Jackson won nine NBA championships as a coach - tying Red Auerbach for the record - and one more as a player. But it was with the New York Knicks in their championship season of 1969-70, when Jackson was recovering from spinal fusion surgery, that he found his future calling.

Soaking up knowledge from his Hall of Fame mentor, Jackson developed the approach that allowed him to integrate lesser talents into a team with stars like Jordan and O'Neal.

"He treated the superstars and the role players in very much the same manner," said the Los Angeles Lakers' coach, who was using a cane because of offseason surgery to replace his left hip. "Everybody has to be treated with respect. But everybody has to be treated as individuals."

Jackson was inducted into the Springfield shrine on Friday night along with North Carolina coach Roy Williams; the 1966 NCAA champion Texas Western team; four-time WNBA championship coach Van Chancellor, the longtime women's coach at Mississippi recently hired by LSU; former NBA referee Mendy Rudolph; and international coaches Pedro Ferrandiz of Spain and Mirko Novosel of Yugoslavia.

Former USA Today, Chicago Tribune and New York Times writer Malcom Moran and longtime Phoenix Suns broadcaster Al McCoy were honored with the Curt Gowdy Media Award. Dikembe Mutombo was the first recipient of the Mannie Jackson-Basketball's Human Spirit Award, named for the Harlem Globetrotters chairman and given for using basketball to help the community.

Texas Western was the first team in NCAA history to win a title with five black players, beating an all-white Kentucky team in the 1966 final. The achievement is considered a turning point in the integration of college athletics, and it was the subject of the movie "Glory Road."

"Our only purpose was to be the best team in the country," said captain Harry Flournoy, who spoke on behalf of the team. "We didn't have a social agenda. But God had an agenda, and he chose us to open doors - not only for black people, but for all people who had doors shut in their face."

Phil Jackson credited Holzman for teaching him to coach, and called his time with Johnny Bach and Tex Winter as assistants under Doug Collins in Chicago, "graduate school in basketball." But asked if Jordan was the reason he was in Springfield on Friday, Jackson said, "Yes, it is."

"It was the result, of course, of the magnificent play of Michael Jordan, who had the insight to incorporate his teammates, those lesser angels, into his realm," Jackson said in his speech.

Williams didn't have a single to player to thank as much as a whole team. The longtime Kansas coach took the Jayhawks to the Final Four times but didn't win it all until he went to his alma mater and won the NCAA championship in 2005.