Every year about this time, when the NBA starts dribbling and shooting for real, the juices flow again for Charlie Ezrine, just like they did all those years ago. But then, with the arrival of spring, his hopes are dashed — just like they too often were all those years ago.

The difference now is that Ezrine’s hopes are not tied to the fate of his favorite team, the Baltimore Bullets, who staged all those classic battles with the New York Knicks.

Rather, they center around his favorite player, Gus “Honeycomb” Johnson, and a passionate desire to see him enshrined in the Basketball Hall Of Fame.

The problem, it seems, is that Gus’ career was the mirror image of his life. Both were far too short.

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A pair of balky knees reduced his playing career to a mere 10 years, but that seemed like an eternity compared to the brain tumor that took his life at the age of 48 in 1987.

To say that “The Honeycomb Man” was ahead of his time is like saying Oscar Robertson was a good ball-handler or Jerry West a good jump-shooter. Before cable television, ESPN and the plays of the day, Johnson was a human highlight film. Before Dr. J, before Magic, before the Sky Hook, there was Gus, a flying specimen who played above the rim before it became popular.

The truth be told, by the tape measure Johnson came up short when measured against power forwards, coming in a shade under 6 feet 6 inches. But he played much taller, much tougher and with much more finesse than you might imagine. Dave DeBusschere, who engaged him in many hand-to-hand confrontations that could only be described as ferocious, called Gus “one of the most tenacious competitors ever to play the game.”

Even though he played in five All-Star games, made the All-NBA Second Team four times and twice was named to the All-Defensive Team, Johnson always has flown under the radar in comparison to the game’s greats.

“He’s been nominated [for the Hall of Fame] and made it to the final group a couple of times,” said Ezrine. “But it seems like he’s been forgotten, which is a shame. Gus was here for nine years, longer than anybody, and without trying to make comparisons, when you talked about basketball players around Baltimore, people talked about him the way they talked about Brooks Robinson in baseball and Johnny Unitas in football. Gus was the man when it came to basketball.”

Ezrine and others, like former sportswriter Seymour Smith, have renewed hopes for Johnson’s Hall Of Fame candidacy. Those who saw him play may have a hard time believing it, but it’s been 35 years since Gus played his last game — the seventh game of an ABA championship series, when he helped his first pro coach, Bob Leonard, win a second straight title.

For a player to be considered by the Basketball Hall Of Fame’s Veterans Committee, his career had to end 35 years before his nomination. Now, instead of competing against players from the cable era, Johnson will be weighed against those of his own era, like DeBusschere, who have already been enshrined.

“Wes Unseld and Earl Monroe have been outspoken in their support of Gus,” said Ezrine, who, along with those two Hall Of Fame teammates, spoke at Johnson’s funeral. “Maybe now that he can be considered by the Veterans Committee there will be others.”

One of the drawbacks for Johnson, probably even more important than the length of his career, is that he doesn’t come with a college All-America pedigree.

He played one year at Boise Junior College and another year at Idaho before being drafted in the second round by the Bullets in 1963.

The Basketball Hall Of Fame encompasses all facets of the game, amateur and professional, and includes players, coaches and contributors in addition to six teams that have been honored. There are 134 players enshrined — the same number as coaches (80) and contributors (54) combined.

Nominations are open from Oct. 1 until Dec. 2 each year. Ezrine, who now lives in Florida, isn’t giving up hope. Gus Johnson was way ahead of his time, which tells you all you really need to know. Let the bandwagon roll.

A Baltimore native who has covered the local and national sports scene for more than 40 years, Jim Henneman is a past president of the Baseball Writers Association of America and an active voter for baseball's Hall Of Fame. His column also appears weekly in Press Box. He can be reached at sportscoper@aol.com.