Alcobendas (Madrid, Spain), 20th August 2010
A total of 17 outstanding basketball personalities from 12 different countries will be inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame on 12th September during the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Istanbul (Turkey), the International Basketball Federation announced today.
National icons Oscar Schmidt (Brazil), Arvydas Sabonis (Lithuania), Dino Meneghin (Italy) and Vlade Divac and Dragan Kićanović (both from Serbia) are among the inductees for the 2010 Class of the FIBA Hall of Fame.
Two of the best female players of all time, Cheryl Miller (USA) and Natalia Zassoulskaya (Russia), complete the list of players.
A combined 14 Olympic medals and 15 FIBA World Championship medals underline the prominence of the seven players and three coaches inducted.
The selected referees and contributors were at the top of the game for decades and belong to the most decorated in their field.
“The 2010 Class has stardom, character and countless merits for the promotion of our game,” said FIBA President Bob Elphinston.
“The inductees were and still are brilliant on and off the court. We are very proud to host the 2010 ceremony in the presence of all these great women and men during the FIBA World Championship and give them the public platform they deserve.”
Here is the full list of the 2010 Class:
PLAYERS:
Vlade DIVAC Serbia
Dragan KIĆANOVIĆ Serbia
Dino MENEGHIN Italia
Cheryl MILLER U.S.A.
Arvydas SABONIS Lithuania
Oscar SCHMIDT Brazil
Natalia ZASSOULSKAYA Russia
COACHES:
Lindsay GAZE Australia
Evgeny GOMELSKY Russia
Mirko NOVOSEL Croatia
TECHNICAL OFFICIALS:
Jim BAIN U.S.A.
Konstantinos DIMOU Greece
CONTRIBUTORS:
George KILLIAN U.S.A.
Hans-Joachim OTTO Germany
Ernesto SEGURA DE LUNA (posthumously) Spain
Abdoulaye SEYE MOREAU Senegal
Al RAMSAY * Australia
* Al Ramsay was selected for the 2009 Class, but will officially be enshrined in 2010.
The complete profiles of the 2010 FIBA Hall of Fame inductees can be found on www.halloffame.fiba.com.
The enshrinement ceremony for the 2010 Class of the FIBA Hall of Fame will take place on 12th September at the Swissôtel in Istanbul and during an on-court presentation at the Final of the FIBA World Championship at the Sinan Erdem Dome on the same day. All inductees will be present. A media availability session will be organised in the afternoon of 12th September.
About the FIBA Hall of Fame:
The primary goal of the FIBA Hall of Fame is to reflect the history of the sport and its protagonists. The key criterion for selection into the FIBA Hall of Fame is outstanding achievement, at the international level, to the development and status of the sport of basketball.
The FIBA Hall of Fame, a five-floor building that covers 2,000 square meters, was officially inaugurated on 1st March 2007 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the foundation of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA). Built with the help of the city of Alcobendas (Madrid, Spain) and upon initiative of Pedro Ferrándiz, legendary coach of Real Madrid, the FIBA Hall of Fame is an extension of the Pedro Ferrándiz Foundation.
On 1st March 2007, in addition to the official inauguration of the building, the announcement of the initial posthumous inductees into the FIBA Hall of Fame was made. In this list we can find illustrious protagonists of the history of basketball such as Krešimir Ćosić (player, Croatia), Alexander Gomelsky (coach, Russia), Radivoj Korać (player, Serbia), Fernando Martín (player, Spain), Dražen Petrović (player, Croatia), Liliana Ronchetti (player, Italy), among many others.
On 12th September 2007, the first class was inducted in Alcobendas and featured a total of 20 new inductees. The 2007 Class of the FIBA Hall of Fame included legendary names such as Sergei Belov (player, Russia), Nikos Galis (player, Greece), Hortência Marcari (player, Brazil), Bill Russell (player, U.S.A.), Uljana Semjonova (player, Latvia) and Dean Smith (coach, U.S.A.).
On 22nd September 2009, the 2009 Class featured a total of 11 new inductees, including world-renowned figures such as Jacky Chazalon (player, France), Pedro Ferrándiz (coach, Spain), Pete Newell (coach, U.S.A.), Ubiratán Pereira (player, Brazil –enshrined posthumously-) and Oscar Robertson (player, U.S.A.).
The biographical sketches of all inductees into the FIBA Hall of Fame can be found on www.halloffame.fiba.com.
The procedure for nomination and election into the FIBA Hall of Fame is as follows:
Inductees into the FIBA Hall of Fame are divided into four categories: PLAYERS (they must have been retired from international competition for a minimum of five years), COACHES, TECHNICAL OFFICIALS (referees and commissioners) and CONTRIBUTORS.
Nominations for inductees into the FIBA Hall of Fame can be submitted by FIBA member national federations, FIBA Zone Commissions, Central Board members and FIBA Screening Committee members.
The FIBA Screening Committee, consisting of FIBA Secretary General Patrick Baumann and Central Board members Jenaro Marchand (Puerto Rico) and Manfred Ströher (Germany), after having carefully studied all the received nominations for inductees, submits a final list of candidates to the FIBA Honours Committee.
The FIBA Honours Committee, comprised of FIBA President, Bob Elphinston (Australia), FIBA Vice President, George Vassilakopoulos (Greece), and FIBA Secretary General Emeritus, Borislav Stanković (Serbia), then assesses the list of nominations provided by the Screening Committee and makes the final decisions regarding each intake into the FIBA Hall of Fame.
For further information, please contact:
Marcos Beltrá
Head of Communications
Pedro Ferrándiz Foundation & FIBA Hall of Fame
marcosbeltra@fpferrandiz.org
