Basketball Hall of Fame Finalists 2018: Steve Nash, Jason Kidd and 11 more announced

The 2018 Basketball Hall of Fame Finalists were announced on Saturday afternoon, and 13 players, coaches and referees are one step closer to reaching their dreams. They include Steve Nash, Jason Kidd, Ray Allen, Maurice Cheeks, Grant Hill, Chris Webber, Katie Smith, Tina Thompson, coach Charles “Lefty” Driesell, coach Kim Mulkey, coach Rudy Tomjanovich, referee Hugh Evans, and the Wayland Baptist University women’s team.

Nash, Allen, Kidd, and Thompson were first time nominees.

The actual inductees will be announced at the Final Four in San Antonio.

In order to be eligible for the Hall of Fame, players, coaches or referees must be retired for at least three seasons.

Once they’re eligible, the candidates are reviewed by either the North American Screening Committee or Women’s Screening Committee. To secure a spot as a finalist, the player, coach or referee must receive seven out of nine votes from the North American committee, or five of seven from the Women’s committee.

The North American committee can only select a maximum of 10 finalists, and the Women’s committee can only choose as many as four.

If your favorite player wasn’t named a finalist, don’t worry. If an eligible contributor to hoops history is not named a finalist, they will remain eligible for future years as long as they receive at least one vote within a three-year time span.

Now the finalists will be pushed to the Honors Committee, who ultimately decide who gets inducted to the Hall. Both the North American and Women’s Honors Committees consist of 24 members, who are either current Hall of Famers, basketball executives, media members or other experts of the game.

To be inducted, a player must receive 18 out of 24 votes. The inductees will be announced at the Final Four.

Again, if your favorite player wasn’t elected, don’t worry. Players are eligible to be reviewed by the Honors Committee for five consecutive years before their nomination will be suspended for five years.