I am not being dismissive for it’s own sake.  This is a ridiculous discussion.  ZELLY HAS NO SHOT AT THE HOF.  PERIOD.

And you are more than welcome to NOT respond to my posts. 

Yes Sam, I read the article.  I even read the comment at the end of the article, which I thought was more insightful than the article itself:

“what the heck is wrong with you and your four buddies on 5 on 5 roundtable on espn.com you are voting every foreigner in based on some “goodwill” to bball criteria that has nothing to do with how they played the game. i agree w sabonis because he dominated the game for many years before the nba came. yao has never played extremely excellent bball for at least 5 years which i consider the minimum for making the hof. ginobli has barely. parker: not quite. gasol:not yet. u guys r handing hof spots over based on some united nations criteria. europe’s interest is hear to stay, stop handing over free passes based on fiba play and goodwill. fiba only matters for sabonis because his prime did not coincide with the nba (which should b the main criteria if that was a man’s prime) you guys are treating a guy’s nba career as an afterthought”

And if you people have a negative comment or an insult, please go to The Painted Area websight and direct it toward the guy who made the comment.  I just agree with it.

Zelly basically never had a productive year after age 28, when he began playing in the NBA. 

If this,

During his club career Zelly netted two Euroleague titles (2000 EL Final 4 MVP), two Greek League titles (2000 Greek League MVP) and one Italian League title. Playing for Yugoslavia, he took home one Olympic silver, two Euro gold and one Worlds gold in 1998 where he was key to their title.

Doesn’t merit consideration, what does? 

No one’s saying the dude’s a shoe in, just that he did have a fabulous career before coming to the NBA (and getting hurt over and over again).

What in the world is so unreasonable about that?

I did know the basketball HOF is not just for the NBA.  I miswrote.  I’ve been to the Basketball HOF.  It’s an hour from my house.  I took the kids last year.  They had a great time.  We played one on one on the HOF court.  You can even shoot at a real peach basket.  There are many women in the Basketball HOF, as well as worthy foreign players, such as Sabonis, and American players who played before the NBA existed.

But Zelly’s never going to be in it, and the article was ridiculous in the first place.

1. Posting this had nothing to do with the lockout. I would’ve posted this any time. Someone wrote something interesting about Hall of Fame cases for foreign players, including Rebraca. Rebraca is a former Piston. A function of this blog is to point Pistons fans to interesting things written about current and former Pistons. It was newsworthy, lockout or no lockout.

2. I will rephrase my ‘I don’t think he’ll get in’ comment. Based on his international success, he has a compelling and interesting case. Unlike Sabonis or Divac, for example, he didn’t combine that international success with several good seasons in the NBA. Plus, I don’t know much about the international scene much from the 80s and 90s. I do know that Rebraca was a key player on some of the best teams in Europe. But I don’t know if he was in the same class internationally in his prime as guys like Kukoc, Sabonis, Petroivc, etc. So if I were betting, I’d say no, he won’t get in. But the HOF international committee undoubtedly has a better understanding of that than me, you or just about any other American who never saw much of these guys play in their primes. Maybe Rebraca was better than I realize overseas and that will get him some consideration.

3. Everyone isn’t arguing with you b/c you pointed out the obvious. They are arguing with you b/c you very clearly didn’t know that the basketball HOF is just that — a basketball HOF and not strictly a NBA HOF. Your first two comments make it clear that you didn’t know that. Rebraca’s NBA career will have very little to do with whether he gets in or not. Many guys who have never played a minute of NBA ball have got in based solely on their overseas careers and that makes your hardline “no way in hell” stance kind of ridiculous.

Right.  No one thinks Zelly will make the HOF…no one…least of all Hayes.  So why is Hayes even publishing this ridiculous article ?..(because it’s going to be a long, slow lockout)

And then everyone argues with me, because I pointed out the obvious.  THERE IS NO WAY ZELLY IS MAKING THE HOF. 

And I sort of liked Zelly, until he became ill.  Although, I never thought he was as good as Memo.