We found something to thank Canada for

Dr. James Naismith, the inventor of basketball.

The day after my trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame, my dad and I headed to the Basketball Hall of Fame.  We spent the night in Albany, which is about halfway from the Baseball Hall of Fame to the Basketball Hall of Fame.  As we were on our way on Sunday morning, I thought of the Bill Simmons Hall of Fame Pyramid (the link is his original version, Basketball-Reference.com has his updated version, but it doesn't show how the levels are divided).  What I didn't remember is that he originally had the idea for the Baseball Hall of Fame.  I'm going to disagree with Simmons.  The Baseball Hall of Fame is fine.  And he had Koufax on Level 4 and not Level 5, which is ridiculous.  But for the Basketball Hall of Fame, it's probably a good idea.

We got to the Basketball Hall of Fame around noon.  It's a very different experience from the Baseball Hall of Fame.  The entire town of Cooperstown is dedicated to baseball.  The Basketball Hall of Fame is in a little shopping center right off the interstate.  Like the Baseball Hall of Fame, you start at the top and work your way down.  Unlike the Baseball Hall of Fame, you start with the members of the Hall of Fame and then see other stuff.  The Building is shaped like a big basketball.  On the second and third floor, you can walk around and see stuff and then down below on the first floor is a basketball court.  When we arrived, there were a couple of games going on.  It was pretty cool to have the sport being played down below.  You could look over the railing and watch the games if you wanted.

The Hall of Fame is appropriately named for Dr. Naismith (possibly my favorite Canadian of all time).

I love the Bird-Magic rivalry, but they should be replaced by Russell and Chamberlain in this picture.  Or just Bill Russell.  Actually that would be better.  Wilt Chamberlain doesn't belong with the two greatest basketball players of all time.

So anyway, we started at the top with the Hall of Famers.  You work your way clockwise around the circle.  They have a display that goes around with a paragraph on each Hall of Famer and some artifacts and there are pictures of the Hall of Famers on the ceiling above.  It's really not as impressive as the plaque gallery in the Baseball Hall of Fame.  I mentioned that the Baseball Hall of Fame's first class was five of the all time greats of baseball.  I barely recognize the Baskeball Hall of Fame's first class.  Check out the inductees.  There were seventeen inductees in the first class (two of which were entire teams, including the Original Celtics who played in Madison Square Garden).  Of the seventeen, the only ones I had heard of were Phog Allen, James Naismith, George Mikan, and Amos Alonzo Stagg.  The only ones that I really knew well were Naismith and Mikan.  So anyway, I actually read a lot of the paragraphs, especially the Celtics and some other guys like Celtic rivals (especially the owner of the Dodgers), Adrian Dantley, Michael Jordan, and Corey Robinson's father.  The coolest artifact was one of Red Auerbach's victory cigars.  The biggest omission was that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's paragraph didn't mention his outstanding performance as Roger Murdock in Airplane!

Red's victory cigar

Bill Russell, the greatest basketball player of all time.

I loved Larry Bird growing up.  I didn't have much other than that as a Celtics fan growing up until Paul Pierce came around.

One of the owners of the Los Angeles Dodgers

Corey Robinson's father

After that, we went down to the second floor.  There were a lot of good exhibits there, but it didn't really compare to the Baseball Hall of Fame.  The best artifact down there was the ball from when Notre Dame ended UCLA's 88 game winning streak (we were also the last team to beat them before the streak started, the same thing happened with Oklahoma's 47 game winning streak in football, but Oklahoma tied Pittsburgh the week after they lost to us before starting that winning streak).  There were displays on some of the legendary teams on the college and NBA level.  There was stuff on UCLA, North Carolina, etc. for college.  For the NBA, the displays on the Celtics and Lakers were the biggest, but there were also displays for the Knicks, Bulls, Spurs, Pistons, and 76ers (I think that was it).  It didn't really go chronologically.  The Celtics display was their entire franchise history.  I would have liked a display on Russell vs. Wilt, another one on Bird vs. Magic, another one on Jordan, and another one on Duncan vs. Shaq.  The Baseball Hall of Fame pretty much had everything I would have wanted.  The Basketball Hall of Fame had some good stuff, but it left me wanting more.

One of my favorite basketballs in the world.

The greatest franchise in basketball history

I liked this for obvious reasons.  It was like the Babe Ruth and Ted Williams statues at the Baseball Hall of Fame.  They should have had one for Magic Johnson also.

Not quite the wingspan of Kevin Durant

A future Hall of Famer and my favorite basketball player ever.

We finished on the first floor with the basketball court.  By then, there were no games going on so anybody could shoot around.  I drained a few threes.  What was cool was that on the side they had old baskets and backboards.  So you could make a shot in a peach basket (with the bottom cut out so the ball would come down).

When the hat goes backwards, I get serious.  Just like knockout at camp back in the day.  Great camerawork by my dad.  My form looks pretty good.

I made a shot in the peach basket.  It was weird shooting on a basket with no backboard.

The easiest way to describe the difference between the two Halls of Fame is by saying that going to Cooperstown is at least a full-day event.  I was pretty satisfied that we saw everything that we needed to see, but I could have spent another day there.  We were at the Basketball Hall of Fame for about three hours.  It's something that's worth doing on your way to or from Boston, but you really don't need to make an entire day out of it.  It had been 21 years since I was at the Basketball Hall of Fame (the only thing I remember from that time is seeing Bob Lanier's shoe, which is still there by the way) so I'm glad I went, but it definitely wasn't as much fun as the Baseball Hall of Fame.  They should probably give Simmons's pyramid idea a try.

Bob Lanier's shoe