LeBron’s in the news because at least one team would rather wait for his Lakers contract to end than acquire him now.
I scrolled through LeBron’s basketball-reference page, trying to find some way to summarize what the chap has accomplished. He has four spots of gold ink, signifying the all-time career leader in that metric. LeBron has four. Kareem has four. Michael has one. Wilt has five. Perhaps LeBron figures with another 80 or 200 more games, he can tack on another spot of gold ink — from *this* era.
The bb-ref algorithm for figuring one’s Hall of Fame probability says LeBron is one of five active players with a 100% shot at the Hall, while five others are at 99.5% or more.
I was curious: Which player has the highest HoF probability who isn’t in the Hall? Laurence Faust (with 94.2%) was an 8-time All-Star in the ’50s, and I’ve never heard of him.
I was curious again. Laurence Faust is no. 79 on the bb-ref list of HoF probability, and I’ve never heard of him. I moved up the list. At no. 57, there’s another guy from the ’50s, Slater Martin, who is in the Hall, but I don’t know him, either.
Slater Martin was a seven-time All-Star with one spot of black ink, and he’s in the Hall. Laurence Faust was an eight-time AS with two spots of black ink, and he isn’t. It’s probably because “Slater Martin” sounds like a basketball player, whereas “Laurence Faust” doesn’t.