{"id":605853,"date":"2026-02-16T06:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T06:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/605853\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T06:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T06:36:08","slug":"former-mavericks-coach-dick-motta-among-finalists-for-2026-basketball-hall-of-fame-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/605853\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Mavericks coach Dick Motta among finalists for 2026 Basketball Hall of Fame class"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame<\/a> announced its selection of finalists on Wednesday for its Class of 2026, including former Dallas Mavericks<\/a> head coach Dick Motta. <\/p>\n

During his NBA career, Motta coached five franchises – the Mavericks, Washington Bullets, Chicago Bulls, Sacramento Kings and Denver Nuggets. He ranks ninth in league history in regular-season games coached and 14th in wins. <\/p>\n

Motta had coaching success at all levels of the game – starting at the junior college level in 1954. Motta went on to be named NBA Coach of the Year in 1971 and led the Bullets to the 1978 NBA championship. <\/p>\n

He received the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award<\/a> from the NBA Coaches Association in 2015 and was inducted into the Big Sky Conference Hall of Fame in 2024.<\/p>\n

Mavericks<\/p>\n

Be the smartest Mavericks fan. Get the latest news.<\/p>\n

By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n

Other finalists this year with local ties include six-time NBA All-Star Amar\u2019e Stoudemire, who appeared in 23 career games with the Mavericks in 2015. Former Oklahoma Sooners<\/a> player Blake Griffin and coach Kelvin Sampson are also among the finalists. <\/p>\n

This year\u2019s group was selected from the following committees: North American, Women\u2019s, Men\u2019s Veterans, Women\u2019s Veterans, International, and Contributors. <\/p>\n

Up next, the finalists will then be put forward to the Honors Committee to be considered for election as members of the Class of 2026. The new class will be announced on Saturday, April 4, in a live broadcast on ESPN2 at 11:00 a.m. during Final Four weekend.<\/p>\n

2026 HOF finalists <\/p>\n

North American Committee Finalists (in alphabetical order):<\/p>\n

Joey Crawford [Referee]<\/p>\n

Mark Few [Coach]<\/p>\n

Blake Griffin [Player]<\/p>\n

Kevin Johnson [Player] <\/p>\n

Gary McKnight [Coach]<\/p>\n

Dick Motta [Coach]<\/p>\n

Doc Rivers [Coach] <\/p>\n

Kelvin Sampson [Coach]<\/p>\n

Amar\u2019e Stoudemire [Player]<\/p>\n

Jerry Welsh [Coach]<\/p>\n

Buck Williams [Player]<\/p>\n

Women\u2019s Committee Finalists:<\/p>\n

1996 United States Women\u2019s National Team<\/p>\n

Jennifer Azzi [Player]<\/p>\n

Elena Delle Donne [Player]<\/p>\n

Chamique Holdsclaw [Player]<\/p>\n

Candace Parker [Player]<\/p>\n

Women\u2019s Veterans Committee Finalist:<\/p>\n

Molly Bolin-Kazmer [Player]<\/p>\n

International Committee Finalist:<\/p>\n

Du\u0161an Ivkovi\u0107 [Coach]<\/p>\n

Contributors Committee Finalists:<\/p>\n

Tal Brody<\/p>\n

Mike D\u2019Antoni<\/p>\n

Veterans Committee Finalists:<\/p>\n

Marques Johnson<\/p>\n

\"USA<\/a>Anthony Edwards leads Team \u2018Stars\u2019 to tourney win in an entertaining NBA All-Star Game<\/a><\/p>\n

Former Mavs star Luka Doncic sat out for the World team\u2019s second game, likely to preserve his health after battling a hamstring injury in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

\"Dallas<\/a>Mavericks\u2019 Kyrie Irving teases White House meet-up, injury update in social media flurry<\/a><\/p>\n

Irving also had some lofty praise for Dallas\u2019 rookie phenom Cooper Flagg.<\/p>\n

\"Miami<\/a>Heat\u2019s Keshad Johnson soars to slam dunk title, edging Spurs rookie Carter Bryant<\/a><\/p>\n

For his final dunk, Johnson started behind the judges\u2019 table, took off from the free throw line and threw down a one-handed windmill jam.<\/p>\n

Find more Mavericks coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame announced its selection of finalists on Wednesday for its Class of 2026,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3793],"tags":[7,1529,686,149,4057,166,6,2400,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-605853","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-mavericks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-colleges","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-dallas-mavericks","12":"tag-dallasmavericks","13":"tag-mavericks","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-oklahoma-sooners","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}