[外電] 'Ultimate' highlight: Wilkins electe …
'Ultimate' highlight: Wilkins elected to Hall of Fame
By TIM TUCKER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/01/06
Dominique Wilkins, the Atlanta Hawks' all-time leading scorer and
an icon of Georgia sports, has been elected to the Basketball
Hall of Fame.
Wilkins has been informed of his election and has made plans to
be in Indianapolis for the formal announcement on Monday, several
people with knowledge of the situation said Friday.
Until Monday's announcement, Wilkins said with a smile, "mum's
the word."
For Wilkins, who electrified the city with his high-flying,
high-scoring style of play in the 1980s and early 1990s, Hall
of Fame election came in his second year of eligibility.
Despite being the ninth leading scorer in NBA history, he did
not receive the necessary 75 percent of votes from the selection
committee last year. That snub "shocked" Wilkins, he said at the
time, and angered Hawks fans and officials.
By contrast, Wilkins seemed joyous when spotted at Philips Arena
on Friday morning. He confirmed he'll be traveling on Sunday to
Indianapolis, where this year's Hall of Fame inductees will be
announced before the NCAA men's basketball championship game
on Monday.
"Two SEC teams in the Final Four — I've got to be there,"
Wilkins said, laughing.
As for his real reason for the trip, "Well, I can't talk about
it," Wilkins said. "Basically, they had told me when I was [named]
one of the finalists that if I made it, mum's the word."
But he left no doubt it'll mean just as much to him to enter the
Hall of Fame this year as it would have meant last year.
"It's the ultimate you can get as a player, anytime that you get
the opportunity," he said.
Friday night, Wilkins watched the Hawks-New Jersey game from his
courtside seat at Philips. He signed a few autographs, posed for
photos and refrained from further comment.
Known as "The Human Highlight Film" for his acrobatic array of
shots and dunks, Wilkins played for the Hawks from 1982 until
Feb. 24, 1994, when he was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers
in one of the most unpopular transactions in Atlanta sports
history.
Even before joining the Hawks, Wilkins, who was born in France
and attended high school in North Carolina, was well known to
local sports fans. He played his college ball at the University
of Georgia, where he still holds the school record for points
in a season.
As a Hawk, Wilkins was named to nine consecutive NBA All-Star
teams, won the league's slam dunk championship twice and led
the league in scoring in 1986 with an average of 30.3 points
per game. In franchise history, which includes the pre-Atlanta
years, he ranks first in points, second in steals, fifth in
blocked shots and sixth in assists. The Wilkins-led Hawks had
four consecutive seasons of 50-plus victories from 1986 through
1989 and made the playoffs in eight of his 11 full seasons on
the team.
"He was the unquestioned leader of the team for a very long
period of time," former Hawks president Stan Kasten said Friday.
"In addition to his statistics, he also was a showman, and that
was something very important to the franchise.
"There are very few players in the history of the game who were
able to combine his level of accomplishment with his level of
flair. And he also possessed the rarest of qualities,
particularly in the modern NBA: He was a guy who loved to play
the game — played as hard as he could every game in the 11[-plus]
years he played for us," Kasten said.
Current team officials were reluctant to comment Friday,
deferring to Monday's announcement. But part-owner Michael
Gearon Jr., a long-time fan and friend of Wilkins, did say:
"If he doesn't get in this year, we're going to close the
building."
The building will stay open.
Wilkins, a 6-foot-8 forward, played for four other NBA teams
after leaving the Hawks, retiring in 1999 with a career total
of 26,668 points, an average of 24.8 per game.
Now 46, Wilkins is a Hawks vice president, advising ownership
on basketball-related issues and working on public relations
initiatives. He was in the process of buying a small ownership
stake last year, but that has been put on hold because of the
continuing legal dispute among the other owners.
Election to the Basketball Hall of Fame — officially known as
the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame - requires votes
from 18 of 24 members of an anonymous "honors committee." The
committee chooses from a list of 16 finalists chosen by a
separate group.
The Hall of Fame, located in Springfield, Mass., includes former
NBA players as well as stars of women's and international
basketball, owners, pro and college coaches and other contributors
to the game.
Wilkins is the fifth former Atlanta Hawks player elected to the
Hall of Fame, but the first who played the majority of his NBA
career here. The others are Connie Hawkins, Pete Maravich, Moses
Malone and Walt Bellamy, whose Hawks tenures ranged from one
season to five.
資料來源
http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/hawks/stories/0401wilkins.html
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