What the 2020 basketball Hall-of-Fame class lacks in size, at least relative to the sheer number of former NBA players going in, it more than makes up for in accolades, championships and overall greatness.
Because of that, in our opinion, the 2020 Hall-of-Fame class is the best of all time when it comes to NBA talent.
The numbers back that up, too, as the triumvirate of Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett – the only three former players going into the Hall this weekend – possess the most accolades for a single Hall-of-Fame class ever. They are joined by five-time All-Star Rudy Tomjanovic, too, though he’s making it in as a coach, so his accolades as a player don’t count for this exercise.
Bryant alone finished his illustrious career with five championships, 18 All-Star appearances and 11 1st Team All-NBAs. Add to that Duncan’s five championships, 15 All-Star showings and 10 1st Team All-NBA nominations, as well as Garnett’s lone NBA title, 15 All-Star seasons and four 1st Team All-NBAs, and you have the basis of the most accolade-laden Hall-of-Fame class ever.
The 2020 class is statistically the best ever because it’s the crop with the most combined All-NBAs and All-Star selections. Further, if we combine all of the accolades for each Hall-of-Fame class, not just All-Star and All-NBAs, as we did in the chart below, and weigh them out by importance of accolade (we went with one point for an All-Star appearance, two points for a 3rd Team All-NBA selection, three points for a 2nd Team All-NBA, four points for a 1st Team All-NBA and five points for an MVP award), the 2020 class still comes out as the best ever.
The second-best Hall-of-Fame class ever is the 2009 class, which featured Michael Jordan, John Stockton and David Robinson.
In the following chart, you can see the full data for the Top 20 Hall-of-Fame classes in NBA history. You can even mess around with the chart yourself and see how the rankings turn out looking at each accolade individually.
And below, you can also check out our ranking for the Top 10 Hall-of-Fame classes in NBA history, in our opinion.
