Bulls Chair JERRY REINSDORF this morning was announced as one of 10 people elected to the Basketball HOF as part of this year's class. Reinsdorf will be going in alongside ZELMO BEATY, DARREL GARRETSON, ALLEN IVERSON, TOM IZZO, JOHN MCCLENDON, YAO MING, SHAQUILLE O'NEAL, CUMBERLAND POSEY and SHERYL SWOOPES on Sept. 9. Reinsdorf, who has owned the Bulls since '85 and oversaw the team's six NBA titles in the '90s, called the honor "very humbling" and said he "wasn’t sure why" he was being elected when he first heard the news. He said, "I really wasn’t sure why I deserved this, and I am still not sure because I have been helped by so many people along the way. This is really a tribute more for the people who have done for me along the way, and a lot of luck that I had. But there are an awful lot of people, including JERRY KRAUSE, SCOTTIE PIPPEN and PHIL JACKSON, and a fellow named JORDAN ... who were mentors to me." Reinsdorf added, "It has to be humbling. I didn’t play the game, I didn’t coach the game, I didn’t referee the game, so I am really on the peripheral level" (“SportsCenter,” ESPN, 4/4).
