Jordan Leads the Way

The inevitable election of Jordan took place this morning when the class of 2009 for the Springfield, Mass., shrine was announced in Detroit, site of Monday night's men's basketball championship game.

Joining Jordan are former NBA players David Robinson and John Stockton and two coaches, NBA great Jerry Sloan and Rutgers women's coach C. Vivian Stringer.

Jordan finished his 15-year career with the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards with 32,292 points, the third-highest total in league history, behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone.

His final career average of 30.12 goes down as the best, just ahead of Wilt Chamberlain's 30.07.

The five-time NBA MVP won six championships with the Bulls and another in college with North Carolina Robinson had a stellar 14-year career with the San Antonio Spurs that included two NBA championships, an MVP season, a rookie of the year award, 10 All-Star selections, a scoring title and two Olympic gold medals.

Stockton was a first-round pick of the Utah Jazz in the 1984 draft, using the No. 16 pick on a relatively unknown player from Gonzaga who became one of the league's top point guards.

Sloan is the longest tenured head coach in major league sports with a single franchise.

A two-time All-Star during his playing days with the Bulls, Sloan is the only NBA coach to win more than 1,000 games with a single team.

Stringer has led three separate teams to the Final Four in her 38-year career and has an 825-280 mark spanning four decades.

She trails only Pat Summitt and Jody Conradt on the victories list.

Induction is Sept. 10-12 in Springfield, Mass., home of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.