When Shaquille O'Neal is inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in September, he will become the third former Miami Heat player enshrined, following Gary Payton and Alonzo Mourning.
With this past week's retirement of Amar'e Stoudemire and amid the ongoing uncertainty with Chris Bosh and his blood clots, two question marks could soon follow for the franchise.
Based on Basketball Reference's predictive model, Bosh has a 99.51-percent probability of being enshrined even if he doesn't play another game. Two championships and 10 All-Star invitations carry such sway. Every player who has been selected to double-digit All-Star Games and has been Hall eligible already has a plaque in Springfield, Mass.
It is another of the reasons why some question what Bosh has left to prove, as he deals with what has stood as a life-threatening issue at least once.
Stoudemire, at least by Basketball Reference's modeling, might have been correct, as well, when he predicted his Hall coronation.
While Bosh ranks ninth among active players in Basketball Reference's modeling for Hall probability, Stoudemire ranks 19th, just behind James Harden, just ahead of Joe Johnson, with a 72.93-percent probability of a Springfield moment of his own.
But Stoudemire's ranking at No. 95 among all-time players with his .7293 probability has his career accomplishments placing him ahead of more than 35 players in the modeling already in the Hall, including fellow big men Nate Thurmond, Artis Gilmore, Walt Bellamy, Wes Unseld and Bill Walton.
While the Basketball Hall of Fame has no formal team designation when a player is enshrined, as is the case with the busts at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, Mourning to this point stands as the lone player enshrined primary for a body of work with the Heat. Payton will forever be linked with his time with the Seattle SuperSonics, just as Stoudemire will be viewed as a Phoenix Sun (no matter the somewhat awkward decision to retire after signing a ceremonial contract with the New York Knicks).
With both Bosh and Stoudemire, the time lost to injury (Stoudemire) or illness (Bosh) figures to be excused. Stoudemire ended his career with 846 career regular-season games, with Bosh currently at 893. By comparison, Mourning made it with 838 such games, Walton just 468. The unforgiving nature of the game and of life have long been accepted parts of the Springfield equation.
But with last season definitively now the last for Stoudemire and with this past season also possibly to have been the last for Bosh depending on the next round of medical opinion, there is another Hall factor in play when it comes to Springfield: the competition.
Already this offseason, the NBA has had the retirements of Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan, whose enshrinement probabilities per Basketball Reference are an inarguable 100 percent. Kevin Garnett could yet also step away from an emerging youthful power core with the Minnesota Timberwolves, another player with a 100-percent probability of enshrinement. Also unknown is the definitive playing fate for the upcoming season of Paul Pierce, who is listed at 99.99 percent for enshrinement by Basketball Reference. And all of this is with the impression that Vince Carter (94.55 percent) will continue on.
The Hall's Class of 2021 arguably could be the most impressive ever, eclipsing this year's class that includes Shaq and Allen Iverson.
It is a factor that almost assuredly would put Stoudemire on hold, and perhaps even Bosh, if that becomes his Hall class, as well.
Eventually, the Heat's Big Three will have their plaques in Springfield, with LeBron James and Dwyane Wade at 100 percent in Basketball Reference's modeling. Bosh's ticket assuredly already has been punched.
With Stoudemire, we're not as convinced, with so many of this generation's elite about to line up for a moment of their own, Ray Allen, Jason Kidd, Steve Nash, Grant Hill all surely more deserving among those already out of the game, perhaps Tim Hardaway and Shawn Marion, as well.
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