Basketball Hall of Fame Event Will Be Pushed to 2021, Colangelo Says
Written by B87FM on May 27, 2020

The Naismith Basketball Corridor of Fame induction for an exceptionally illustrious class, together with the late Kobe Bryant, can be postponed from August to subsequent spring due to the coronavirus pandemic, Jerry Colangelo, the chairman of the Corridor of Fame’s board of governors, stated Wednesday.
No announcement can be official till the board of governors convenes on June 10, Colangelo stated.
“However that’s what I count on would be the consequence,” he stated in a phone interview.
Bryant, who died at 41 in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26, was voted into the Corridor in April, as had been his N.B.A. contemporaries Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett and the 10-time W.N.B.A. All-Star Tamika Catchings.
The enshrinement weekend was initially scheduled for Aug. 28-30, and Colangelo had proposed Oct. 10-12 as a substitute in case fears over the pandemic lingered. However Colangelo stated it had change into clear to him that neither weekend can be possible.
“We had October as our backup date, and that’s not that far-off,” Colangelo stated. “There are too many different issues that would trigger that to be an issue. So we’re higher off deferring till the primary quarter of subsequent 12 months.”
A $23 million renovation of the Corridor of Hame in Springfield, Mass., remains to be scheduled to be accomplished by July 1, and Colangelo hoped that the enshrinement weekend would double as a type of grand reopening for the constructing. However these plans have been scuttled.
“We had been going to bust out with this unimaginable class,” Colangelo stated. “However we it’s a must to modify. That’s life.”
Colangelo stated there would nonetheless be separate ceremonies — on separate weekends — for the Class of 2020 and the Class of 2021.
“Every time we do it, predicated on world circumstances, we’re not going to shortchange anybody,” Colangelo stated. “We wish this to be very particular for these inductees.”