PR n°26 - Candidates for the 2007 Class of the FIBA Hall of Fame announced

GENEVA (FIBA HAll of Fame) – FIBA is happy to announce that its Screening Committee has proposed a list comprised of a total of 34 world-renowned basketball figures as candidates for induction into the 2007 Class of the FIBA Hall of Fame.

On 18th June 2007, coinciding with the 75th Anniversary of FIBA (the International Basketball Federation was founded on 18th June 1932 in Geneva) and once the Honours Committee has assessed the list of 34 candidates provided by the Screening Committee, the FIBA Hall of Fame’s 2007 Class of Inductees will be announced. The Class of 2007 will be composed by a maximum number of 20 persons.

On 12th September 2007, during the EuroBasket in Spain, the official enshrinement ceremony of the 2007 Class of the FIBA Hall of Fame will take place in Alcobendas (Madrid, Spain). All details of this ceremony will be announced in due time.

Please find below the list of 34 candidates for the 2007 Class of the FIBA Hall of Fame:

PLAYERS:

Mr. Sergei BELOV. RUS
Mr. Dražen DALIPAGIĆ. SRB
Mr. Ivo DANEU. SLO
Mr. Óscar FURLONG. ARG
Mr. Nikos GALIS. GRE
Mr. Andrew GAZE. AUS
Ms. Yumin LIU. CHN
Ms. Hortência MARCARI. BRA
Mr. Pierluigi MARZORATI. ITA
Ms. Ann MEYERS. USA
Ms. Cheryl MILLER. USA
Mr. Amaury PASOS. BRA
Mr. Oscar ROBERTSON. USA
Mr. Emiliano RODRÍGUEZ. ESP
Mr. Bill RUSSELL. USA
Mr. Oscar SCHMIDT. BRA
Ms. Uljana SEMJONOVA. LAT
Mr. Valdis VALTERS. LAT
Mr. Juan “Pachín” VICENS (posthumous). PUR

COACHES:

Ms. Lidia ALEXEEVA. RUS
Mr. Dušan IVKOVIĆ. SRB
Mr. Dean SMITH. USA
Mr. Togo Renan SOARES, "Kanela" (posthumous). BRA
Mr. Ranko ŽERAVICA. SRB

TECHNICAL OFFICIALS:

Mr. Jim BAIN. USA
Mr. Mario HOPENHAYM. URU
Mr. Ervin KASSAI. HUN
Mr. Allen RAE. CAN
Mr. Costas RIGAS. GRE

CONTRIBUTORS:

Mr. Pedro FERRÁNDIZ. ESP
Mr. George KILLIAN. USA
Mr. Alistair RAMSAY. AUS
Mr. Ernesto SEGURA DE LUNA. ESP
Mr. Borislav STANKOVIĆ. SRB


About the FIBA Hall of Fame
 
The primary goal of the FIBA Hall of Fame is to reflect the history of the sport and its protagonists. The key criterion for selection into the FIBA Hall of Fame is outstanding achievement, at the international level, to the development and status of the sport of basketball.

The FIBA Hall of Fame was officially inaugurated on 1st March 2007. The FIBA Hall of Fame, built with the help of the city of Alcobendas (Madrid, Spain) and upon initiative of Mr. Pedro Ferrándiz, legendary coach of Real Madrid and founder and president of the Foundation that carries his name, is a five-floor building that covers 2.000 square meters.

On 1st March 2007, in addition to the official inauguration of the building, the announcement of the initial inductees into the FIBA Hall of Fame was made. For this initial enshrinement ceremony, the International Basketball Federation decided to pay tribute to a selection of internationally-renowned figures who made outstanding contributions to our sport of basketball and who, regrettably, are no longer with us. For the complete list of posthumous inductees into the FIBA Hall of Fame, please visit: www.halloffame.fiba.com.

The procedure for nomination and election into the FIBA Hall of Fame is as follows:

Inductees into the FIBA Hall of Fame are divided into four categories: PLAYERS (they must have been retired from international competition for a minimum of five years), COACHES, TECHNICAL OFFICIALS (REFEREES AND COMMISSIONERS) and CONTRIBUTORS.

Nominations for inductees into the FIBA Hall of Fame can be submitted by FIBA member national federations, FIBA Zone Commissions, Central Board members and FIBA Screening Committee members.

The FIBA Screening Committee, consisting of FIBA Secretary General Mr. Patrick Baumann (SUI) and Central Board members Mr. Jenaro Marchand (PUR) and Mr. Manfred Ströher (GER), after having carefully studied all the received nominations for inductees, submits a final list of candidates to the FIBA Honours Committee.

The FIBA Honours Committee, comprised of FIBA President, Mr. Bob Elphinston (AUS), FIBA Vice President, Mr. George Vassilakopoulos (GRE), and FIBA Secretary General Emeritus, Mr. Borislav Stanković (SRB), then assesses the list of nominations provided by the Screening Committee and makes the final decisions regarding each intake into the FIBA Hall of Fame.

After the induction of the 2007 Class has taken place, enshrinement ceremonies into the FIBA Hall of Fame will take place every two years and will be limited to a maximum of six inductees per year.

FIBA