Former NBA players Grant Hill, Steve Nash, Jason Kidd and Maurice Cheeks have been elected to the Hall of Fame, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Maurice Cheeks will be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2018, league source tells ESPN. He will join Nash, Hill and Kidd as part of starry group.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 29, 2018
They, among any other inductees, will be officially announced this weekend during NCAA Final Four programming.
Nash was a relatively unknown player when the Suns picked him in the middle of the first round in 1996. He established himself as a top tier point guard after getting traded to the Dallas Mavericks. He then returned to Phoenix to win back-to-back MVP awards in 2005 and 2006. Nash was known for his passing — averaging ten or more assists a game during seven of his eighteen seasons in the league.
Kidd and Hill were selected second and third overall in the 1994 NBA Draft and then co-won the following season’s Rookie of the Year Award. They also both announced their retirement from the league two days apart from each other after the 2012-2013 NBA season.
Hill’s career was derailed by constant lower body injuries over the last twelve years of his career.
Hill and Nash played together in Phoenix from 2007-2012.
Mo Cheeks played from 1978-1993 winning one NBA championship and being selected to four all-star games. He has often been forgotten in regards to the Hall of Fame, but he won’t be anymore. Cheeks, like Kidd, has spent time after his career ended coaching in the NBA. The former point guard has been in a coaching position, whether head coach or an assistant, since he retired.
According to ESPN, other Hall of Fame finalists include Ray Allen, Chris Webber, Charles Driesell, Rudy Tomjanovich, Kim Mulkey, Katie Smith, Tina Thompson, longtime NBA official Hugh Evans and the 1953-58 Wayland Baptist University teams.