|
Sporting halls of fame have always been slightly ridiculous concepts; a manufactured way of honouring athletes who might not otherwise be remembered years later.
There is evidence in all leagues of sportsmen and women who, despite being inducted into their respective halls after statistically impressive careers, could walk down a street and not turn a single head.
Most will pass as footnotes in the annals of a sport’s history rather than as ones who shaped the game to their own will, unlike the generationally great who transcend their immediate surrounds and do not need a bust in a hall of fame to guarantee they will live long in the collective memory.
In basketball, Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell and Michael Jordan will always tower over the sport’s lesser lights, in golf it is Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Tiger Woods, probably Rory McIlroy, and there is no world in which Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo won’t be spoken of in the same breath as Pele and Maradona.
But for every Jordan there is a Bill Bradley, for every Messi there is a Diego Forlan, and for every Woods a Tom Weiskopf. Three of these careers were not like the others.
Comparing and contrasting is not always a fair reflection on whether someone deserves to be remembered. But sport, like life, is not fair.
And if an individually great player spent their entire career on a team that did not win anything, then can that truly be considered worthy of a place alongside a peer or predecessor who did both?
Of course, hall of fame ceremonies are not really about the sport, or honouring athletes who raised the bar. If they were, then some years you would not need one, but then commercial demands, the need to remain in the public eye and having something to keep the marketing department busy trump such small considerations.
The nature of halls only really popped into my head this morning when I was thinking about the snooker version. Officials have deemed it acceptable to induct China’s Zhao Xintong this time around, which is a truly baffling decision.
Yes, he is a former world champion, and yes the first Chinese player to win the title. But, he is not yet 30 and is not even three years removed from serving a 20-month ban for match-fixing.
The latter does not necessarily preclude him from one day being put into the sport’s hall, but his 2025 Crucible victory aside, his CV of six ranking-tournament wins is rather thin when taken alongside the likes of seven-time world champions Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O’Sullivan, or Steve Davis, a man who changed the game.
On that basis, Emma Raducanu might expect to be getting a call from tennis bosses inviting her to the next gala dinner, where the otherwise winless Brit’s 2021 US Open fluke will again be the talk of the town.
But that would be ridiculous.
 |
| Josh Ball |
News Editor, Sport & Racing
|
| 
