TRACY MCGRADY, the two-time NBA scoring champion and seven-time All Star who played for six seasons with the Rockets, was elected in his first season of eligibility for the Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday.

    McGrady played for six NBA teams, averaging 19.6 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4.4 rebounds in 15 NBA seasons before knee troubles that required microfracture surgery in 2009 plagued him through the final four seasons of his career.

    “I told Jerry (Colangelo) last night, when we were all meeting and there was a ring in this room. And I looked at this ring. And it was huge.” McGrady said

    “And I told them that I never won a championship. I never had the opportunity to play for a championship. But this is my championship. This is everything that I wanted to play for with this game that I love. Started at a young age. Today certified my basketball career, bar none.”

    Other inductees will be: Kansas coach Bill Self, UConn’s Rebecca Lobo, Notre Dame women’s coach Muffet McGraw, Fort Worth Dunbar coach Robert Hughes, Harlem Globetrotters owner Mannie Jackson, former NCAA executive Tom Jernstedt, Zack Clayton, European star Nikos Galis, former Bulls executive Jerry Krause and former ABA, NBA star George McGinnis.

    Former Rockets coach and player Rudy Tomjanovich, who was a finalist this year, will have to wait again.

    Tomjanovich had been widely supported by coaches not only for taking the Rockets to the 1994 and 1995 championships and the USA Basketball Men’s National Team to the 2000 Olympic gold medal, but also for his influential use of a range-shooting power forwards that helped change NBA offenses.

    Tomjanovich was the Rockets coach for 12 seasons, collecting 503 wins and 51 post-season victories, both more than twice as many as any other coach in Rockets history.

    “All I know is I’ve been so grateful to basketball for what it’s done for my life and all the joy and relationship,” Tomjanovich said. (SD-Agencies)