ON THE SIDELINES : Ex-NBA Commissioner O’Brien Takes Name Off Hall of Fame List

Former National Basketball Assn. Commissioner Larry O’Brien has withdrawn his name from list of nominees for election to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

O’Brien, who served as president of the Hall of Fame in 1985 and 1986, said Monday night that his decision was in protest of the Hall of Fame’s secret elections.

The list of nominees is scheduled to be released tonight during the annual NBA benefit exhibition game here for the Hall of Fame.

O’Brien had been renominated after failing to get the 18 votes needed for enshrinement from the 24-member Honors Committee last year. The identity and vote of the Honors Committee have been kept secret since the hall’s inception in 1959. It has been only in the past three years that the list of candidates for election has been regularly made public.

Last year, Indiana University Coach Bobby Knight asked that the screening committee not consider his name for renomination after he failed to gain election the first year his name was proposed.