VALENCIA (Jeff Taylor's Eurovision) - Something left me with a big grin on my face on Friday. I discovered the make-up of the next induction class for the FIBA Hall of Fame. There are some real giants being recognized.

A couple of the inductees - Phi Slamma Jamma and Houston Rockets legend Hakeem Olajuwon and Greece great Panagiotis Fasoulas - were literally giants on the court. Each measured 2.13m in height.

Everyone remembers Olajuwon as a graceful yet powerful, athletic, dominating center who shot to prominence in American college basketball with the Houston Cougars. His teams didn't win an NCAA crown, losing in the 1983 Final to NC State and the 1984 title game to Georgetown, but the Nigerian-born Olajuwon did get two NBA championships with the Houston Rockets and also an Olympic gold medal with the USA in 1996.

Fasoulas shot to prominence in American college basketball's Atlantic Coast Conference when he played for NC State coach Jim Valvano for one year, 1985-86. His biggest moment, certainly from an international basketball standpoint, came in the summer of 1987 when he helped Greece beat Yugoslavia in the Semi-Finals and the Soviet Union in the Final at the EuroBasket in Athens.

Other former players heading into the Hall of Fame are Spain and Barcelona legend, Juan Antonio San Epifanio, Mexico great Manuel Raga and magnificent Michele Timms of Australia.

I had a chance to congratulate Timms on Sunday when I saw her in Nantes, France, where she is an assistant coach for the China national team at the FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament (WOQT).

The news that some truly great players are going into the FIBA Hall of Fame got me to thinking. Which players competing in the Olympic Qualifying Tournaments (OQTs) this summer or the Rio Games are near certainties to make it to the FIBA Hall of Fame?

Pau Gasol is dead certainty. The 2006 FIBA Basketball World Cup Most Valuable Player, Gasol was also EuroBasket 2009 MVP and more recently, EuroBasket 2015 MVP. The two-time NBA champion helped his national team qualify for Rio with last year's tremendous effort. His performances are always unforgettable.

Tony Parker of France? He's a lock. The EuroBasket's all-time leading scorer, Parker was the MVP of the competition in 2013. He led France to qualification for the 2012 Olympics and will try to get Les Bleus to Brazil by playing at the OQT (5-10 July) in the Philippines.

Luis Scola is a lock for the FIBA Hall of Fame. Four times in his famous career, the Argentina star has been the FIBA Americas Championship MVP. Games like last year's triumph over hosts Mexico in the Semi-Finals, a win that qualified Scola's team for Rio, are the norm for the great one.

Diana Taurasi is just amazing, the greatest player there has ever been in the women's game in my opinion. She'll play for the United States for a fourth straight Olympics this summer.

Taurasi, who turned 34 on Saturday, has been sensational in the WNBA but also with her clubs in Europe. She recently led UMMC Ekaterinburg to EuroLeague Final Four glory. I would not bet against Taurasi playing at the Summer Games in Tokyo, either.

Penny Taylor will play at her third Olympics for Australia in Rio. The MVP of the 2006 FIBA Women's World Championship, Taylor is a long-time star in the WNBA and in Europe.

She was robbed of an appearance at the London Games after tearing her ACL at the EuroLeague Women Final Eight several months before. If she is anything close to the form that we saw her in two years ago at the World Championship in Turkey, the Opals are going to be tough in Brazil.

Jeff Taylor

FIBA

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