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Hall to 'hoop it up' for August enshrinement week

Date: 7/13/2010

July 12, 2010

By Chris Maza

Reminder Assistant Editor

SPRINGFIELD -- The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is looking to outdo itself on the grandest of scales with the 2010 enshrinement activities.

The Hall of Fame, which will induct the largest of its classes since the shrine's grand opening in 1959, is keeping with the theme of going big with a week-long schedule of festivities celebrating the sport.

Activities will kick off on Aug. 8, at Mason Square, where a monument will be unveiled on the spot where the first basketball game was played and will wrap up with traditional enshrinement activities.

"It's eight days of terrific basketball events, culminating with enshrinement," Basketball Hall of Fame President and CEO John Doleva said. "Everybody will have an opportunity, at no cost or at a premium cost, to have a hall of fame enshrinement experience."

The enshrinement ceremony at Symphony Hall and post-ceremony party at the Hall of Fame will take place on Aug. 13 and the festivities will wrap up on Aug. 14 with a induction celebration dinner at Mohegan Sun Resort and Casino in Uncasville, Conn.

This year's class follows a 2009 class that included Michael Jordan, considered by the majority of fans to be the best basketball player who ever lived. This year's class includes Karl Malone, Scottie Pippen and the 1960 USA Olympic team and the 1992 Olympic "Dream Team," both of which won gold medals in convincing fashion.

"Last year we had Michael Jordan come in and we had a great class with David Robinson and John Stockton and others," Doleva said. "The question really was what do you do for an encore from here? I think most people thought we were going to take a step back and come back to the Hall of Fame with our capacity of 1,200 people and kind of just ratchet it back a little bit."

Instead, Doleva said, the Hall expanded the event, making the experience even more accessible to the general public, noting that there can be a perception that the enshrinement weekend is for an exclusive group.

"The perception probably comes from the fact that the enshrinement event is a ticketed event and there is an entry fee to go. To come to the enshrinement ceremony and to the after party, it's a $1,000 ticket, so I can acknowledge there might be some concern about that," Doleva said. "We will have five or six days or real content for the average fan to participate either at a very low price or at no cost."

Aiding in making this a larger event was the move of the enshrinement period from early September to early August. The decision to move the ceremony and activities surrounding it was due to a conflict with the International Basketball Federation's World Championships, which also falls in September.

"Something I and my staff [have] wanted to do for some time is to really move enshrinement into summertime anyways because there are more people traveling, the kids are out of school and there is more opportunity for people to participate," Doleva explained. "As we moved to the summer, we decided that we would actually extend it. Not just [make it] a two-day event anymore, not just an exclusive event, but really spread it out through the whole week as really a celebration of basketball."

Doleva touted the unveiling of the Mason Square monument as one of the big highlights of the weekend. The monument project, he explained, was an idea first brought to him by Mason Square area resident Aaron Williams and it grew from there, noting the timing of such a project fit seamlessly with the completion of State Street's $17 million rejuvenation project.

"It came to fruition that what Aaron and I first envisioned as a marker or a stone has turned into something that has morphed into almost a $200,000 monument," Doleva said. "It's something to celebrate in the fact that State Street is now redone, but also now finally marking that spot with a monument.

"I think it not only becomes a point of interest to people in the region, but it also becomes a point of pride for those people in the Mason Square community, which is where four neighborhoods come together."

After the monument ceremony, State Street will be shut down, a full-sized wooden basketball court laid and three outdoor games played, while community groups will share dance, arts and other local offerings.

Other enshrinement week events will include:

&bull A 96-team Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) basketball tournament, which will be hosted by several local colleges, including Springfield College, American International College, Holyoke Community College and Western New England College.

&bull "Hoops and Heroes," a first responders tournament benefiting the Special Olympics with police, fire and other first responders from throughout the region.

&bull "Children's Day," which will feature basketball clinics hosted by professional and collegiate players.

&bull A wheelchair basketball celebration, which will feature the gold medal winning USA Wheelchair Paralympics team

Fans will also have an opportunity to see first-hand Basketball Hall of Famers and current players walking down the streets of Springfield in a pre-enshrinement parade from the MassMutual Center to Symphony Hall, a spectacle that comes with no charge to the public.

"This year we're going to have the largest number of returning Hall of Famers ever in Hall of Fame history. We are expecting to have over 70 Hall of Famers back," Doleva said. "The 2010 men's [USA] team will be in Springfield to honor [the 1960 and 1992 Olympic gold medal winning] teams. We expect some very big names, current [professional] players, here in Springfield to honor those going into the hall of fame and they will also make that parade walk to Symphony Hall."

As always, the enshrinement ceremonies are expected to provide a shot in the arm to the local economy.

"Our expectation is that we'll see increased tourism to Springfield regarding the Hall of Fame events throughout the week," Doleva said. "We're promoting it very heavily and our expectation is this will have more than $5 million of impact in the region. It will really, I think, be an economic boost as well as an image boost for the city to host this kind of event."