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Promised land Malone, Chaney, Krzyzewski enter hoops Hall
Updated: Saturday October 06, 2001 12:18 AM
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) -- Moses Malone was humbled by his induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame. "What is a superstar?" Malone asked Friday night. "I was just a player, just a hard worker." Two of the game's best college coaches -- John Chaney of Temple and Mike Krzyzewski of Duke -- joined Malone in the induction class. Malone went from high school to the ABA's Utah Stars in 1974 at age 19. For the next 21 years, the quick, relentless center ruled the boards in the ABA and then the NBA. Hall of Famer Julius Erving said Malone never stopped learning, either. "It's a great pleasure to talk about his skills. It's a greater pleasure to talk about his heart. The greatest pleasure is to talk about Moses' mind," Erving said. "He was a genius in terms of a basketball mind. When he saw somebody do something, something would click in Moses' mind and he would say, 'I can do that.' And he would." Krzyzewski, who won his third NCAA championship at Duke this spring, was introduced by Bob Knight, his coach at Army. The two coaches shared a tear-filled reunion on the Springfield Civic Center stage after Knight's introduction. Knight called Krzyzewski "the best coach in the game," adding his Duke teams have proved that "good students can win. His teams are models for any team that plays basketball." Krzyzewski, who grew up poor in Chicago, remembered his father, an elevator operator, and his mother, who cleaned offices. He recalled his parents, aware of discrimination, would not use their real Polish names because they wanted to get jobs. "My father would not be surprised to see me here," he said. "But he would never believe anyone named Krzyzewski would be in the Hall of Fame." Chaney, 69, who grew up in the projects of Philadelphia, said he can never forget his high school coach, Sam Browne, who gave him the dream of attending college. "The most important thing we can do, whether we're coaches or whatever, is to teach kids, to give them opportunities," said Chaney, who was introduced by former Georgetown coach John Thompson. Chaney was 50 when he was hired by Temple in 1982 and coached his first Division I game. Since then, his often unheralded recruits and smothering matchup zone have produced a 431-179 record. Malone said his decision to skip college was a tough one, but one every kid has to make on his own. His only warning, he said, would be to remind teen-agers considering skipping college today that playing in the pros "is a job. It's not just a game. It's a way to earn a paycheck." Few did the job better than Malone, who taught himself the game of basketball at age 13 1/2 in long, lonely hours on the courts near his Petersburg, Va., home, trying to imitate the moves of Wilt Chamberlain, Erving and his other heroes. The 6-foot-10 Malone became the third leading rebounder in NBA history -- behind Chamberlain and Bill Russell -- with 16,212, and the NBA's fifth leading scorer with 27,404 points. He also ranks third in games played with 1,329, second in free-throw attempts with 11,090, and first in free throws made with 8,531. A 12-time NBA All-Star, he led the Philadelphia 76ers to the 1983 NBA championship and was selected the MVP of the NBA Finals. He also played for Houston, Milwaukee, Atlanta, Washington and San Antonio.
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