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Indiana Pacers Sports & Entertainment owner and Chairman Herb Simon was named Saturday to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame’s 2024 class, a group that includes Vince Carter, Chauncey Billups and Jerry West.
Simon, the longest-tenured team owner in NBA history, will be enshrined into the hall during festivities Aug. 16-17 in Springfield, Massachusetts.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Simon, a former chair of the NBA Board of Governors, has been “instrumental in every significant NBA and WNBA development over the past four decades.”
“While Herb has never sought credit for his truly influential role, it is wonderful to see his steady leadership and service to the game of basketball recognized by the Hall of Fame,” Silver said in a statement on Saturday.
Simon, 89, had been named one of 14 Hall of Fame finalists in February. He was listed in the “contributors” category, which recognizes owners and executives who have been instrumental in helping grow basketball. Other Pacers who have been inducted into the hall are Reggie Miller, George McGinnis, Bobby “Slick” Leonard, Roger Brown and Mel Daniels. Former Indiana Fever guard Tamika Catchings is also in the Naismith Hall of Fame.
Herb Simon and his brother, Mel, bought the Pacers franchise for $11 million in 1983. Then in 2009, Mel transferred his half of the team to Herb, just seven months before Mel’s death at 82.
The Simon brothers also founded the shopping center development firm Melvin Simon & Associates in 1960. The firm evolved over the decades into the publicly traded retail real estate behemoth Simon Property Group Inc.
In 1983, the previous owners of the Pacers started shopping the team, fresh off of an abysmal season in which the team sold just 1,255 season tickets and averaged only 4,000 fans.
The Simons stepped in to buy the team and keep it in Indianapolis. Two years later, they brought the NBA All-Star Game to Indianapolis in 1985. And the Pacers hosted the game again this year.
Herb’s son, Steve, is now a minority Pacers owner and is expected to become majority owner when his father dies. He said in a statement that his father’s “genuine commitment to this franchise and our city has resulted in the kinds of civic and philanthropic partnerships that are the gold standard for organizations around the NBA.”
The Pacers expanded its franchise to include the WNBA’s Indiana Fever in 2000. Today, it’s one of only a handful of organizations that own franchises in the NBA, WNBA, G League (for up-and-coming professional players) and NBA 2K League (for esports).
“Herb has always pushed our organization and the NBA to think bigger about our opportunity to reach new fans, make impact off the court, and grow the brand in innovative ways,” said Pacers Sports & Entertainment CEO Rick Fuson in a statement. “He has certainly had an outsized impact on the growth of the game, and he has done it in his unique, unassuming way that deflects praise to others.”
In addition to Simon, West, Carter and Billups, members of the 2024 Hall of Fame class are Carter, Billups, Michael Cooper, Seimone Augustus, Doug Collins, Bo Ryan, Walter Davis, Charles Smith, Dick Barnett, Harley Redin and Michele Timms.
The Naismith Hall of Fame Class of 2024 will be formally recognized Saturday night at halftime of the first NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament semifinal game between Purdue University and North Carolina State University.
During the All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis, the Naismith Hall of Fame announced several other awards. JoAn Scott, the NCAA’s vice president of men’s basketball, received the John Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award. She has been with the NCAA since 2013 after time at Nike and USA Basketball, where among other duties, she was the staff administrator for the original Dream Team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
Also announced then were the recipients of this year’s Curt Gowdy Awards, named for the legendary broadcaster and given to those deemed to have made “a significant contribution to the game of basketball.”
J.A. Adande, the director of sports journalism at his alma mater Northwestern, received the Curt Gowdy Award for print journalism. Longtime analyst and television commentator Debbie Antonelli won for electronic journalism. Slam Magazine and the television show “NBA Inside Stuff” received the award for transformative media. They will also be honored during Hall of Fame weekend.
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Undeserved
What???
Well-deserved.