'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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