Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo and Lansing Sexton alumni Denzel and Drew Valentine were inducted into the Greater Lansing Sports Hall of Fame on Thursday, Aug. 20, at the Lansing Center, WLNS reported.

The three were part of the hall’s 50th anniversary class, which also included Dave Allen, John Holms, Debbie Kent, Cortney Scott and the 1999 Okemos softball team. The induction ceremony and dinner began at 4:30 p.m.

The Valentine brothers’ induction came one year after their father, Carlton Valentine, entered the hall. Carlton coached both sons at Lansing Sexton, where each earned first-team all-state honors. He was photographed chatting with Izzo before the Aug. 20 ceremony.

Denzel Valentine led Sexton to three consecutive Class B state final appearances and back-to-back state championships in 2011 and 2012. He went on to play at Michigan State from 2012 to 2016, helping the Spartans reach the Final Four during the 2014-15 season and earning Associated Press National Player of the Year honors as a senior.

The Chicago Bulls selected Valentine 14th overall in the 2016 NBA draft. He has since continued his professional career overseas and was preparing for another season in Italy, according to the Lansing State Journal.

In an Aug. 18 interview with the Lansing State Journal, Denzel said Sexton’s back-to-back titles remain the accomplishment he is most proud of, noting the school had gone roughly 50 or 60 years without a state championship before those runs.

Drew Valentine played four seasons at Oakland University under Greg Kampe and was the winningest player in program history at the time of his graduation. He helped Oakland win two Summit League titles and reach two NCAA tournaments.

Drew then spent two seasons as a graduate assistant under Izzo at Michigan State from 2013 to 2015. He later coached at Oakland and Loyola University Chicago before being promoted to Loyola’s head coaching job at age 29, making him the youngest Division I head coach at the time. He enters his sixth season leading the Ramblers.

“It’s amazing that I was an outsider coming in here and the city has embraced me,” Izzo told the Lansing State Journal in an interview published Aug. 19. “It isn’t just your school, it’s the people and the community you live in, so it really does mean a lot more to me in a lot of ways.”

Izzo’s connection to the Valentine family stretches back decades. Carlton Valentine was the first recruit Izzo helped secure after joining Michigan State as a graduate assistant under Jud Heathcote in the early 1980s.

Izzo’s Michigan State career includes eight Final Four appearances, a national championship and induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016.

James Sinadinos, 93, one of the inaugural Greater Lansing Sports Hall of Fame inductees, also attended the ceremony. Sinadinos won the 1956 NCAA Division I 137-pound wrestling championship at Michigan State.