Kevin Johnson isn’t a Hall of Famer

Former Phoenix Suns point guard Kevin Johnson is a finalist for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and he doesn’t deserve it. I readily acknowledge that such a proclamation will make me a social pariah in the central Arizona basketball community but KJ was good but not great.

Kevin Johnson’s resume:

• 12 NBA seasons
• Regular Season career average (725 games): 17.9 ppg, 9.1 apg and 1.5 spg
• Playoffs career average (105 games): 19.3 ppg, 8.9 apg and 1.3 spg
• 5x NBA All-Star (1989, 1990, 1991,1992, 1994)
• 4x All NBA Second Team (1989, 1990, 1991, 1994)
• 1x All NBA Third Team (1992)
• NBA Most Improved Player (1989)
• One NBA Finals appearance (1993)
• 2x seasons playing at least 80-games (1987, 1988)
• 6x seasons playing 70-games or less (1992-1997)

The last two lines on his resume are what should preclude KJ from the Hall of Fame. Yes, he was great when he was there but he was wasn’t always there. You have to show up on a consistent basis to be great or we base your legacy on conjecture.

Or to put it another way you fall into the chasm of coulda’ been like Tim Hardaway, Mark Price or Anfernee Hardaway. It’s no one’s fault that injuries curtailed a possibly great legacy and turned into a very good career. That’s the cruelty of life and everyone has an instant where the pratfalls overtake the promise.

Tim Hardaway’s career mirrors KJ’s, except that Johnson has made a positive contribution to society in the political realm and Hardaway is known for a homophobic tirade. But let’s keep comparison to the basketball court and not the court of popular opinion.

Tim Hardaway’s resume:

• 14 NBA seasons, 1998-2002
• Regular Season career average (867 games): 17.7 ppg, 8.2 apg and 1.6 spg
• Playoffs career average (56 games): 16.8 ppg, 6.6 apg and 1.6 spg
• 5x NBA All Star (1991, 1992, 1993, 1997, 1998)
• 1x All NBA First Team (1997)
• 3x All NBA Second Team (1992, 1998, 1999)
• 1x All NBA Third Team (1993)
• 2000 Olympics Gold Medal
• 5x seasons playing at least 80 regular season games (1990, 1991, 1995, 1996,1997)
• 5x seasons playing 70 regular season games or less (1992, 1993, 1994, 1998, 1999, 2001)

When healthy Hardaway was an elite player but the same legs that gave him the Utep Two Step caused him to miss the entire 1993 season and large chunks during his prime of 1992 and 1994. From 1990-1994 Hardaway averaged 22.1 ppg and 9.8 apg in 291 regular season games. Those are elite numbers but the prime was too short.

Regardless Hardaway has an impressive resume that a lot of us have forgotten about. Impressive but not elite and like Johnson not Hall of Fame caliber. We’ll always have fond memories of RUN TMC to fall back on and speculation on what could have been.

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Let’s get down to brass tacks, Mark Price is the reason the Cleveland Cavaliers shipped KJ to Phoenix. Johnson was Price’s backup in Cleveland and there was little reason to think that he was going to take the incumbents job with the Cavaliers at the time.

Mark Price’s resume:

• 12 NBA seasons, 1986-1997
• Regular Season career average (722 games): 15.2 ppg, 6.7 apg and 1.2 spg
• Playoffs career average (47 games): 17.4 ppg, 7.0 apg and 1.4 spg
• 4x NBA All Star (1989, 1992, 1993, 1994)
• 1x All NBA First Team (1993)
• 3x All NBA Third Team (1989, 1992, 1994)
• 1x seasons playing at least 80 regular season games (1987)
• 5x seasons playing 70 regular season games or less (1986, 1990, 1994, 1995, 1997)

Price is one of those players that seems to have fallen through the cracks and as the years roll on fewer people remember how talented he was. An elite shooter, 50-40-90 in 1989 and a two-time NBA 3-Point Shootout Champ, and a solid point guard but may have been forgotten due to an efficient (i.e dull) style.

Also his Cavaliers had the misfortune of squaring up against the Chicago Bulls in the Jordan era, so there were never any extended playoff runs for Price to shine in primetime.

Penny Hardaways’s career could be viewed as a prime example that Neil Young was correct when he maintained, “It’s better to burn out, than to fade away.”

If Penny was forced to retire after five-seasons, due to a knee injury, he bows out with 19.5ppg, 6.5 apg and 1.9 spg. Instead with diminished explosiveness he spent the remaining nine-seasons playing at a lower standard and we forgot that he was once a lock for the Hall of Fame.

Penny Hardaway’s resume:

• 14 NBA seasons, 1993-2007
• Regular Season career average (704 games): 15.2 ppg, 5.0 apg and 1.6 spg
• Playoffs career average (64 games): 20.4ppg, 6.2 apg and 1.9 spg
• 4x NBA All Star (1995, 1996, 1997, 1998)
• 2x All NBA First Team (1995, 1996)
• 3x All NBA Third Team (1997)
• 3x seasons playing at least 80 regular season games (1993, 1995, 2001)
• 6x seasons playing 70 regular season games or less (1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2004)

I have the utmost respect for KJ but if he gets enshrined in Springfield then his three aforementioned peers get the same honor. When he was healthy Johnson was great but so was Penny. Tim Hardaway and KJ were five-time All Stars and Price was one step behind with four selections.

There has been no groundswell for Penny, Tim Hardaway and Price to get into the Hall of Fame and rightly so. They were good players and were briefly dominate but not all time greats. KJ falls into the same mold: great at times but also maddening to Suns fans because he couldn’t stay upright. He had a good career but his legs conspired to rob him of a Hall of Fame career.