It was announced back in September that former Philadelphia 76ers star guard Allen Iverson would be eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2016 as the NBA deemed his season in Turkey did not count, according to Scoot Howard-Cooper of NBA.com. This is big news because Iverson is a surefire Hall of Famer and immediately became the biggest name on the 2016 ballot. Now it is being reported that big changes are coming to the Hall of Fame process, according to Cooper.
Nothing has been made official yet but an announcement is expected to come within the next week regarding these changes that include decreasing the amount of time a player has to wait to be inducted after retiring. Right now the rule is that they have to be out of the league for five NBA seasons but the change will make it five calendar years. Previously a player could not be nominated until after their fifth season out of the league but that was effectively six years as they had to wait for the voting to be done at the end of the sixth season, now they will be able to be nominated after the fourth season out of the league.
By making this change it gives the NBA a potentially huge class for 2016 as Shaquille O'Neal and Yao Ming would become eligible for 2016 joining Iverson. O'Neal and Iverson are virtual locks for first ballot entry while Yao isn't quite as much of a lock although many expect him to be inducted. By having O'Neal and Yao become eligible a year early though, it likely hurts the chances of guys like Chris Webber and Tim Hardaway to make it this year.
The reason for this change might be because this year's upcoming class was not expected to have many eligible guys that bring excitement. Aside from Iverson the new entry on the ballot with the best case after him might have been Michael Finley, who was a very good player but likely not Hall of Fame worthy. Now with Shaq, Yao and AI this could be a huge class and should bring a lot of attention to the NBA Hall of Fame.
