May 2, 2002

Former University of Notre Dame basketball great Adrian Dantley has been named a finalist by the North American Screening Committee for election into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Dantley is one of 14 candidates which includes a group of 14 players and coaches and one team.

Along with Dantley, players include Maurice Cheeks, Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Bobby Jones, Chet Walker, James Worthy; coaches Larry Brown, Lefty Driesell, Lute Olson, Bill Sharman, Eddie Sutton; contributors Jerry Colangelo, Junius Kellogg and Tex Winter and one team, the Harlem Globetrotters.

The 14 finalists one one team were selected from 57 North American candidates and are the last of four groups selected for consideration by the Honors Committee for election into the Basketball Hall of Fame. The Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2002 will be announced on June 5, 2002 at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, Calif.

A native of Washington, D.C., Dantley is one of 10 Notre Dame players to earn consensus All-America honors. He finished his Irish career with 2, 223 points in three seasons (1973-76) for a career average of 25.8 ppg. Named the 1975-76 national player of the year by the United States Basketball Writers Association as a junior, Dantley finished his career with 2,223 points (second on the all-time scoring list) and earned first-team All-America honors for the ’74-’75 and ’75-’76 seasons. As a sophomore, he finished second nationally in scoring with a 30.4 average and ranked fourth as a junior netting 28.6 point per game. Dantley was the leading scorer on the 1976 United States Olympic basketball team that won the gold medal in Montreal.

One of the most prolific scorers in the history of the National Basketball Association, he was the sixth pick overall by the Buffalo Braves in the 1976 draft. Dantley played seven teams during his 15-year career. In all but four seasons as a professional, he averaged 20 points or better, including topping the 30-point mark four straight years (1981-84). A six-time NBA All-Star, he was the NBA Comeback Player of the Year in 1984, the year he led the league in scoring with a 30.6 average.