Via David Aldridge of NBA.com:
Colangelo has proposed opening the vote to include fans, who would contribute a certain percentage of the ballots for proposed candidates online, with a committee of voters that includes coaches, media members and former players still casting the majority of votes. But that plan has yet to come to fruition. He said he's currently negotiating with two companies for potential sponsorship.
"I'm very hopeful it's going to be done in time for next year's election," he said.
I love this idea. In the end, the fans may account for a small portion of the total vote, but I still like the fan participation. Owners may put up the large amounts of cash and players sacrifice their bodies, but we are the ones who drive this game. Without us, they wouldn't be playing for free.
Fans might offset some of the dumb decisions (like leaving Reggie Miller off the ballot). Making voters accountable would also help:
The biggest criticism most fans have about the Naismith Hall of Fame is that its voting for Hall of Fame induction is done almost completely in secret. The identity of the 24 voters is kept silent; most voters have no idea who else is voting in a given cycle. (Most of those voters are rotated out every three years or so.) The votes themselves are never disclosed or made public. No one knows, for example, exactly how many votes any of the inductees receive, or how many those that don't make it in a given year get.
I have another suggestion – make a player eligible once. Vote him in now or never. This would eliminate absurd cases like Bert Blyleven who was elected to the baseball HOF after 20-something years.
Voters should hold a player up to one standard that has nothing to do with other players in his class.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
