Legends of the City Game Given Just Due by New York City Basketball Hall of Fame

By: Jake Carapella

While waiting at the door, there is New York City playground legend Richard "Pee Wee" Kirkland, who has been lauded over time as the best player to never play in the NBA, in a Pelle Pelle jacket that reads Greatest of All-Time on the back. When talking NYC playground ball, the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame class of 2025 inductee fits that description. Walk through to the common area and there is a silent auction commencing, with prized items including a signed jersey of New York Giants legend Lawrence Taylor and a signed basketball from Hall of Fame NBA forward Rick Barry up for grabs. There are framed collages of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant - one particular Jordan item is a photo of one of his dunk contest slams, with a kid, superimposed on the image, donning a Jordan jersey and holding a ball. 'Follow Your Dreams' is the line on the image. Kenny Anderson, a Queens native who at one time was a star floor general with the nearby New Jersey Nets and who is an ambassador of the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame, is at a table to the side. He and Peter Vecsey, the longtime columnist who is receiving a lifetime achievement award on this night, exchange pleasantries. Brooklyn native and former NBA official Ronnie Nunn, a 2024 NYC Hall inductee who is part of its council and currently serves as the director of officiating for the Basketball Super League Canada, is at a table conversing with friends. West 4th St. legend Jack Ryan, himself a Brooklyn native, is here too. Moments later, Barry walks into the room. The 6 foot, 7 inch fantastic forward who won in the ABA with the Oakland Oaks in 1969, was twice an All-Star with the New York Nets, won the 1975 NBA Finals MVP with the Golden State Warriors, and in the 1967 Finals against the Wilt Chamberlain-led Philadelphia 76ers averaged 40.8 points per game at just 22 years old, is a New Jersey native. He is here as a special guest and during the forthcoming dinner gives a speech talking about his history with the late, great New York City and NBA hooper Connie Hawkins. He talks about what he likes and does not like about the current NBA - "too much 3-point shooting" (perplexingly, no modern player has tried to replicate Barry's underhanded free-throw stroke, which allowed him to be a career 89.3% freebie shooter and lead the association in percentage seven times). Anderson and Stephon Marbury, the latter who is getting inducted as part of this class, are mentioned by Barry, as both were contemporaries of his NBA sons Brent, Jon, and Drew. Like Anderson and Marbury, Drew attended Georgia Tech University. Barry ends his speech by revealing his wish for an optimistic day where the country can stop being so divisive.

Kirkland’s speech is one where he speaks of his love for giving back to the community and helping to enrich youth development on and off the floor. He mentions that he is happy that Vecsey is receiving a lifetime achievement award - the two have history going back to Rucker Park. Kirkland also identifies those greats - Julius Erving among them - that over the years have been complimentary of his supertalents as the best to never play in the NBA. Kirkland indeed is NYC roundball royalty. The term 'legend' is thrown around a lot these days, but it snuggly fits the 80-year-old. A documentary on him is in the works. 

Benjamin Cardozo High School head coach Ron Naclerio, the winningest high school basketball coach in the history of New York State, gives an impassioned speech talking about his family, what the sport means to him, and the impact that he likes to have on his players. He tells a heartwarming story of his father, a surgeon, saving the life of a stabbing victim by the name of Martin Luther King Jr. At one time, Naclerio was a baseball player in the Chicago White Sox organization and was a stolen base leader in the New York Penn League. He is personality personified.  

Vecsey, the longtime NBA columnist and insider, is the recipient of the first ever Howie Evans Memorial Award for Lifetime Contribution to Basketball. Evans, who passed away in 2025 at the age of 91, was the Senior Sports Editor at the Amsterdam News, the oldest black-owned publication in New York City and one of the oldest in America. The New York Amsterdam News Building in Harlem, where the paper was published from 1916-1938, is a US National Historic Landmark. 

Two of Evans’ family members present Vecsey with the award, and during his speech Vecsey acknowledges the honor and remembers those with close ties to New York City basketball who have passed away in the last year - among them coaches Doug Moe and Richie Adubato, and star player Michael Ray Richardson. One of eight founders of the Hall and its last living founder, Vecsey is on its advisory board. He gives a deserved shout out to New York University’s women’s basketball team, who, inducted on this night, as of March 7 sport a 2025-26 record of 27-0. The program led by head coach Meg Barber has won two consecutive NCAA Division III championships and hasn’t lost a game since March 11, 2023 in the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight. Vecsey has been a big NYU supporter over the years, as was his wife. 

February 24th’s gathering was sold out with 250 people in attendance in the New York Hilton Midtown’s trianon ballroom. Other inductees included longtime Big East Senior Associate Commissioner for Sports Media Relations John Paquette, president of the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association Chuck Stogel, the 2024 New York Liberty, local community basketball lifer Shelly Schneider, and longtime Rice High head coach Maurice Hicks. NBC New York’s Bruce Beck, fresh off a plane from covering the Olympics in Milan, emceed the event along with the New York Post’s Dexter Henry and the Long Island Nets’ Bianca Peart.

Under new leadership in recent years, the 2026 gala was the first in-person gala for the Hall since 2017 (2024’s class was honored at a New York Liberty game last year). 

Keri Watkins-Webb, daughter of Hall co-founder Cecil Watkins, is the current chair of the board. Zak Ivkovic, former commissioner of the CUNYAC, is the president and CEO. Sean Couch, a second-round draft pick of the Indiana Pacers in 1987 and president of the Jim Couch Foundation who runs the Jim Couch National Training Showcase named for his father (Jim founded the famed Dyckman League), is the Hall’s VP of Development. Stacey Davis is the Hall’s VP of Programs. The new leadership behind the Hall signals a rebirth. February’s gala was the genesis of that rebirth.

"The Gala perfectly captured the spirit of the mecca,” says Davis of the night. “By bringing together basketball legends and the modern elite, we celebrated a heritage that is as much about the future as it is the past.”

The past history of NYC hoops is indeed locked in. All-time playground legends like Kirkland and Earl Manigault combine with NBA greats Hawkins, Erving, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and so many others. Barry, too, by association as he was born across the Hudson River in Elizabeth, N.J. Wilt Chamberlain even lived in the Big Apple while he was a Philadelphia 76er. Things like the NYU women’s incredible run are reasons why the future lore of NYC ball is secure.

It is a city that has as rich of a hoops tradition as any. Chicago, Detroit, and the Los Angeles area have history in their own right, but it is hard to dismiss that New York City is the most prolific hoops haven in all of the land. There is a reason that it is called the mecca of basketball. Other cities have great players. But City ball is special. Embedded in the cultural framework of the five boroughs.

“This year's turnout and success are a testament to the enduring power of New York City basketball,” Davis continues.

The next New York City Basketball Hall of Fame Gala is scheduled for the fall. 

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