Great news this morning as we find out that Adrian Dantley finally got the call the the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Dantley was one of the most  underrated scorers in the game in the 80’s.  He averaged more than 24 points a game over his career including close to 30 a game while he was with the Jazz.  He was a 6 time All-Star and left the league in scoring twice.  It’s great that he finally gets this recognition after 8 attempts.

The subject that’s brought up all the time for this and for other sports HOFs is what’s different now than when he retired?  He hasn’t scored any more points.  If he’s a HOFer now, he should have been called in his first year of eligibilty.  You could debate this all day, but we’ll just be thankful that he’s in now.

Dantley was in his final years as a Jazz man when I started getting into NBA basketball.  So I don’t have too many memories of his playing time.  But he certainly spawned many NBA fans in Salt Lake when the franchise was trying to get off the ground after its move from New Orleans.  He put butts in the seats and really made the Jazz relevant by getting them to their first playoff series.  He has a lot to do with keeping the Jazz in Utah and that they weren’t forced to move again after a few lean years to start with.

The Jazz finally showed him the same recognition by retiring his number last year.  I wrote about that here.

He was then traded away as the Jazz turned the reins over to Stockton and Malone.  As the story goes, Frank Layden came to Malone and told him that they were going to trade Dantley and build around Stockton and the Mailman.  So he was shipped off to Detroit where he still scored more than 20 a game.

So here’s to #4, the first real star the Jazz had.

And we’ll see Stockton follow next year with Malone after that.

On the 9th day of Christmas, the Utah Jazz gave to me:

#4 retired

It finally happened. Twenty-one years after leaving the Jazz, Adrian Dantley was finally recognized by the Jazz by having his number his number retired. After a much ballyhooed feud between Miller, Frank Layden, and Dantley, old grudges were put to rest and #4 finally received the recognition that he deserved.

I guess 21 years will do a lot to erase hard feelings. Miller admitted that at times he was “too immature as an owner.” Dantley also took responsibility for things, stating, “I was young, a little bit stubborn.”

There is no measure to what AD meant to the young Jazz franchise. I went over his stats earlier this year. He was one of the first big-time names that Jazz had. He was a little before my time, but I remember quickly hearing about him through the Jazz games and in the papers, even after he was no longer with the Jazz.

Now, hopefully next year’s installment of “It’s not lame, it’s the ten days of Christmas,” we’ll be reporting on on his enshrinement into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Dantley, an assistant coach with the visiting Denver Nuggets tonight, will finally have his #4 retired at halftime. To say this is long overdue is an understatement. It should have been one of the first to be retired. It will be nice to see Dantley get his recognition.

An even bigger negligence is Adrian’s absence from the Hall of Fame. Was he one of the first casualties of playing for a small-market team? His numbers speak for themselves:

Adrian Dantley @ basketball-reference.com

Things that jump out from those stats:

1. Of his 23,177 points, only 21 of those came from from three-pointers. I know he was more of a forward-guard, and I didn’t expect him to be a Jeff Hornacek, but that number surprised me.
2. From ‘79-’86, he was arguably one of the best scorers in the game, including leading the league in scoring twice and averaging 30+ points a game for four years in a row. And even after he was traded to Detroit and playing behind Thomas & Dumars, he still average 20 points for 3 years.
3. A good chunk of his points came from the free-throw line where he shot almost 82%. His 6,832 FTM accounted for nearly 30% of his total points.

Had it not been for the rise of Stockton & Malone, Dantley’s ending to his career would have been a lot different and possibly have been in the Hall of Fame already. Here’s to a great Jazz man.

Now a bit on tonight’s game. First AK is back. A lot of the Jazz’s offensive woes come from poor defense. AK should help with that and hopefully kick start the offense with some blocks and other defensive plays. Second, the halftime ceremony for Dantley will be great, but I hope it’s bitter-sweet for him because the Nuggets are down big. The Jazz need to come out and make a statement and blow out a resurgent Denver team to show that while they’ve struggled as of late, they’re going to be a force to be reckoned with. By winning these last 5 games, they will go into the playoffs with a lot of confidence. It’s crazy to think that after playing the Rockets on the last day of the season, they could have a long playoff series and possibly play them eight times in a row. Let’s hope it doesn’t go that far.