BASKETBALL HOF Ex-rivals Parish, Worthy head list of seven inductees

Former Lakers broadcaster Chick Hearn will join them as members.
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) -- Opponents in one of the NBA's fiercest rivalries, James Worthy and Robert Parish are on the same team now: incoming members of the Basketball Hall of Fame.
They will be inducted tonight, 16 years after they met for the third and final time in an NBA championship series -- Worthy with the Los Angeles Lakers and Parish with the Boston Celtics.
Five others will join them as new members -- Meadowlark Lemon of the Harlem Globetrotters, NBA pioneer Earl Lloyd, longtime Louisiana Tech women's coach Leon Barmore, Italian player Dino Meneghin and the late Chick Hearn, who broadcast 3,338 straight Lakers' games.
Hearn was at the microphone for all the matchups between Worthy and Parish, describing how they ran the floor, hit jumpers and rebounded aggressively for the dominant teams of the 1980s.
"Hatred would be a strong word. We really respected each other," Worthy said of Parish and the Celtics. "I liked the game the way it was then. It was more respect for your opponents and your own teammates."
Of course, the teams had other standouts. But Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson of the Lakers and Larry Bird and Kevin McHale of the Celtics already are in basketball's shrine.
Now Worthy and Parish, who both were outstanding in critical games, get their turn.
Linked to Hearn
"He gave me my nickname, 'Big Game James,' " Worthy said of Hearn.
Hearn also introduced radio and television fans to now standard phrases such as "slam dunk," of which Parish and Worthy had many, and "airball," of which they had few.
Hearn didn't miss a game from Nov. 21, 1965, through Dec. 16, 2001. He died on Aug. 5, 2002 at age 85 after a fall at his home.
Parish, who turned 50 last Saturday, entered the NBA in 1976 with Golden State, six years before the Lakers drafted Worthy, 42, out of North Carolina.
Their paths crossed again in the NBA in 1982 and they met in the Finals for the first time in 1984. Boston won then, but Los Angeles beat the Celtics in the 1985 and 1987 Finals.
Barmore was 576-87 in 20 seasons as women's coach at Louisiana Tech, an .869 winning percentage, the best in women's college basketball history.
Meneghin was a top international player, competing in four Olympics for Italy and leading his club to a record seven Cup of Champions titles.
Lloyd, 74, was elected in the veterans category. He was the first black player in the NBA, debuting with the Washington Capitals in 1950.
Lemon was known as the "clown prince of basketball" for his comic performances with the Globetrotters.