20 NBA Hall-of-Fame careers that were cut short by injury

Throughout NBA history, injuries have cut short or hollowed out the careers of many NBA stars. Here are 20 Hall-of-Fame careers impacted by injury.

The NBA is a league of star players, and perhaps more than any other professional sports team its popularity is driven by the elite players who drive winning. With only five players on the court at a single time, having a Hall of Fame player on your team is a significant game-changer.

There can be any number of Hall of Fame players in the league at a given time, those elite stars on track to be enshrined in immortality once their careers end. There are the obvious choices, players like LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry, that combine individual accolades with winning at the highest level.

Other players will make the Hall of Fame for individual success; Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony qualify here despite not winning titles. Others make it because of their contributions to dynastic winning, players like Draymond Green, Manu Ginobili and most of the 1950s and 60s Boston Celtics.

Injuries have had a major impact on who has made it into the Hall of Fame

What about those players who begin their careers on a Hall of Fame trajectory, only to fall short due to injury? We aren’t talking about guys with “hot starts” who turned out to be a flash-in-the-pan, nor those players who never got a start because of injuries (think Greg Oden, or Len Bias). These are players who could have made the Hall of Fame if significant injuries had not cut them down.

This is obviously an amorphous category to try and get a hold on. We aren’t making a definitive case for their Hall of Fame credentials; there is no telling what the future may have held. But to some extent, these players looked like they could make the Hall of Fame, and then injuries got in the way.

One final note on our criteria. This is a list of elite NBA players whose NBA careers were impacted by injury. Some players made the Basketball Hall of Fame because of their contributions in college or international play, but their NBA careers were still cut short to the extent that they would not have made an NBA Hall of Fame. Those players are still included in our list.

With the housekeeping out of the way, let’s look at a few honorable mentions who didn’t quite fit the criteria, then jump into our list of 20 NBA stars whose Hall of Fame careers were cut short by injury.