WATCH: Knicks Legend Earns Hall of Fame Enshrinement

Dick Barnett’s basketball path, partly paved with the New York Knicks in Manhattan, has finally ended in Springfield.

Barnett’s legacy will forever reside at the Naismith Basketball Memorial Hall of Fame, as he was one several names inducted on Sunday. The 88-year-old earned a standing ovation upon his presenting, assisted by fellow Knicks legends Bill Bradley and Earl “The Pearl” Monroe.

“Barnett was a legend at Tennessee State, and that’s where I wanted to go to college because of Dick Barnett, man,” another Knicks legend, Walt “Clyde” Frazier said in a Hall of Fame video acknowledging Barnett’s accomplishments. “He had that ‘fall back baby,’ that’s what he used to say when he’d shoot, meaning, hey, man, you can fall back, this is good, when I shoot the ball, you can fall back.”

Barnett had previously been invited to the Hall of Fame as a memeber of the Tennessee A&I (now Tennesee State) men’s basketball teams from 1957-59, which won three consecutive national titles. His individual case had been long brewing and was finally recognized this time around as part of a class headlined by new millennium legends Vince Carter and Chauncey Billups, the latter a fellow former Knick.

Barnett played his final eight professional seasons with the Knicks after previously starring with the Syracuse Nationals, the American Basketball League’s Cleveland Pipers, and Los Angeles Lakers. He became well-regarded for his unique, successful jumpshot release, earning the famous phrase “fall back, baby” from Lakers broadcasting Chick Hearn.

Traded from Los Angeles to New York in 1965, Barnett immediately averaged a career-best in scoring with 23.1 points a game. He would later made his only All-Star appearance as a Knick in 1968 and later partook in the Knicks’ two title runs in 1970 and 1973. Though he was released after the latter championship trek, the Knicks retired his No. 12 jersey 17 years later. Barnett later earned a PhD in education from Fordham University in The Bronx.

In recognition of Barnett’s big day, the Knicks released a tribute video featuring well-wishes from past and present stars alike, such as Bradley, Frazier, Monroe, Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, and team president Leon Rose.

“He certainly deserves it,” Bradley said in the Knicks’ video. “He was one of the greatest shooters, I think, to ever play the game. As a teammate, he was tough on defense and he was somebody who always kept us loose becuse he had such a great sense of humor about life, about himself, about the game.”

With this induction, 10 members from the Knicks’ most recent championship team now reside in the Hall of Fame: in that department, Barnett joins Bradley, Frazier, Monroe, Dave DeBuscherre, Jerry Lucas, Phil Jackson, Willis Reed, head coach Red Holzman, and president Ned Irish.

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