Hall of Fame Class of 2020: The case for Jason Sawinski
Sawinski (holding trophy) with the Detroit Pistons after winning the 2019 Winter Shelby Vet League
Every week leading up to the reveal of the nominees for the Class of 2020 for the Ultimate Hoops Hall of Fame, we’ll feature a possible candidate for the upcoming induction class. None of these articles will focus on anyone who has already been nominated for the Hall of Fame but has yet to be inducted. If you want to learn more about those candidates, you can visit the Hall of Fame section of our blog.
Today we’re focusing on UH Detroit veteran Jason Sawinski.
The case for Sawinski
The first thing that stands out about Sawinski’s resume is the 17 championships he’s won. That’s tied for fifth all-time in UH, and he only trails Mckinsey Golfin (20) and Joe Kassis (18) in UH Detroit. He has two more titles than Vaughan Gray and six more than Johnnie Brown, who are both already in the Hall of Fame. Championships aren’t the end-all, be-all for deciding who gets inducted, but they’re clearly paramount for being considered, and when you can count the amount of people that have more titles than you on one hand, you deserve to be in the conversation.
These weren’t championships that Sawinski didn’t contribute to either. Sawinski has put up career averages of 17 points and 6.6 rebounds, while shooting 53% from the field and 35% from deep.
Sawinski also has had to occasionally win those titles going up against the three Hall of Famers in Detroit. He has often played alongside Golfin, winning 11 championships with him, and he’s added four with Gray. Plenty of those titles have come against Brown’s YLie in the Shelby Open League or against his Golden State Warriors in the Shelby Vet League.
Sawinski has also had success in both the open and vet leagues in Shelby, winning multiple titles in each league. He’s won 10 open titles and seven vet titles.
The case against Sawinski
A big reason why Golfin, Gray and Brown have been inducted is their vast experience at national tournaments. Those three have 71 national tournament games played between the three of them, and while they haven’t won a title, they’ve each put up impressive numbers at the most competitive stage UH has to offer. Sawinski has never played in a national tournament, which is a little surprising because of how many teams he’s played on with Golfin in the past. There are plenty of reasons why people can’t play in national tournaments, so playing in them is seen more as a boost for me rather than a negative if someone never plays in them. They do become a serious equalizer when considering Hall of Fame candidacy though, so having no experience at that level can be tough when being compared to the true elites of Ultimate Hoops.
Another thing that will hurt Sawinski is the lack of games he has in recent years. Since the Spring of 2017, he has played in one season (the 2019 Shelby Vet League, which, to his credit, he won the championship). That’s one season since the Hall of Fame started. We try to avoid recency bias as much as possible, but it becomes harder to consider someone who doesn’t play consistently and is not adding to their resume. It doesn’t make it impossible to get in, it just makes it harder.