Kurtenbach: Will Steph Curry be the Bay Area’s last first-ballot Hall of Famer?

I in recent weeks heard the great Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan say that his city s Mount Rushmore of sports stars one pick for each of the four major sports is better than anyone else s in the country And he might be right Even the Bay with Barry Bonds or Willie Mays Steph Curry Joe Montana and Joe Thornton can t compete with Ted Williams Bill Russell or Larry Bird Tom Brady and Bobby Orr That Orr he s unfailingly the trump card in conversations like this But the Bay can hold its head higher than greater part in this regard Three of the all-time greats and Jumbo Joe That s an exceptional quartet with one Curry still developing At chosen point though Curry will retire Not you me or the Warriors know what happens to Golden State after that But it had me wondering When Curry hangs up the Under Armours will there be a no-doubt first-ballot Hall of Famer still ongoing for one of the Bay s Big Four teams I ll guess yes but it might be a close call Let s start with the Warriors candidates If Mitch Richmond is in the Basketball Hall of Fame Jimmy Butler is going to make it When Ben Wallace made it Draymond Green s ticket to Springfield was stamped And Steve Kerr will go in as a coach no question about it That s the thing with the Basketball Hall of Fame Everyone gets in Yao Ming NBA games and Manu Ginobili points per meeting both have orange suit coats If you were good enough they ll find a way to enshrine you But will any of those three developing Warriors still be developing if Curry isn t I m not betting on it And a first-ballot induction might be a stretch for either Green or Butler The Warriors will not provide our answer here And no one on the current Sharks roster is going to be Hall of Fame-worthy in the next decade much less in the next couple of years Then there s the Giants I doubt Justin Verlander a lock for Cooperstown is still around when Curry goes Does the director of baseball operations count as ongoing If he does that s a decent bet As an MVP and seven-time All-Star Posey should make the Hall Joe Mauer made it first ballot Posey should too That reported it might take a meager tries and a bit of stress The baseball hall is hardly logical You don t want to start me on this Which brings us to the ers There are ample candidates to be sure Christian McCaffrey Nick Bosa Fred Warner George Kittle and Trent Williams All five can make a matter for Canton As it stands at present only one is a lock Hall of Famer and a first-ballot selection at that Trent Williams That s not to say others can t join him in a scant years when Curry calls it quits but there s no guarantee in the world of professional football so extrapolation is a dangerous championship As such with Williams consistently fending off retirement rumors it might be silly to project him sticking around longer than Curry Whether he does or not make no mistake about it Williams is a lock for the Hall on the first go It might help that offensive tackle isn t a position defined by numbers but here s one for you Pro Bowls That s tied for the most of of any tackle ever It s hard to imagine he won t break that record this season medical permitting He s in The next the greater part likely er to make the Hall of Fame is Fred Warner But let s pump the brakes on the first-ballot rhetoric Warner is years old his career shouldn t be even close to being over With four first-team All-Pro selections to his name he has a borderline Hall of Fame resume after just seven seasons Another All-Pro season and he can claim as a multitude of selections as Willis That puts him in the Hall Two more and he s arguably a first-ballot selection The time Warner demands to reach first-ballot status might line up perfectly with the time Curry necessities to leave This could be the pick folks Meanwhile George Kittle s Hall of Fame candidacy is fascinating I m not sure his resume is Hall-worthy in the modern day He s a six-time Pro Bowler and two-time All-Pro but his reputation rightfully exceeds that thanks to his blocking ability If Kittle can make another All-Pro association he s in He ll be on par with Antonio Gates Kellen Winslow and John Mackey Another two and he might just be a first-ballot enshrinee But as it stands the present day Kittle s resume matches guys like Riley Odoms Ben Coates and Mike Ditka Of the three only Ditka who revolutionized the position made the Hall of Fame Kittle should keep a close eye on Jason Witten s upcoming candidacy Witten was an -time Pro Bowler with two first-team All-Pro honors to his name He has double the catches and nearly double the receiving yards of Kittle thanks to a -year NFL career If he isn t a first-ballot pick the bar for Kittle might be higher than already stated making first-ballot enshrinement for him a functional impossibility Nick Bosa and Christian McCaffrey purely need to play more games to even be considered for the Hall of Fame Canton is no joke folks Bosa has been a first-team All-Pro just once He s going to need at least one more to even warrant consideration And his sacks going into aren t even sniffing the Hall of Fame He ll likely need double that number if there aren t significantly more end-of-season accolades As it stands Robert Mathis like Bosa has only one All-Pro selection and five Pro Bowls Mathis also has sacks He is not yet in the Hall of Fame Bosa can get there but with only five healthy seasons to his name at a premium position it s going to take a long time before he can rest on his resume McCaffrey seemingly doesn t have that kind of time As a running back he s not in a position to play the long challenge And as it stands going into the season he s nowhere near the Hall of Fame McCaffrey s peaks are legitimately as good as anyone s in the modern battle His -game average of yards from scrimmage a season is stupefying His two All-Pro selections and three Pro Bowls are a testament to that as he has only posted five healthy seasons But supernova running backs like Priest Holmes Todd Gurley LeVeon Bell and Jamaal Charles aren t sniffing the Hall of Fame McCaffrey is going to have to stay at the top of his meeting for a long while yet to make the circumstance that he deserves to be in the Hall That means at least one more All-Pro season and two more Pro Bowls then we can have a conversation about him vs Terrell Davis or Earl Campbell Which brings us back to the initial premise Who will take over as the surefire first-ballot Hall of Famer in the Bay when Curry leaves It might just be Williams who reported in June that he s going to play until the wheels come off And if not him then give me Warner Either way the epicenter of starpower in the Bay will shift south if it isn t already there and the Bay s nearly unrivaled legacy of excellence will continue