Shawn Marion: should he be in the basketball Hall of Fame?
Kevin Pelton of ESPN (and formerly 82games) wrote a nice article looking at candidates for the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2025 and comes up with a list including Marques Johnson, Amar'e Stoudemire, Joe Johnson, Horace Grant, and...Shawn Marion. Let's take a look at the HOF credentials of... "The Matrix"
Let's get the highlights out first:
| NBA Champion | Starter and key contributor to the Mavs' 2011 Title, guarding the opposing team's best players (Kobe, Durant, Westbrook, Wade, LeBron) and leading the Mavs in scoring in closeout game vs OKC |
| 7-time top 13 in DPOY | Made it as high as 4th overall in Defensive Player of the Year voting, and highly respected for his defense year after year |
| Box Score stats | How does 21.8 pts (15th), 11.8 rebs (3rd), 2.0 stl (5th), 1.7 blks (17th), .591 TS (13th) with 53/33/81 splits in '05-06 alone sound? ...and five straight seasons as a top 10 "fantasy basketball" player, a sign of his versatility (more on that in a moment) |
| Highly ranked in career totals | For career: 88th in points, 42nd in rebounds, 21st in steals, 61st in blocks, 64th in shots made, 43rd in Win Shares. |
| Durable | Over seven consecutive seasons with the Suns only missed 12 games total, averaging over 80 games played a season...36th in career minutes played. |
| A Winner | Starter on nine 50+ win teams, 13-9 Playoff Series WL |
| Changed the Game | Before 'Trix you didn't see two-way Power Forwards doing what he did and he revolutionized the position, among the first to be a "Stretch 4" (even made 5+ threes in multiple playoff games) while being a "guard 1 through 5" defender. |
Those are some strong points in Shawn's favor. Let's consider a few more.
Elite Career Totals
15,000+ Points10,000+ Rebounds
1,500+ Steals
1,000+ Blocks
500+ Threes
| ...only Shawn and LeBron have achieved these numbers!! |
Think about that...these are not arbitrary. specifically selected to be right at the totals of Marion, these are reasonable round numbers...[Shawn is 17,700 points, 10,101 rebounds, 1759 steals, 1233 blocks, 791 threes]
Take out the 3's made and you still have only five players -- Shawn, LeBron, Karl Malone, Kevin Garnett, Hakeem Olajuwon...so Shawn and four ALL-TIME GREATS!
Drop the steals to 1000 minimum, put back the 3s requirement you have Shawn, LeBron and...Hall of Famer/teammate Dirk Nowitzki. Another player who Changed the Game!
Give Shawn Marion his due...he is in TRULY ELITE COMPANY when it comes to career totals versatility.
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Hall of Fame precedent
Let's keep going: Basketball-Reference has a useful tool for this analysis, their Hall of Fame probability metric. On this measure, Marion rates as the #101 most hall of fame worthy player in basketball history.
Of the 100 players above him:
- 83 are in the Hall of Fame
- 15 are still active (and all seemingly first ballot HOF)
- 1 recently retired, and surefire HOF (Carmelo)
- Dwight Howard, not quite retired, but surefire HOF (8x All-star, 8x All-NBA, 3x DPOY)
- and one who didn't make it...a certain um Larry Foust who was an 8x All-star back in the 1950's!
...so 99/100 in the Hall of Fame/will be when they are eligible.
That tells a pretty obvious story. To exclude Shawn would be absurd.
You can also look at B-R's Win Shares where Shawn rates #43 ALL-TIME...and every player above him is either in the HOF or still active and a first ballot HOF'er when the time comes.
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Similar Players
Also over at Basketball-Reference.com they do "Similarity Scores" to find the most similar players. Here's the list for Shawn:-- B-R Similarity Scores for Shawn Marion
| Most Similar | HOF Status |
|
Scottie Pippen Elton Brand Adrian Dantley *Anthony Davis John Havlicek Dominique Wilkins Kevin McHale Rick Barry Paul Pierce *Giannis Antetokounmpo |
Hall of Fame ...no... Hall of Fame Active (first ballot HOF) Hall of Fame Hall of Fame Hall of Fame Hall of Fame Hall of Fame Active (first ballot HOF) |
...so of the ten most similar players, 7 are in the Hall of Fame, 2 are active and have already done enough to guarantee they will also be inducted (Davis is a champion, 9x all star, runner up for DPOY, Giannis is champion, 2x MVP 8x All NBA), and only Elton Brand didn't make it, but his resume falls short of Shawn Marion's. So basically 9 of 10 in the Hall.
And indeed Scottie Pippen is a worthy comparison, never the best player on his team, but a giant in terms of winning, a defensive force, and a useful scorer when needed, much like Shawn.
How good was Shawn's on ball defense? Ask Kevin!
[Fun aside: in 2007 David Walker and Damien Nelson did an extensive writeup on who should win Defensive Player of the Year on 82games, parts of which appeared in the now defunct ESPN magazine...and they concluded Shawn Marion is DPOY]
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Along with all the accolades, the stats, the team success, the durability, the pride on defense at taking the challenge of guarding the best player, and the changing of the game...Shawn was also just a very popular and likable player with fans, teammates, and the NBA as a whole.
One memory I have is of a moment that captures also the kind of person Shawn was on the court...
In a game against the Warriors one time, Stephen Curry was lighting up Shawn's team, and coming back for a timeout, an assistant coach who will remain nameless laid into Shawn and the others on the court, saying "the next time that Curry F---er lines up for a three I want you to run right through him! Just run him over, knock him on his ass!"
...Shawn wandered over near me and shook his head, "That's not me, that's not how I play the game."
No one ever doubted Shawn's competitiveness, his nerve, his willingness to play in the big games, or his physicality. But he never resorted to being a dirty player, playing with a style and uniqueness that was his and his alone...he was all class, all the time, and as such is a perfect player to add to the Basketball Hall of Fame.
