There are two shots in the history of the NBA that have never been duplicated. One is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s sky hook. The other is Dr. Dick Barnett’s upward legs, downward kick while shooting his overhead, southpaw jumper. Now, the two odd shooting ball players have one more thing in common. Both are members of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as Barnett — the Knicks’ Barnett — is going in with the latest group which includes Vince Carter, Jerry West for the third time (player, member of the 1960 U.S. Olympic team and now as a contributor) and former Piston Chauncey Billips, among others. Dick Barnett of the New York Knicks shoots a jump shot against the Baltimore Bullets during an NBA basketball game circa 1970 at the Baltimore Civic Center in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images) The induction ceremony in Springfield, Mass., was originally scheduled for August but was moved to next weekend due to the 2024 Paris Olympics. Barnett played 14 years in the NBA with his last nine on the Knicks. He was on the two Knicks championship teams in 1970 (as a starter) and 1973 (off the bench) behind Earl Monroe. Just so Knick fans remember how good those teams were, eight members are in the Hall of Fame: Walt Frazier, Willis Reed, Earl Monroe, Dave DeBusschere, Bill Bradley, Jerry Lucas, coach Red Holzman and now Barnett. He also won a championship with the Cleveland Pipers of the old American Basketball League (ABL) owned by one George M. Steinbrenner. “Let’s just say George was a revelation,” Barnett once told me. Barnett had an illustrious career outside of basketball receiving his master’s from NYU in public administration and his doctorate from Fordham University in education and communications. He taught at St. John’s University among other colleges. He also was the force behind getting his three-time NAIA championship Tennessee A&I University Tigers (now Tennessee State) inducted into the Hall. He was the focus of the documentary “The Dream Whisperer” which chronicled his effort and battle to get his college team recognized and honored. Whispers started gaining traction early last year on who would be in the Hall of Fame class of 2024. Jerry West’s name sneaked out first, then Vince Carter, but Barnett’s name came out in a circuitous way. The names were supposed to be kept quiet until Final Four Weekend. Jerry Colangelo, the chairman of the Hall of Fame, made the call to Barnett in Florida. Former Knick Tom Hoover was visiting and accepted the call. Colangelo told them not to tell anyone, but Hoover asked if he could tell Monroe, and he said sure. “I guess I shouldn’t have told them anything,” lamented Hoover who played for the Knicks from 1963-65. The New York Knicks starting five, from left, Dick Barnett, Walt Frazier, Bill Bradley, Dave DeBusschere and Willis Reed rejoice in the dressing room after winning the NBA Eastern Division title against the Milwaukee Bucks on April 21, 1970. (Dan Farrell / New York Daily News) As if drawn up by Holzman himself, the passing of the announcement went from Colangelo to Barnett, Barnett to Hoover, Hoover to Monroe, Monroe to Frazier and Frazier to the world as he told the MSG viewers last spring as the Knicks lost to the Heat. When asked if he had any clean stories about Barnett for The News, Hoover simply replied, “No.” He let out that booming laugh of his and spoke about his old friend. “We were traded for each other,” noted Hoover. He went to the Lakers and Barnett to Gotham though Hoover never played for the Purple and Gold. Barnett owned a night club in L.A. where all the Motown acts performed, and Hoover had no stories to share about that either. “It was wild. “But Dick was a good ball player, and this award is long overdue.” Barnett and six of his teammates from the three-peating Tigers (Dick was MVP twice during their championship run) were honored at the White House on Saturday, April 5 with a tour and a meet and greet with Vice President Kamala Harris. “I want to tell her my team and I deserved this honor,” he said. He had one hell of a week stopping at the White House and then with the Hall of Fame announcement. Like West, Barnett is now a multi-category Hall of Famer: an inductee with the all-Black HBCU Tennessee A&I team and now as a player. Don’t forget, he was inducted into the Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007, and his retired No. 12 has been hanging from the Madison Square Garden rafters since 1990. Barnett would do whatever he could to spread the word on education and what he’s been up to lately. He wanted to come on my WFAN radio show one Saturday night to talk education and hoops. I told him I’d love to have him on, but I didn’t have a budget for a car to go get him. He said no worries. “I’ll be there,” he said, and he came on Feb. 23, 2019. When the interview was over, off he went into the Saturday night darkness – by himself. He always called my house and stated firmly, asking for “Tony Paige!” much to my wife’s chagrin (“Can’t he say hello?”), but he was always talking education and its importance. He has authored 23 books including “The Funky Jockstrap.” Former basketball player and New York Knicks legend Dick Barnett is pictured at Walt Frazier’s Wine and Dine Restaurant at 485 10th Ave. in Manhattan on Saturday, May 18, 2019. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News) Born in Gary, Ind.,, the same hometown of Michael Jackson and his siblings, the 88-year-old Barnett (he even played for the old Syracuse Nationals now the Philadelphia 76ers) is finally getting his due. He told me once how amazed he was about the current NBA. “When I played a technical foul was twenty-five dollars,” he stated, “Now, a tech is twenty-five thousand. Guess that’s that new math.” Asked if it had hit him that he was going into the Hall, he answered very nonchalantly, “I knew that I deserve to be in the Hall because I kicked ass.” “My game was playing basketball,” he stressed as three of his college teammates laughed in the background at a dinner in D.C. the night before the White House visit, He was holding court. Two more team members were on their way. “I was on the basketball court every morning at 7:00 am. “It’s been 65 years, and the work paid off.” Nicknamed “Skull” and possessing the sleepiest of eyelids, Barnett was coached in college and at Cleveland by Hall of Famer John McClendon. He is proud of his work ethic and results on and off the court. Barnett had a single-mindedness that will be hard to surpass. While his high school prom was going on, for example, he was raining jumpers in the dark. Basketball was his life at that juncture. Like another Hall of Famer, nothing kept them from their game. “Dick and Elgin [Baylor] used to shovel snow off the court,” recalled Hoover, Barnett in Indiana and Baylor in D.C. “They both did that so they could play all day and all night.” And about that odd-looking, funky jumper, Barnett always said, “Fall Back Baby!” after he let it fly, right? “[Lakers announcer] Chick Hearn stole it from me,” declared Skull. “I didn’t copyright it and besides, that was the sanitized version.” Congrats Dr. Dick! The work you put in has definitely paid off.