Kobe Bryant is on the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame list of finalists for enshrinement this year.
Bryant was in his first year of eligibility. Other notable names on the list with Bryant, a five-time NBA champion and the fourth all-time leading scorer in league history, are former San Antonio Spurs center Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett, a 15-time all-star who played primarily for the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Hall of Fame officials released the list of finalists Friday afternoon. The people who will be in inducted in August will be revealed in April at the NCAA men’s Final Four in Atlanta.
“It’s been in Ohio as early as the mid-1850s at least, brought in as an ornamental plant because of its unique foliage and white flowers,” Gardner said. “It was actually planted in people’s landscaping, and it has been spreading.”
Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others were killed in a helicopter crash in Southern California on the morning of January 26 as they traveled to a basketball tournament.
In December his name was included in the list of 50 men on the preliminary ballot for the hall. A former player becomes eligible to be enshrined when he or she is in their fourth season of retirement.
Other finalists are Tamika Catchings, Kim Mulkey, Rudy Tomjanovich, Barbara Stevens and Eddie Sutton.