NBA icon and Los Angeles Lakers great Magic Johnson thinks the 2020 Basketball Hall of Fame class is the premier group in the history of the hoops hall.
“The 2020 Hall of Fame class is the greatest class ever to be inducted led by Kobe, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Tamika Catchings, Eddie Sutton, Rudy Tomjanovich, Kim Mulkey, Barbara Stevens and Patrick Baumann,” the NBA legend tweeted.
Duncan, Garnett, and Bryant were staples of the league for nearly two decades. Duncan and Bryant each won five titles, while Garnett led the Boston Celtics to the 2008 championship — among many other accolades.
Magic Johnson was inducted to the Hall of Fame in 2002, alongside the late Drazen Petrovic, head coaches Larry Brown, Lute Olson, and Kay Yow, and the Harlem Globetrotters.
“No amount of words can fully describe what Kobe Bryant meant to the Los Angeles Lakers,” Jeanie Buss said in a statement. “Kobe was not only a proven winner and a champion, he gave everything he had to the game of basketball. His fierce competitiveness, work ethic and drive were unmatched…No one deserves it more.”
Johnson followed up with a message specific to the late Bryant, citing that the Black Mamba “will be rightfully enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.” He then went on to congratulate the entire Bryant family.
Kobe's widow, Vanessa, said the induction is “definitely the peak of his NBA career, and every accomplishment that he had as an athlete was a steppingstone to be here.”
According to ESPN's Kevin Pelton's championships added metric, the 2020 class is the second-most prolific in history — just behind the 2009 class that included Michael Jordan, John Stockton, and David Robinson. That group also included legendary coaches Jerry Sloan and C. Vivian Stringer.
The 2020 class will be formally enshrined on August 29.
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