Gary Payton, Jerry Tarkanian lead 2013 Basketball Hall of Fame class

The 2013 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame class has been announced, with longtime Seattle SuperSonics great Gary Payton and Louisville head coach Rick Pitino headlining the group.

Payton enjoyed a successful 17-year NBA career, and he’s best known for his 13-year tenure in Seattle, where he established himself as one of the best defensive point guards of all-time. “The Glove” was selected to the NBA All-Defensive First Team nine teams and is the only point guard ever to win the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award.

All you need to know about the problems with the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame can be summed up by the fact that Russ Granik will be enshrined in 2013 and Spencer Haywood will not.

No offense to Granik, who gave 30 years to the NBA, including 22 as David Stern’s second-in-command. Granik will be recognized for being Stern’s pitbull in collective bargaining (hey, only one lockout in four deals!) and for convincing FIBA to let pros play in the Olympics. Those are worthy achievements, and deserving of recognition. Clearly, the Hall’s “Contributor Direct Election Committee” found Granik worthy of induction just seven years after his retirement.

UPDATE: Spencer Haywood, however, is telling reporters that he has not been told that he has been elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. The official announcement for this year’s hall of fame class comes Monday.

Spencer Haywood will join Gary Payton, Bernard King and others in the 2013 class of the Basketball Hall of Fame, according to FOX Sports’ Chris Tomasson. Haywood, who played 12 years in the NBA and one in the ABA, is one of the key figures in NBA history after he won a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision over the NBA in 1971, paving the way for basketball players to enter the NBA after high school or leave college early.

King has long been a noted absence in the minds of Knicks fans, who adore him. Need proof? One of the frequent commenters on SB Nation’s Knicks blog, Posting and Toasting, took the name “Bernard King’s Game Face.” Although the peak of his career was cut short after suffering knee injuries that reduced his explosiveness, his indelible impact after electrifying Madison Square Garden was one of the legacies in basketball’s 1980s explosion. Congratulations to Mr. King.

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Louisville head coach Rick Pitino will reportedly be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, according to a report from USA Today. The announcement will be made at 11 a.m. Monday, the day of the NCAA Tournament final.

Pitino was a finalist last year, but was not inducted. He won a national championship in 1996 with Kentucky, and could become the first coach to win NCAA titles with two different schools if the Cardinals can win two more games. They play Wichita State in the semifinals on Saturday night, and will take on the winner of Syracuse-Michigan if they win.

The Shark is apparently headed to Springfield. Jerry Tarkanian has been elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in his first time on the ballot, reports CBS Sports’ Jeff Goodman.

Tarkanian, best known for his huge success at UNLV and adversarial relationship with the NCAA, won 784 games over his college career, losing only 202. He took the Runnin’ Rebels to four Final Fours, winning in 1990 behind Larry Johnson, Stacey Augmon and Greg Anthony, crushing Duke 103-73 in the national title game. That squad is considered one of the best of all time, nearly pulling off an undefeated season the next year before being shocked by Duke in the Final Four.

Gary Payton, the legendary PG whose defensive prowess earned him the nickname “The Glove,” will be elected into the Hall of Fame this year, according to a report from Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com.

Payton was one of the most distinguished players of his generation, with nine All-Star games, nine All-NBA teams and nine All-Defensive teams on his resume. He played 17 seasons in the NBA for five different teams, averaging 16 points, four rebounds and seven assists on 47 percent shooting.