{"id":688786,"date":"2026-03-30T21:54:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T21:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/688786\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:54:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T21:54:15","slug":"former-mavericks-coach-dick-motta-94-again-falls-short-of-making-naismith-basketball-hall-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/688786\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Mavericks coach Dick Motta, 94, again falls short of making Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame\u2019s Class of 2026<\/a> will be announced Saturday in Indianapolis as part of Final Four weekend.<\/p>\n

For former Mavericks coach Dick\u00a0Motta<\/a> and his family, there is no suspense. On Monday morning, Naismith HOF president and CEO John Doleva informed Motta\u2019s family that he once again fell short of the needed votes for induction.<\/p>\n

A family member told\u00a0The Dallas Morning News that Doleva tried to reassure the Mottas that he remains eligible for future induction, but the reality is Dick Motta turns 95 on Sept. 3\u00a0\u2014 three days before the Class of 2026 will be enshrined in Springfield, Mass.-based hall.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Motta family\u2019s hopes were raised because this year was the first time he\u2019s been a finalist<\/a> since he was one of 12 final nominees in both 2011 and 2012. All 23 of those other finalists subsequently made the Hall of Fame, but not Motta.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI can look anyone in the eye and say I\u2019ve had a miracle life,\u201d\u00a0Motta told The News in late-February, for a story about his legendary four-decade coaching career, which included two stints with the Mavericks, 1980-87 and 1994-96.<\/p>\n

Motta\u2019s continued Hall omission remains puzzling in numerous respects. His 935 career victories are 14th-most in NBA history. Of the top 16 victory leaders, the only ones not in the hall are Motta and active coaches Doc Rivers and Rick Carlisle.<\/p>\n

Milwaukee coach Rivers is among the 11 finalists nominated by the hall\u2019s North American committee. A person familiar with the selection process told\u00a0The News that Rivers indeed got voted in this year.<\/p>\n

At least Rivers has won an\u00a0NBA championship (with Boston in 2008), as did Motta with the Washington Bullets in 1978. Motta also coached the Bullets to the 1979 Finals, where they fell to Seattle.<\/p>\n

Motta is the unique, perhaps singular, hall candidate who has coached and won at literally every basketball level: junior high, high school, junior college, major college and NBA. He coached an Air Force team during the Korean War and even coached a prison team one summer.<\/p>\n

When\u00a0Motta jumped from Weber State to become the Chicago Bulls\u2019 coach in 1968, he coached in the first NBA game he\u2019d actually seen in person, on Oct. 15, 1968 in New York\u2019s Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

For the Mavericks franchise, 2026 has been a year for long overdue recognition of Mavericks pioneers. In late January the franchise retired Mark\u00a0Aguirre\u2019s No. 24 and honored co-founder Norm Sonju.<\/p>\n

But for\u00a0Motta, the first coach in Mavericks history, the wait continues.<\/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\u2019s Class of 2026 will be announced Saturday in Indianapolis as part of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":688787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3793],"tags":[7,686,149,4057,166,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-688786","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-mavericks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-mavericks","11":"tag-dallasmavericks","12":"tag-mavericks","13":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116320355293889985","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688786","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=688786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/688787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}