Two former Chicago Bulls, Dwyane Wade and Paul Gasol, will be amongst the 2023 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame class inducted tonight in Springfield, Massachusetts.
The 2023 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame class will include two former Chicago Bulls in Dwyane Wade and Pau Gasol. Wade and Gasol will join San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich, former Spurs point guard Tony Parker and former Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki amongst the NBA inductees.
Gene Keady, Gene Bess, David Hixon, Jim Valvano, Gary Blair, Becky Hammon and the 1976 U.S. Women’s Olympic team will also join the Basketball Hall of Fame as additions outside of the NBA.
Some soon-to-be members of the Basketball Hall of Fame: pic.twitter.com/SbKbepkThU
— INSIDE HOOPS – NBA Basketball (@InsideHoops) August 12, 2023
Wade and Gasol made names for themselves for other teams, forming Hall of Fame careers and winning NBA championships. Wade spent a little over a year in a Bulls uniform after the team traded Derrick Rose away but wanted to maintain a contending roster.
Wade was bought out in his second year with the team. Wade was born and raised in Chicago though and would’ve been a welcomed union earlier in his career. There was talk too that Wade was tinkering with the idea of joining the team in 2010, attempting to recruit LeBron James and Chris Bosh to form their big three in Chicago but opted towards the Miami Heat after further deliberation.
Gasol won multiple championships with the Los Angeles Lakers prior to joining the Bulls. The six-time All-Star was brought in to help compete against the James-led Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference. Gasol played two solid years with the Bulls but the team couldn’t make it past the Conference Semifinals in his tenure. Gasol later departed in free-agency.
Wade and Gasol didn’t have glamorous tenures for the franchise but were still valued members of the Bulls family. Many Bulls fans probably wish they had either or both players during their primes but that would only be a daydream. Their inductions into the Basketball Hall of Fame are well deserved and we hope they enjoy the moment.
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