During Coronavirus Pause, Hoops Hall Gets A Big Facelift—And A Big Incoming Class

If you’re considering a slight remodel at home and it’s struck you that building a domed roof in the shape of a basketball might be just the thing, you should probably talk to John Doleva.

Back in 2002, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame opened a new building here in Springfield, Mass., a a structure notable for its round roof rising next to the Connecticut River. The hundreds of panels in the roof—no two panels are exactly the same—were highlighted by a series of small bulbs that flickered when in the dark, giving the building the appearance of a rebound dangling next to Interstate 91, waiting to be grabbed.

Lovely idea. But after living with the roof for nearly 20 years, Doleva, who is the president and CEO of the Hall of Fame, has some thoughts on the realities of the architecture, mostly about the leaking.

“If someone wants to build you a round roof, don’t let them,” Doleva said. “And then if they want to build you a round roof and poke holes in it to put lights on the outside, that is really not a great idea. It leaked from almost way back when we opened it up. We did some patches and some repairs, but it was constant.”

While there has been an indefinite hiatus in the NBA and all around basketball as the world struggles to contain and limit the spread of COVID-19, a major overhaul at the mecca of the sport has been continuing—it’s been two-and-a-half years in the making. Throughout last winter, as part of a $22 million refurbishing of the Hall of Fame, workers meticulously pulled up each of the panels on the famous domed roof, replaced the substrate, yanked out the lights and sealed the holes that had caused two decades of leaking.

There is nothing fortuitous about the arrival and spread of coronavirus, but for the Hall of Fame, at least, it has come at a time when the museum was already scheduled to be shut down for a complete remodel, one that goes well beyond finally sealing the leaky roof. The Hall closed its doors on February 5 to allow workers to remake the individual exhibits that are the heart of the museum. On most workdays a crew of about a dozen workers (with 50,000 square feet of space, there’s plenty of room for social distancing) is setting up a new-look museum.

The original plan was to reopen on April 1. Now, Doleva said, June 1 is the goal.

“We expect to be open for the summer travel season, whatever that might look like,” Doleva said. “I don’t know if we get the all-clear on June 1, are we going to all run out in the first hour? I doubt it. But we’re working with a lot of the attractions in the area to say we are going to work together and be ready for visitors this summer.”

Reimagined Exhibits: ‘A Much Deeper Dive’

Those visitors may be surprised by what they see. Since its reconstruction in its current location, the Hall of Fame has offered a standard museum experience in high tops, black-and-white plaques for inductees on the third floor with a couple of paragraphs of information on the player, coach or contributor. That has its own staid dignity, but it’s not particularly interactive and for the Hall of Fame’s target audience—families with kids in the 8-to-16 age range—interactivity has become more and more important.

Doleva uses Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as an example. For years, parents visiting the Hall of Fame could tell their sons and daughters that Abdul-Jabbar was the greatest center ever. The kids could read the blurb about Abdul-Jabbar, see his photo, see some of the memorabilia connected to him, most likely lose interest and move along.

When the museum renovation is done, there will be an area on the second floor with four 55-inch touch-screen televisions. Now, tell your kids that Abdul-Jabbar is the greatest center ever and they’ll get a much different vision of what that means.  

“Those kids can walk up to this kiosk, punch in Kareem’s name and get the photograph and the two paragraphs,” Doleva said. “But then you can slide as you would on your phone and those kids can see Kareem playing at Power Memorial High School, not much older than the kids going through the museum. So when a parent says, ‘That’s the greatest center of all time,’ you can now see him play in high school, see him at UCLA, see him with the Bucks, with the Lakers, championships, breaking the scoring record. All that content is available now, it is a much deeper dive.”

Just when that dive will be available to the public remains in question. June 1 is the target but it could be later in June. And there is the upcoming summer enshrinement class, one of the biggest in the history of the Hall of Fame. The late Kobe Bryant will be the headliner—it figures to be an especially emotional weekend—but Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett and Tamika Catchings are on the list, too. It is scheduled for the weekend of August 28 and Doleva said the plan is still to have enshrinement as scheduled. There is a backup date in October, however, Doleva said.

All over basketball and elsewhere, it has been a difficult winter and spring. The Hall of Fame is still hoping for a memorable summer, though, one with a trove of new exhibits and, at long last, without a leaking roof.

“We’re going to be ready with a brand-new museum and the Class of 2020,” Doleva said. “We’re going to be in a very good position.”