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Kobe Bryant, Tamika Catchings among 8 finalists for Basketball Hall of Fame

Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers points in the second quarter of Game Seven of the 2010 NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics at Staples Center on June 17, 2010, in Los Angeles. (Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

CHICAGO (AP) — Kobe Bryant was one of eight finalists announced
Friday as candidates for enshrinement into the Basketball Hall of Fame
later this year, a decision that came as absolutely no surprise in his
first year of eligibility.

Joining Bryant as first-time finalists
for the Hall: 15-time All-Star Tim Duncan, fellow 15-time All-Star Kevin
Garnett and 10-time WNBA All-Star and four-time Olympic gold medalist
Tamika Catchings.

The other finalists have all been to this point
previously: Baylor women’s coach Kim Mulkey, former Houston Rockets
coach Rudy Tomjanovich, five-time Division II women’s coach of the year
Barbara Stevens of Bentley, and four-time national men’s college coach
of the year Eddie Sutton.

This year’s enshrinement class will be announced on April 4 at college basketball’s Final Four in Atlanta. The induction ceremony in Springfield, Massachusetts is Aug. 29.

Bryant
was an 18-time All-Star and five-time NBA champion during a 20-year
career with the Los Angeles Lakers, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and
is the No. 4 scorer in league history. He, along with his 13-year-old
daughter Gianna and seven others, died in a helicopter crash in Southern
California on Jan. 26.

“Hall of Famer is something you don’t
really think about, you don’t really dream about,” Garnett said. “It
just happens. … This is one of the more overwhelming situations I’ve
ever been in.”

Catchings is also a past WNBA MVP, won a national
championship under coach Pat Summitt at Tennessee and was a four-time
All-American with the Lady Vols.

“I’m just so blessed,” Catchings said. “I’m so thankful.”

The
Hall also announced its Curt Gowdy Media Award recipients for this
year: sportswriter and commentator Michael Wilbon, who spent three
decades at The Washington Post and now is with ESPN, and longtime NBA
play-by-play commentator Mike Breen.

“You don’t even dream about stuff like this,” Breen said.

A
pair of new Gowdy awards were also unveiled. Turner’s “Inside The NBA”
crew of Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal
were announced as the first winners in the Transformative Media
category. And longtime sportscaster Jim Gray was the first recipient of
the Insight Media Award.

Also, the John W. Bunn Lifetime
Achievement Award will be awarded posthumously to Tim Nugent, the
founder of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association.