For 12 seasons during the Larry Bird era, Boston Garden was sold out for every game as he treated fans to clutch shots and eye-opening passes.

In more than 12,000 games, Marques Haynes of the Harlem Globetrotters and Harlem Magicians dazzled crowds in 106 countries with his dribbling and showmanship.

Entertainers of different eras, Bird and Haynes were named to basketball's Hall of Fame on Monday, along with one player, Arnie Risen, and coaches Alex Hannum, Jody Conradt and Aleksandar Nikolic.

Bird was elected in his first year of eligibility, having been retired for five years. Haynes, who graduated from college 33 years before Bird, was named in the first year he was nominated.

Both had a knack for thrilling fans and winning games.

"I don't think there's anybody who didn't admire what he (Bird) did," said Conradt, who will begin her 23rd season at Texas as the winningest women's coach in history. "You can't love the game of basketball and not love the way he played the game with passion and intensity and success."

He took Indiana State to the 1979 NCAA finals, then led the NBA into an era of unprecedented popularity and the Boston Celtics to three NBA titles in a 13-year career filled with awards, but cut short by back problems.

He was rookie of the year in 1980, a two-time finals MVP, three-time regular-season MVP and 12-time All-Star.

Need a steal? He had more than any Celtics player since the statistic was first kept in 1973-74. A game-winning shot? Bird had plenty of those, too. And with the Indiana Pacers, he was coach of the year last season.

He seemed to take it all in stride, just as he reacted calmly to his widely anticipated election. He and Risen bring to 25 the number of Celtics elected to basketball's shrine in Springfield, Mass.

The Pacers released a statement in which Bird called his election "a great honor." He said he hoped his teammates and coaches from high school, college and the pros all share in it.

"This is as much a team accomplishment as an individual accomplishment," his statement said. He planned a news conference for today in Indianapolis.

Haynes joined the Globetrotters in 1947 before blacks played in the NBA. He likened such teams to basketball's version of baseball's Negro Leagues, which had outstanding players who weren't fully appreciated in their playing days.

"We had not only great ballhandlers, showmen, comedians, but we had some great basketball players," said Haynes, who runs a business in Dallas. "You had to have great basketball players to beat all comers."

The Globetrotters beat the NBA's Minneapolis Lakers in 1948 and 1949 and held their own against a group of college all-stars in a series of games in 1950. Like the Magicians formed by Haynes in 1953 after a contract dispute, the Globetrotters were known primarily for on-court hijinks that had fans laughing and the opponent invariably losing.

Another crowd-pleasing star, Magic Johnson, lost his chance to be elected this year when he ended 4{ years of retirement by returning to the Los Angeles Lakers on Jan. 29, 1996. He won't be eligible until 2002.

Bird will be the focus of the induction ceremony Oct. 2 in Springfield.

"Going in with Bird is special but, at the same time, it would have been great just going in with any of the players who were considered the great ones," Haynes said.

He's also going in with Hannum, the coach of a team some consider the greatest ever -- the 1967 NBA champion Philadelphia 76ers led by Wilt Chamberlain.

"The fact that I had the honor to coach that team is the reason I'm in the Hall of Fame," Hannum said. "It's a tremendous honor. It's something you can only dream about."

He also coached the St. Louis Hawks to the 1958 NBA title and the Oakland Oaks to the 1969 ABA championship in a 16-year pro coaching career.

Conradt has spent 29 years as a head coach, starting at Sam Houston State in 1969 when women's basketball was a minor sport.

"If I had dreamed every dream imaginable, I could not think this could be a reality," she said of her election. "It's just amazing to me the whole process by which women's basketball has claimed credibility."

Risen, 6-foot-9 and about 200 pounds, was a strong rebounder in a 13-year career starting with Indianapolis of the National Basketball League in 1945-46. He moved to Rochester of the NBA in 1947-48 and spent his last three seasons in Boston.

Nikolic began coaching the Yugoslavian national team in 1953 and led it to two silver medals and a bronze in European Championships in the 1960s. He also was a successful coach in Italy.

Last week, Lenny Wilkens joined John Wooden as the only two-time inductees. Already in as a player, Wilkens was honored as a coach.

Nominees not selected were: Larry Costello, Adrian Dantley, Artis Gilmore, Gus Johnson, Sidney Moncrief, Chet Walker, coaches John Thompson and Tex Winter, former Wayland Baptist women's coach Harley Redin, shoe company executive Grady Lewis and Ubiratan Pereira Maciel of Brazil.