SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS - AUGUST 12: 2023 inductees Tony Parker, Gregg Popovich, Becky Hammon, Dirk Nowitzki and Dwyane Wade react on stage during the 2023 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Induction at Symphony Hall on August 12, 2023 in Springfield, Massachusetts. (Photo by Mike Lawrie/Getty Images)
Who is poised to be enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2024?
Basketball… Los Angeles Lakers versus St. Louis Hawks, 12 December 1960. Rudy La Russo;Jerry West;Rod Hundley;Elgin Baylor. (Sleeve reads: SP-12950).;Caption slip reads: ‘Photographer: Jensen. Date: 1960-12-12. Assignment: L.A vs Hawks. Photographer: Jensen. 102: Selvy. 103: La Russo being fouled. 15: 34 H;35 LA 16: West being fouled by 17 H. 19: Hundley scores. 20: Baylor scores. 21: 34 H fouls West #44’.;Supplementary material reads: ‘1960-1961 St. Louis Hawks player roster: No. 11: Ferrari, Al…;No. 14: Foust, Larry…;No. 17: Green, Sihugo…;No. 16: Hagan, Cliff…;No. 19: La Cour, Fred…;No. 34: Lovellette, Clyde…;No. 15: McCarthy, John…;No. 9: Pettit, Bob…;No. 25: Piontek, Dave…;No. 21: Sauldsberry, W…;No. 32: Wilkins, Len…;Coach: Paul Seymour’.. (Photo by Los Angeles Examiner/USC Libraries/Corbis via Getty Images)
Larry Foust
A relatively weak class of first-year eligible players could give Larry Foust the boost he needs to finally crack the Hall of Fame, 40 years after his death.
Foust played in the NBA from 1950 to 1962 and has been forgotten in some circles despite being a great player. Frankly, he played so long ago that none of the teams he played for still compete where they did at the time.
He was the fifth overall pick of the Chicago Stags out of La Salle in 1950 but never played a game for the franchise, which folded before his rookie season, relegating him to the Fort Wayne Pistons.
The 6-foot-9 big man quickly became one of the best big men in the league. He averaged a double-double over the course of his tenure with the Pistons, leading the NBA in rebounding one year and in field goal percentage another.
For his career, Foust averaged 13.7 points and 9.8 rebounds per game. He was one of the best players of his long-ago era, making eight All-Star Game squads during his career; he’s the only eligible player with that many All-Star nods without a Hall of Fame jacket.
Foust’s dominance was long enough ago that many younger fans aren’t aware of how much of a force in the low-post he was. He’s long gone, having died of a heart attack in 1984, but it’s time he was celebrated properly at the Hall of Fame.
