Most of Artis Gilmore’s contemporaries who will be in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame are in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. That it took Gilmore so long to join them has long been a mark against the secretive, bizarre Hall for years; the institution finally made things right and voted to induct the 7-foot mammoth in the 2011 class. He’ll make it official on Friday night at the official induction ceremony.
Artis Gilmore Ends (Too) Long Wait, Enters Basketball Hall Of Fame
Gilmore suffered the curse of the ABA. The first five seasons of Gilmore’s pro career came in the ABA instead of the NBA; he spent that time with the Kentucky Colonels, winning the league’s MVP, playoffs MVP and Rookie of the Year award in 1972. He made the All-Star team in every season he played in the ABA, and was rivaled only by Julius Erving in terms of all-time ABA dominance.
When the league's merged, Gilmore went to the Chicago Bulls as the No. 1 pick in the dispersal draft and, between his tenure there and with the San Antonio Spurs, he picked up six more All-Star berths. He finished top-10 in NBA MVP voting three times, but could never surpass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Moses Malone, Bill Walton or, during a brief overlap of careers, Elvin Hayes as the league's most dominant center. Had he entered the NBA in 1971 after leading Jacksonville University to the NCAA national championship game, the story might have been different.
Regardless, Gilmore belonged in the Hall all along, and even if it’s overdue it’s an honor well-deserved. To read more about Gilmore’s journey, I highly recommend Steve Aschburner’s profile from last spring.
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