Kevin Scarbinsky, long-time sports writer and columnist for The Birmingham News and AL.com, will be inducted next month into the United States Basketball Writers Association’s Hall of Fame.

Scarbinsky, who began writing for The News as an intern in 1984 and stayed on full-time until he retired from daily journalism in 2018, joins M.A. Voepel of ESPN, Carl Adamec of the Manchester (Conn.) Journal Inquirer, Seth Davis of The Athletic and CBS Sports, Lesley Visser of the Boston Globe and CBS Sports, the late Bob Logan of the (Chicago) Daily Herald and Chicago Tribune, and the late Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated, CBS Sports and Fox Sports as part of the USBWA Hall of Fame Class of 2023. A five-time USBWA writing contest winner, Scarbinsky will be inducted at a luncheon in Houston on April 3, the day of the NCAA tournament championship game.

“It’s incredibly humbling when you look at the names of the people that are in the USBWA Hall of Fame and the others that are being inducted this year,” Scarbinsky said. “It’s a pretty elite roster of talent and to be included is just amazing. I really am blown away.”

Scarbinsky began writing about basketball in Alabama for The News during the mid-1980s glory days, when Alabama, Auburn, UAB and South Alabama were perennial conference-championship contenders and regular presences in the NCAA tournament. Among many other career highlights, he covered Auburn’s run to the Elite Eight in 1986, and on back-to-back days in 2004 witnessed Alabama’s victory over No. 1 seed Stanford in Seattle and UAB’s last-minute win over No. 1 overall seed Kentucky in Columbus, Ohio.

A native of Pottsville, Pa., and a graduate of Troy University who attended graduate school at the University of Florida, Scarbinsky became a full-time columnist for The News in 1990. He now works as communications director for the Coach Safely Foundation, but returned to AL.com on a part-time basis in 2022 as statewide sports columnist for The Lede, a daily online subscription newspaper.

According to the USBWA’s Hall of Fame Class of 2023 announcement, Scarbinsky’s writing on basketball “created a greater understanding of the game to a part of the country obsessing about football.” The 2023 inductees are considered “pioneers, mentors and exemplary examples of basketball journalism among their peers.”

Scarbinsky shares a birthday (Aug. 18) with both legendary UAB coach Gene Bartow and his son (and also UAB coach) Murry, and joked that perhaps he was destined to write about basketball in Birmingham. The announcement of his USBWA Hall of Fame election comes in the same week that Birmingham will host UAB in the NIT at Bartow Arena on Tuesday and both Alabama and Auburn in the NCAA tournament at Legacy Arena on Thursday (and possibly Saturday).

“I’ve loved basketball my whole life, played it as long as my talent allowed,” Scarbinsky said. “And then to be able to cover it in a state that is known primarily for football but has been great in basketball for a long time and has been one of the great untold stories outside the state; but we — and not just me — have told that story well and fully for a long, long time. It’s great to see people recognize that now with the NCAA tournament being in Birmingham this week, with Alabama and Auburn here this week, with UAB playing in the NIT.

“I already had an incredible bounce in my step. I don’t know what the level is above ‘Cloud 9,’ but that’s where you can find me right now.”

Scarbinsky and his wife, Cynthia, reside in Corner. They have two sons, 20-year-old Kaiser, a student at the University of Florida; and 18-year-old Kanon, a senior at Corner High School.