Dawn Staley to the Hall of Fame

ATLANTA - Growing up in the Raymond Rosen Projects in North Philly (25th and Diamond), Dawn Staley played every sport, but she said that "basketball chose her." Monday morning in a ballroom at the Marriott Marquis in downtown Atlanta, it was announced that the Naismith Basketball Memorial Hall of Fame has chosen one of the city's most decorated basketball players.

"Coming out of North Philly, no one's supposed to survive," Staley said. "No one's supposed to make anything of themselves. That is what others outside of North Philly thought of North Philly. My foundation's there. I had a strong foundation that brought me to incredible heights in basketball."

From Murrell Dobbins Tech to Virginia (and three Final Fours, two national player of the year awards) to three Olympics (three gold medals), to the ABL and WNBA, and then the coach at Temple and now South Carolina, Staley has one of the great resumés in basketball history.

"This means the most because you look at the greats [in the Hall]," Staley said. "You look at all the people who have contributed to the game. I just truly played the game because I loved it. I feel like basketball is the gift that keeps on giving. I try to repay the debt through coaching and giving other little girls and boys hope that if they apply themselves, if they're very passionate about what they do, they can be successful."

Staley still holds the NCAA steals record (454). She is the only player in women's college history to get 2,000 points, 700 assists and 400 steals.

She was the consummate point guard at every level. Unfortunately, she will not be joined in the class of 2013 by the consummate NBA point guard, Sixers great Maurice Cheeks. Once again, Cheeks was a finalist, but did not get enough votes to become an inductee.

Staley will be joined in Springfield, Mass., on Sept. 8 by NBA greats Bernard King and Gary Payton. North Carolina coach Silvia Hatchell, who just won her 900th game, is also in the class of 2013.

The best news for college basketball is that three coaches who absolutely needed to be in the Hall were elected - Jerry Tarkanian, Guy Lewis and Rick Pitino. Now, if they can only find a place for high-impact college players (Duke's Christian Laettner being the most obvious) who were not superstars in the NBA, the Hall will be as inclusive as it claims.

Pitino came to the ceremony, even though it was barely 10 hours away from tipoff for Monday's national championship game between his Louisville team and Michigan.

"Your mind's racing, thinking of a hundred people who helped you arrive at this moment," he said before heading off for practice.

Pitino got the call last Wednesday, his 37th wedding anniversary. While he was talking on the phone, a text kept beeping through. It was from his son Richard.

"Go Gophers, I got the job," it said.

Richard had gotten the head-coaching job at Minnesota at the exact moment his father got the call from the Hall.

"When I hung up, I was looking around for lightning to hit me," Pitino said.

The ceremony, Pitino said, was a "nice distraction."

"You don't lay around the hotel and just keep thinking about the game until 9:23," Pitino said.

Pitino was standing on the stage, thinking about all his players from Boston University, Providence, the Knicks, Kentucky, the Celtics and Louisville.

"You realize why you're here," he said. "You haven't grabbed a rebound or scored a point. You just had great athletes along the way who helped get you here."

Pitino had dinner with 23 people Sunday night. Missing was his brother-in-law, Billy Minardi, who was killed in the Twin Towers on 9/11.

"A lot of my nieces and nephews do not have a dad and they all share in this moment," Pitino said. "It's just awesome for my family."

Frank Bilovsky, a 1962 La Salle graduate who chronicled the glory years of the Big 5 for two decades until the Bulletin closed in 1982, was among three men inducted into the United States Basketball Writers' Association Hall of Fame.

"Frank Bilovsky is the man who probably did more than anything to make me want to be sports writer," Daily News alum Dick Weiss said in introducing Bilovsky at the USBWA annual breakfast Monday morning at the Marriott Marquis.

"Frank really helped bring the Big 5 to life and made the Palestra into a national landmark," said Weiss, himself a USBWA Hall of Famer and a 20-year veteran of the New York Daily News.

After the Bulletin, Bilovsky went to work at the Rochester Democrat, where he covered Syracuse and any other games he could find. One night in 1983, he was at a Nazareth game. The Golden Flyers were coached by John Beilein. Who knew, Bilovsky said, that 30 years later, they would both be in Atlanta, the writer being honored, the coach with his Michigan team in the national championship game.

When Bilovsky spoke, he recited details of decade-old games as if they were played last week.

"Hopefully, I gave my readers a vivid picture of what those games were," he said.

In closing, Bilovsky paid tribute to his Bulletin colleague and close friend, Frank Brady, who passed away far too soon at 56.

Bilovsky figured Brady was "up there discussing the 2-2-1 zone press with John Wooden" and wanted him to know "this is for you, too."