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Vince Carter, Chauncey Billups Elected to Basketball Hall of Fame, Per Report
Vince Carter and Chauncey Billups have been elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, The Athletic's Shams Charania reports. An official announcement is expected Saturday at the Final Four in Phoenix. Carter and Billups were among the 14 finalists up for induction this year, along with Michael Cooper, Bo Ryan, Walter Davis, Charles Smith and more.
Carter getting the nod is no surprise. An eight-time All-Star and perhaps the best dunker in the game's history, Carter is 21st on the NBA's all-time scoring list, 79th in assists, and 47th in steals. The 1999 Rookie of the Year played until he was 43 and was always one of the more popular players in the league.
Billups is a bit more surprising as he never had the eye-popping counting stats usually required for these types of honors. But he was a winner, as evidenced by earning NBA Finals MVP honors for the Detroit Pistons in 2004.
It's always a bit jarring to see how much easier the basketball hall of fame is to get into compared to it's baseball counterpart. But, hey, that's probably a good thing.
Kyle Koster is an editor at The Big Lead.
Kyle Koster is an assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated covering the intersection of sports and media. He was formerly the editor in chief of The Big Lead, where he worked from 2011 to '24. Koster also did turns at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he created the Sports Pros(e) blog, and at Woven Digital.