The place where the game never ends

Hoop shrine looks to draw families, young people

By RON C HIMELIS rchimelis@repub.com

Any good basketball team knows it’s nice to jump out to an early lead.

John L. Doleva says that’s how the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame finished the 2022 calendar year and began 2023.

“Business is up. We were up 65% in admissions from pre-COVID numbers, and we’ve been continuing to see growth in 2023. It’s early, but that’s really encouraging,” said Doleva, the president and CEO of the Springfield sports museum. With a $30 million capital campaign and a major renovation completed, 2023 will be a year to deliver the fruits of that effort rather than initiating new projects, according to Doleva. But new ideas are always on the table, he added.

“We’ll be delivering more of the same great things. We’re also looking at two new exhibits,” Doleva said. One will be in the form of a vault with an old-fashioned tumble door and the trappings of high security. As fans enter the vault, they’ll be able to look at more than a dozen artifacts supplied from the personal collections of some of the game’s greatest stars. These will be loaned to the hall of fame on a one-year basis, Doleva said.

The other new concept is being developed in conjunction with the NBA Players Association. The theme will focus on the families of the players, which Doleva says will play well with visitors who come to the hoop hall with their own family members.

“We’ll see how Mom and Dad influenced the lives of these players. That fits in with our own demographics of families,” he said.

Those exhibits won’t be available to the public until late 2023 or early 2024, but in the meantime the shrine will be host to plenty of activity, Doleva said. The Class of 2023 will be enshrined in August.

This year, the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Final Fours will be held next month in close proximity to each other in Houston and Dallas, respectively. Doleva says the plan is to increase the hall’s profile at the women’s event, this year and beyond.

“We’re thinking of bringing our Class of 2023 to the Women’s Final Four. It’s a tremendous group, and those selected will be introduced during Final Four weekend, as usual,” he said. Among this year’s nominees are former NBA stars Pau Gasol, Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker and Dwayne Wade, along with San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich, who holds the record for most victories by an NBA coach.

The institution has never survived solely by visits from fans, but Doleva said the increase in foot traffic speaks to the vibrancy of the building and the sustained passion for the sport itself.

“They’re coming to see the renovated building, and we’re doing more advertising to get the word out,” he said. “Coming out of the pandemic, people want to resume the activities they had to put on hold. The reception from people coming through our doors has been tremendous.”

If 2023 will be primarily devoted to shining a focus on major upgrades of the past several years, the museum’s leader says it will also be a year to size up what exciting projects can be launched in the years to come.

Even the area around those doors has been upgraded.

Whereas once the entrance on Hall of Fame Avenue reflected mostly open space, fans are now greeted by a much more decorative set of exhibits and photos that speak to the history of the sport — before visitors enter the museum itself.

Based in Springfield, where basketball was invented by James Naismith in 1891, the hall of fame now exerts a national and global reach. It will continue to expand spon- sorships of major basketball competitions in Springfield, around the nation and overseas.

The Spalding Hoophall Classic, which has become America’s premier in-season high school tournament, played to capacity crowds at Springfield College in January.

One huge event on the upcoming schedule is Hooplandia, which is competing to become the largest 3-on-3 tournament in the country.

Only Hoopfest in Spokane, Washington rivals it.

Postponed twice by COVID-19, the event will be played at the Eastern States

Exposition, which is co-hosting the tournament with the hall of fame.

Hooplandia will have divisions for young girls, boys, women, men, high school elite, college elite, pro-am, older players, wheelchair, Wounded Warrior, Special Olympians, veterans, first responders and more. And this is far more than the old concept of children or teens playing 3-on-3 pickup at the local playground.

It’s taken that very American playground tradition to new heights. About

1,000 teams will come to Springfield with four-person rosters, for a total of 4,000 or more players plus families and friends.

The hall of fame has risen to become a player in the game’s administrative circles. Doleva says a new opportunity in that regard may present itself in 2023.

During Final Four weekend, “maybe we’ll get to meet the new president of the NCAA,” he said. That would be Charlie Baker, the former governor of Massachusetts who took over the sports or- ganization’s presidency after leaving office in January.

If 2023 will be primarily devoted to shining a focus on major upgrades of the past several years, the museum’s leader says it will also be a year to size up what exciting projects can be launched in the years to come.

“We are enjoying the fruits of our labors and we’re happy our investments have worked,” Doleva said, “but we are also not getting lazy. We’re always looking at new ideas and that will never change.”

We have accelerated our engagement with the Program Advisory Committee of the graphic communications program at Roger L. Putnam Vocational Technical Academy in Springfield.