Jamal Wilkes to BB Hall of Fame

[pshn80]

Before the Kings came to town I was a Warrior fan for the better part of two decades. Of course, the highlight of that period was the amazing and unexpected NBa championship won by the the Warriors. From out of theblue. They had and played, even started two rookies - Smith from tge University of San Francisco and Jamal Wilkes from UCLA.

Today in the SF Chronicle is a great article about Wilkes and his career. It's worth going out and buying a copy of the August 29, 2012 Chron.

1975, a great season to be a Warriors fan.

 

[PurpleHaze]

I too was huge Warriors fan from late 1960's until Kings arrived in Sacramento at which time I switched. Attended many games in Oakland over those years. Big fan of HOF great Rick Barry and rookie Phil Smith that remarkable year they won NBA championship. Amazing team and very young with 3 rookies including Jamal Wilkes on 1975 roster - 8 players with two years or less pro experience. The late Derrek Dickey as also on that team and big part of winning it all. Virtually everyone was picking powerful, experienced, Washington Bullets to thrash Golden State in the final, many prediciting a sweep - instead W's pasted Bullets 4-0! Thanks, I'll go get the Chron to read about HOFer Wilkes and fond memories from that time.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Not trying to thread****, or anything, but didn't we already know that Wilkes was going into the Hall? Wasn't it announced during the Final Four?

I ask because I, personally, found the thread title to be misleading, as though the OP thought it was news, and/or had gone underreported. I might have worded the title differently, but that's just me.

 

[pshn80]

Sorry, Slim. The NEWS was the wonderful article in the SF Chronicle about Wilkes. warriors in 1975 is and was worth repeating. And still is. But you are really not a wet anklet.

 

[Gargamel]

Wilkes was a very good player in his day. Kind of a forgotten name in Lakerland, but he was a potent scorer and cutter/slasher that moved without the ball better than most. Interesting how the early 80s teams were able to win championships with a lineup as thin as Kareem, Wilkes, and Cooper, and 2 point guards on the floor at one time, with every opponent they played being bulkier, but that's how sharp their fast break was then even compared to what it was later in the decade. Those early 80s teams are the REAL pure fast breaking teams that got over the top. The later 80s teams breaked better than anyone else, too, but they had big lineups and a good halfcourt game by 85. If the early 80s teams didn't have their offense rolling, they were gonna lose, and when they did, no one could take them. They went on a 40-9 run in Gm 1 of the 1982 Finals to overcome a 15 pt trail in Philly.

I'm not sure Wilkes was good enough to be a HOF player, though. I felt the same about Dumars and Dantley. In both Jamaal's and Dantley's cases, there were years of PR on their behalf. Iirc, Riley might've namedropped him at the podium when he was inducted in 2006. I realize that he was on a lot of winning teams, but he just doesn't feel on par with the megastars. At least he actually won something. Dantley was a stat sheet filler and a moody bastard. Lakers traded him back in the 70s largely for being short, but also for being what he always was -- someone who was almost an "anti-championship" player. If he didn't have the ball in his hands, what did he do exactly? He killed ball movement when it did come his way. Pistons were able to win the title they didn't get in 87 and 88 with Mark Aguirre (a selfish player himself) in AD's place. That's telling.

End rant: I guess I'm saying that the HOF seems to have moderately lowered the standards on pure basketball grounds (NOT in terms of overall contributions, which still seem appropriately stringent). Hard to see how Dantley is in while it took Tex Winter forever to get in. Tex wasn't a major contributor?

 

[bajaden]

I too was huge Warriors fan from late 1960's until Kings arrived in Sacramento at which time I switched. Attended many games in Oakland over those years. Big fan of HOF great Rick Barry and rookie Phil Smith that remarkable year they won NBA championship. Amazing team and very young with 3 rookies including Jamal Wilkes on 1975 roster - 8 players with two years or less pro experience. The late Derrek Dickey as also on that team and big part of winning it all. Virtually everyone was picking powerful, experienced, Washington Bullets to thrash Golden State in the final, many prediciting a sweep - instead W's pasted Bullets 4-0! Thanks, I'll go get the Chron to read about HOFer Wilkes and fond memories from that time.

I was also a huge Warrior fan at that time. The Warriors were the final seed that year, and no one gave them a chance to even get out of the first round. But the sweep of the Bullets was just amazing. The Bullets were looked at in a similar fashion as the Titanic. Unbeatable! And they suffered the same fate. Barry was the only true star on that team. Smith and Wilkes had yet to aquire star status, and Jeff Mullins, who was at the end of his career, probably came the next closest to being a star. Certainly not Butch Beard, Charles Dudley, Charlie Johnson, or even Clifford Ray were considered stars. It was a miracle year.

I thought they were going to repeat the next year when they posted one of the best records in the NBA. But alas, it was not to be.