DENVER — Adrian Dantley doesn't understand.

He feels he deserves to have his name honored among the rest, feels he belongs.

And, no, he is not talking about having his number retired by the Jazz. That's another tale, tired but worth re-visiting in a while. Rather, the immediate issue is induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

"At this point now," Dantley said Friday, "I don't even try to figure it out."

On Sunday, the hall will announce finalists for its Class of 2005.

First-year eligible candidates likely will include former NBA stars Dominique Wilkins and Joe Dumars, University of North Carolina coach Roy Williams and WNBA coach Van Chancellor. Repeat candidates could include Bernard King (whose Jazz stint was limited to 19 games in the 1979-80 season), ex-coach and current ESPN broadcaster Dick Vitale, and college coaches Jim Boeheim, Jim Calhoun and Eddie Sutton.

Then there is Dantley, the ex-Jazz star now employed as a Denver Nuggets assistant coach.

To him, Sunday is no big deal.

"I've been a finalist," he said. "It's just a matter of getting in."

Will it be soon?

Will it be later, after the inevitable first-ballot induction of now-retired Jazz stars John Stockton and Karl Malone?

Will it ever be?

Dantley saw last year's class — Drazen Dalipagic, Clyde Drexler, Maurice Stokes and Lynette Woodard were the players inducted — and wondered what he's done wrong.

"I look at the people who are in there — it gets kind of frustrating," said Dantley, who tonight will be part of the Detroit Pistons' three-person entry in the NBA All-Star Weekend's Shooting Stars contest. "Last year, the guys that were in it . . . I don't know what people really look at."

Dantley — a six-time All-Star, with all six appearances coming during a 1979-86 tenure when he scored 13,625 points for the Jazz — makes a case for himself like someone who has had the matter on his mind.

"You've got a lot of guys in the Hall of Fame," he said, "and they didn't all play well at every level.

"Look at what I've done in high school, college and pros . . . When I retired, I was the ninth-leading all-time scorer . . . What is the Hall of Fame all about? If you're talking about the way you conduct yourself off the court, it's a no-brainer. I've never been in any trouble."

Dantley doesn't get it, just like a man who prided himself on discipline and physical conditioning doesn't always get some of what today's generation of kids do.

"Me personally, I don't like earrings. But last week, my wife told me my son's got an earring," he said. "Granted, I'm in Denver; he's at a prep school in New Hampshire. But if he had been home, that would have never happened.