• Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

Hall of Fame Class 2013 Announced: Former Knicks Bernard King, Rick Pitino and Richie Guerin Inducted

The Naismith Hall of Fame class of 2013 was announced Monday in Atlanta with three former Knicks Bernard King, Rick Pitino and Richie Guerin leading the way of the seven inductees.

Bernard King is regarded as one of the finest pure scorers in basketball history, playing 14 seasons with the Nets, Jazz, Warriors, Knicks and Bullets. He’s best known for his time in New York, where he became a prolific scorer. He averaged 22.5 points for his career, but at his peak he was near unstoppable. He recorded back-to-back 50-point games in 1984.
King said the only regret he had from his NBA career is that he and Patrick Ewing never were able to play a full season together because of his health “because I believe we would have won the championship together.

Rick Pitino was born in New York City, New York and was raised in Bayville, New York. Pitino became head coach of the New York Knicks in 1987. The year before he arrived, the team had won only 24 games. In just two years, Pitino led the Knicks to their first division title in nearly twenty years. Pitino is currently the head coach for Louisville.

Richard Vincent “Richie” Guerin born in The Bronx. The Knicks drafted Guerin with the 8th pick in the second round of the 1954 NBA Draft while still on active duty. After leaving the Marine Corps, Guerin would begin his professional basketball career.
Guerin joined the club in 1956 and quickly established himself. In only his second season he made the NBA All-Star Team for the first of six straight years. In his third year Guerin led the Knicks in assists (5.1 apg) and ranked second in scoring (18.2 ppg). He dished out a (then) team-record 21 assists against St. Louis on December 12, 1958. The 21 assists he totaled were also Madison Square Garden high until John Stockton broke the record 41 years later.
That year New York made its only postseason appearance with Guerin on the team, losing to the Syracuse Nationals in a first-round sweep.

The ceremony will take place Sept. 6-8 in Springfield, Massachusettes. Other inductees include former UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian, former Houston coach Guy Lewis, nine-time NBA All-Star Gary Peyton, five-time WNBA All-Star Dawn Staley, three-time women’s Coach of the Year Sylvia Hatchell from North Carolina, African-American basketball Pioneer E.B. Henderson, international star Oscar Schmidt and NBA executive Russ Granit

Vernon McKenzie:PureSportsNY

By Vernon McKenzie

Graduate of New Institute Of Technology with a BA in Communications with a focus on Television Radio. Owner and Executive Producer of PureSportsNY

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