List of members of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
Contributors

For a person to be inducted to the Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor, they must have made "significant contributions to the game of basketball". Of the inaugural Hall of Fame class of 1959, seven individuals were inducted as contributors, including James Naismith, the inventor of basketball. All former NBA commissioners (Maurice Podoloff, J. Walter Kennedy, Larry O'Brien, and David Stern) have been inducted. Seventeen individuals inducted as contributors have won the John Bunn Award, awarded by the Hall annually to a significant contributor: John Bunn (its inaugural recipient), J. Walter Kennedy, Cliff Fagan, Edward Gottlieb, Danny Biasone, Larry O'Brien, Dave Gavitt, C. M. Newton, Tex Winter, Meadowlark Lemon, Tom Jernstedt, Tom "Satch" Sanders, Val Ackerman, George Raveling, Al Attles, Rod Thorn and Del Harris. Four inductees in this category are women: Senda Berenson Abbott and Bertha Teague (both inducted in 1985), Rebecca Lobo (2017) and Val Ackerman (2021).
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