A list went around the league this morning naming eleven NBA players sitting on the Basketball Hall of Fame waiting list, and the headline name is Russell Westbrook, who only recently stepped away from the floor. This year's class carries exactly one NBA player. Eleven more are stacked behind him.
I don't have all eleven names in front of me yet, and I'm not going to guess at somebody's Hall of Fame ballot to fill a paragraph. What I do know is the shape of the wait. Springfield makes fully retired North American players sit out three years before they're eligible, which means the clock on Westbrook has barely started ticking. That's not a snub. That's the calendar doing its job.
And when his turn comes, the resume does not need a lawyer. In 2016-17 he put up 31.6 points, 10.7 rebounds and 10.4 assists a night, won MVP, and became the first man in more than half a century to average a triple-double across a full season. Then he did it again. And again. And again. Four seasons averaging a triple-double, two scoring titles, nine All-Star selections, and in May of 2021 he passed Oscar Robertson for the most career triple-doubles anybody has ever compiled. You can argue about the shooting splits until the sun comes up. You cannot argue with the ledger.
checked the almanac: robertson's 1961-62 triple-double season sat alone for 55 years, untouched, treated as a relic of a different game. then a guard from long beach did it four times in five years and we all sort of shrugged.
The timing is a little poetic, too. Word came down the same morning that Minnesota has set a date to raise Kevin Garnett's No. 21 to the rafters, which will be the second number retired in his honor after Boston hung his No. 5. That's what the back half of a career looks like. Banners, ballots, and a lot of waiting rooms.
What comes next for the eleven is simply patience. Eligibility windows open, committees meet, and one August morning a phone rings. The thing I'm watching is which of these names goes first ballot and which one sits an extra cycle, because that gap tells you more about how the game remembers people than any highlight reel does.
