Mel Daniels and Artis Gilmore: Both were dominant players in the ABA and are shunned because they failed to dominate when they played in the NBA. Yet, if Forrest DeBernardi is in the Hall of Fame because he was a great AAU player in the 1920s, then there's no reason why Daniels and Gilmore should be denied admittance.

Dennis Johnson: He led his teams to three NBA championships, was an extraordinary defender, a five-time All-Star and the Finals MVP with Seattle in 1979. Also, Larry Bird called DJ the "smartest player" he'd ever played with.

Dennis Rodman: He was a better rebounder and defender than Gallatin — he led the NBA in rebounds for seven consecutive years and was Defensive POY twice. He won five championships. But he's considered too flaky to merit serious consideration.

Gus Johnson: If Dave DeBusschere is in the Hall of Fame (and rightly so), then Johnson should be too.

Sidney Moncrief: He was a superior two-way player whose credentials certainly don't suffer in comparison to Joe Dumars'.

If high-volume scorers who never won an NBA championship are in — the likes of Charles Barkley, Dominique Wilkins, George Gervin, Alex English and Walt Bellamy — then why haven't the following players been inducted?

World B. Free (career average of 20.3 ppg). Lou Hudson (20.2). Bernard King (22.5). Mitch Richmond (21.0).

And if several one-time NCAA championship coaches are in, then what about NBA coaches who only won a single ring? Such as George Senesky, Al Attles, Dick Motta, Paul Westhead, Bill Fitch and Rudy Tomjanovich (who won twice). The truth, however, is that the Eastern Mafia has always favored the college game.

Even so, the biggest omission continues to be Tex Winter. Everybody knows that he developed the triangle offense from the center-opposite offense that he learned under Sam Barry at USC. And it was the triangle (further refined by Phil Jackson) that was the design behind six Bulls' and four Lakers' championship teams.

But the powers-that-be in Springfield give no credence to the contributions of NBA assistant coaches.

Still, Winter was a very successful college coach. In 15 seasons at Kansas State, Winter was 262-121, the Wildcats were the top-ranked team in 1958, among the top 10 a total of four times, qualified for the NCAA tourney four times (back when the field was limited to 24 entries), were conference champs eight times and reached the Final Four in 1957 and 1964. In 1958, Winter was named the NCAA's Coach of the Year. Moreover, until Winter lleft for Northwestern in 1973, he had the highest overall winning percentage of any of his peers.

Several years back, Winter was presented with the John Bunn Award for lifetime achievement, which was a catch-all honor that failed to fully consider his specific and incredibly significant accomplishments in the NBA.

Denying Winter full entrance in the Hall of Fame makes a mockery of the entire process.