This 2023 Basketball Hall of Fame class could be an all-time great

The Springfield Symphony Hall lists a capacity of 2,611. This isgoing to be a problem when the basketball world heads to westernMassachusetts on Aug. 12.

Act surprised on Saturday when the Naismith Memorial BasketballHall of Fame announces its class of enshrinees for 2023. Among thefinalists: Dirk Nowitzki, Pau Gasol, Dwyane Wade, Tony Parker andGregg Popovich. It’s widely assumed that they’ll enter the Hallthis summer, in what will be a most star-studded event.

“We might need a stadium for that one,” Brooklyn coach JacqueVaughn said.

He’s not wrong. More than 2,611 people will want to go to this.Probably more than 261,111 people will want to go to this.

It was never a question that the biggest names — the Nowitzki,Gasol, Wade, Parker group — would get into the Hall.

The question was about Popovich. Not if. But when.

The NBA’s all-time winningest coach, a five-time champion andthe coach of the team that won Olympic gold at the Tokyo Gamesquietly rejected overtures from the Hall in the past. He wanted tosee his best San Antonio players — Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobiliamong them — go into the Hall first. He also wanted to see somecoaches he respected most, like Rudy Tomjanovich, finally get thecall first. Besides, it’s not like people will look at Popovichwith more reverence or respect after he gets his orange jacket fromthe Hall and officially gets to be introduced as a Hall ofFamer.

“It will mean more to us as former coaches, former players, thanto him I think,” Vaughn said. “And that’s not a slight at all. Ithink what he will enjoy is seeing his former players there, andpeople who he has touched in a tremendous way, families he’simpacted for a long time because of his knowledge and his abilityto share his knowledge and his ability to care for people.”

More than 300 people have either played for or coached underPopovich in his time with the Spurs and USA Basketball. Nowitzkihad more than 200 teammates. Gasol is beloved by teammates on twocontinents. The Miami Heat will probably send their entire staff upto see Wade give his speech. Add up the numbers, and we’re gettingtoward that magic 2,611 number really quickly. And that doesn’teven include, you know, the enshrinees’ families and friends, alongwith the other living Hall of Famers.

“I know this much,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “I’ll be ona plane from wherever we are, and I’ll be there.”

Spoelstra will be coaching with USA Basketball this summer underhead coach Steve Kerr at the Basketball World Cup, which takes themto the Philippines in August and September following warm-up gamesin Las Vegas, Spain and Abu Dhabi. They’ll be in Las Vegas until afew days before the Hall enshrinement, then the American contingentwill head to Spain for games against Spain and Slovenia. Can’timagine they’ll be very well-attended, not with Gasol going intothe Hall that same weekend, with Slovenia’s Luka Doncic probablygoing to pick being with Nowitzki over a pair of exhibitions, withPopovich set to be enshrined.

The Hall will give the enshrinees a number of tickets. It won’tbe enough for any of them. Popovich’s guest list will be impossibleto pare down, especially his innermost circle of confidants, whoremain there even after they leave the Spurs.

Case in point: Utah coach Will Hardy. He left the Spurs to be anassistant in Boston under another former Spurs player and coach,Ime Udoka. But when Popovich was coaching the Olympic team, hepicked some of the best and brightest to be alongside him, Kerr,Spoelstra, Mike Krzyzewski and others for the process of gettingready. Hardy made that list.

“I’ve talked about imposter syndrome some this year — maybenever higher than those moments when you’re sitting in a room andit’s Gregg Popovich, Steve Kerr, Erik Spoelstra, Jerry Colangelo,Jay Wright, Lloyd Pierce, Ime Udoka, Coach K is in the room,” Hardysaid. “And you’re going, ‘How am I sitting at this table rightnow?’ In a lot of ways it makes no sense. I felt like I was in thegreatest basketball grad school class of all time. You almost can’twrite fast enough in terms of taking notes and listening.”

So many of the pairings will be fitting. The Popovich-Parker duoand Wade faced off twice in the NBA Finals. Popovich-Parker andNowitzki had Texas-sized battles for years. Nowitzki and Wadeplayed in the finals against one another twice, each winning atitle on the other’s home floor. Gasol played against them all foryears.

They’re all beloved. Wade has teammates already planning theirtrips to Springfield. Orlando coach Jamahl Mosley doesn’t have hisentire summer plan picked out yet, but he’s going to Springfieldfor Nowitzki — who he coached in Dallas.

“The most wonderful thing about him is that being around him inpublic and going to events, I’ve never seen him turn people down orsay no,” Mosley said of Nowitzki. “Whether he’s tired or doesn’twant to do it, he’s always going to go the extra mile to make surethose around him feel his appreciation for how much they’ve givento him. He might be one of the most humble Hall of Famers I’ve everbeen around in that regard.”

Mosley will have a seat for the big night. So will Hardy. Sowill Vaughn. How close they’ll be to the stage is anyone’s guess,but with this Hall class, there won’t be a bad seat in thehouse.