-2 in the game’s final minute, finishing with 36 points on 15-of-16 shooting. As his coach in Phoenix, John MacLeod, once said of Davis: “He’s not your average shooter. He’s an artist. His jumper is picture-perfect. If you wanted to teach someone how to shoot the ball, you would say to them ‘Do it the way Walter does.’”
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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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