It’s possible I interviewed on Monday the best 7-footer to ever play for the San Antonio Spurs. Maybe not specifically during his stint in the Alamo City, though he did make a couple of All-Star Games while playing there during his age 33-37 seasons. But taken as a career, Artis Gilmore might have been the best.
OK, he might not have been, too. David Robinson has a strong claim and Victor Wembanyana seems poised to be one of the best-ever at any size. Media guides listed Tim Duncan as 6-11 during his career, so if we round up, he takes the crown. But with apologies to Rasho Nesterović, Will Perdue, and Jakob Poeltl, those four are the conversation.
I interviewed Gilmore at the Legends of Basketball Dallas Chapter’s annual golf tournament and I mention the above-possibly-inflammatory hypothesis because that sort of discussion is one of the true attractions of such an event. People want to discuss basketball topics with those who played at the sport’s highest level. They want to hear about who they played with and against. They want to know their opinions about how players stacked up against each other and how current-day competitors might fare against their forebears. They want to know about great teams and those who weren’t quite as good.
I’m no different. Interviewing Gilmore, I wanted to hear his impressions of how the city of San Antonio (where I went to college at Trinity) has historically embraced their Spurs even before they started going on Finals runs like this year (Gilmore’s 1982-83 team, which included George Gervin, got to the Western Conference Finals but couldn’t get past the Showtime Lakers). It turns out he also remembered playing against the Spurs (née Chaparrals) in Dallas before the team moved (wisely) south down I-35. If you’re a Spurs fan or just love the NBA, you want those perspectives.
I was keen to hear about Gilmore’s days in the American Basketball Association. He initially snubbed the National Basketball Association when its rival offered him a substantial sum to play for the Kentucky Colonels. Gilmore won a title there in 1975. Kentucky did not end up making the move to the NBA like the Spurs did. In the video interview, Gilmore references reports that Chicago had a role in ensuring the Colonels folded in part because the Bulls coveted the opportunity to take the superstar Gilmore with the first pick in the dispersal draft.
Gilmore flew in for the tournament from his Florida home, in part to see his fellow former players, and also because he liked the fact that the tournament supports both the outreach programs of the chapter and the tournament’s charitable beneficiary, Network of Community Ministries. Overall, the event attracted some two dozen sports celebrities, including former athletes from the sports of baseball, football, and ice hockey for similar reasons. They all wanted to support their community, too, and I’m sure they also all have opinions on the greatest ___ from ____ to ever play.
