Magee, Cheeks, and Nichols named as Basketball Hall of Fame finalists

Herb Magee has won more NCAA men's basketball games than any coach in history, but he never had been a finalist for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Philadelphia University's ageless basketball coach wondered whether it would ever happen.

Another icon of the sport - former top referee Hank Nichols, who was the NCAA's national coordinator of men's basketball officiating for 22 years - had been a Hall of Fame finalist once before, but Nichols, who lives in St. Davids, assumed his time had passed.

Both were among the 12 Hall of Fame finalists announced Friday, along with another Philadelphia icon, former 76ers point guard and coach Mo Cheeks.

The selection of the 54-year-old Cheeks as a finalist, one of five former NBA players who made the cut, is acknowledgment that the Sixers point guard for 11 seasons was far more than the sum of his statistics. In his career, Cheeks averaged 11.1 points and 6.7 assists a game. While leading those great Sixers teams, Cheeks also made the NBA all-defensive first team four consecutive years, from 1983-86. He could not be reached for comment Friday.

A fourth finalist, Alvin Attles, began his NBA playing career in Philadelphia with the Warriors before the franchise moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, where Attles played and eventually coached the Warriors. In 1975, the Attles-coached Warriors won the NBA title. Attles, 74, now in the front office with the Warriors, was nominated as a contributor.

The 2011 class will be introduced in April at the Final Four. There is no Jordan, Magic, or Bird in this group of finalists, no surefire first-ballot Hall of Famer, which is good news for the locals. There is room this year to acknowledge other pillars of the sport.

"To make the list is really incredible," Magee said after his team's practice. "I am just absolutely thrilled by what happened today. You don't think starting your career about the Hall of Fame."

Magee, 69, knew this was the day the finalists were announced. His daughter Kay was in his office, he said, watching the announcement on a computer. "She began jumping up and crying," Magee said, and he was pretty sure he knew what that meant.

"Just the idea that I'm in the mix - I'm not only thrilled, I'm flabbergasted," Nichols, 73, said when told Friday afternoon he was a finalist. It had happened once before, he said - he thought it was in 2003, but since he had retired two years ago, "I kind of gave up on it."

The eight other finalists are players Chris Mullin, Dennis Rodman, Ralph Sampson, and Jamaal Wilkes; coaches Dick Motta and Tex Winter; and two finalists from the women's screening committee, Teresa Edwards and Tara VanDerveer.

Edwards, a five-time Olympian, did a stint with the Philadelphia Rage in the short-lived ABL.

Magee, who has won 921 games, all at his alma mater, is renowned in his sport for more than just his coaching success. He is considered one of the sport's great shooting tutors, teaching NBA players and several generations of Philadelphia-area youngsters simple techniques.

Nichols has his own place in the sport's annals. He officiated 10 Final Fours, six national championship games, and two Olympics. He also retired in 2002 from his full-time job as head of Villanova's department of education and human services. After Nichols took over as the first national head of officiating in 1986, he wrote much of the language on officiating guidelines, and when he took the job in 1986, his mission was to wipe out the regional officiating biases that afflicted the college game. Before he officially took over, he refereed two games in every league in Division I.

This class will be announced April 4 in Houston at a news conference before the NCAA's men's championship game. The last hurdle is a big one. A finalist needs 18 of 24 votes from an unidentified "honors committee" for election. Enshrinement will be Aug. 12 in Springfield, Mass.

Here are the 12 finalists for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

Those elected will be introduced April 3 at the men's Final Four in Houston. The Springfield, Mass., induction ceremony is Aug. 11-13.

Dennis Rodman, five-time NBA champion.

Jamaal Wilkes, four-time NBA champion.

Maurice Cheeks, four-time NBA all-star with Sixers.

Chris Mullin, five-time NBA all-star and Dream Team member.

Ralph Sampson, three-time national college player ofthe year at Virginia.

Teresa Edwards, 5-time Olympian

Tex Winter, invented triangle-post offense

Tara VanDerveer, two NCAA titles

Dick Motta, longtime NBA coach.

Herb Magee, Philadelphia University coach.

Hank Nichols, six national title games, 10 Final Fours.

Al Attles: 50 consecutive years of service to the Golden State Warriors as a player, player-coach, coach, general manager, vice president, and consultant.

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