Artis Gilmore

• 1. Introduction

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  Artis Gilmore stood 7 feet 2 inches tall and played 670 consecutive professional basketball games without missing a single one. Born on the 21st of September, 1949, in Chipley, Florida, Gilmore grew up as one of 10 children in a family with modest means. By the time he reached professional basketball, he had earned a nickname that suited his presence on the court: "The A-Train." He would win a championship, set records that still stand, and yet spend years waiting for a phone call from the Basketball Hall of Fame that would not come until 2011. How does one of the most statistically dominant big men in professional basketball history take so long to get his due? That question runs through every chapter of Gilmore's career.

• 2. From Chipley to Carver

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  Chipley, Florida, sits in the Florida Panhandle, and it is where Gilmore grew up attending Roulhac High School. He was already 6 feet 5 inches tall at age 15. His first athletic interest was football, not basketball, but his father, a fisherman, could not afford the insurance required for him to play. That financial barrier steered Gilmore toward the sport that would define his life.

  When public school integration came to Chipley, Gilmore enrolled at Chipley High School but stayed only one week before leaving home entirely. He traveled 35 miles north to Dothan, Alabama, to attend Carver High School, a larger school in a larger community. By the time he graduated from Carver in 1967, he had grown to 6 feet 10 inches and earned a spot on the Third Team All-American roster.

  From Dothan, Gilmore enrolled at Gardner-Webb Junior College in Boiling Springs, North Carolina, where he played under coach Eddie Holbrook from 1967 to 1969. Over two seasons, Gilmore averaged 22.5 points and 16.0 rebounds per game, accumulating 1,530 career points and 1,150 career rebounds. Coach Holbrook later reflected on those years, saying Gilmore and a teammate named George Adams "were two of the hardest-working players I ever coached. They were relentless. Anything you asked them to do or pushed them to do, they did it." Holbrook also led Gardner-Webb to the NJCAA tournament in both 1968 and 1969, with Gilmore as the centerpiece.

• 3. Jacksonville and the Near-Miss

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  Gilmore transferred to Jacksonville University in Florida for the 1969-70 season. Under coach Joe Williams, the Jacksonville Dolphins went 27-2 that year. Gilmore averaged 26.5 points and 22.2 rebounds per game across that season, figures that placed him in rare company.

  The 1970 NCAA tournament became the stage for one of college basketball's memorable Cinderella runs. Jacksonville defeated Western Kentucky 109-96, the University of Iowa 104-103, and the University of Kentucky 106-100 to reach the Final Four. In the national semifinal, the Dolphins beat St. Bonaventure 91-83. Then came the championship game against coach John Wooden's UCLA Bruins. Jacksonville lost 80-69. Gilmore finished that game with 19 points and 16 rebounds, a performance that was exceptional but not enough.

  What Gilmore left behind at Jacksonville was something more enduring than any single game result. He averaged 22.7 rebounds per game for his career there, a figure that remains the highest in NCAA Division I history. He is one of only five college players ever to average at least 20 points and 20 rebounds across an entire college career, finishing at 24.3 and 22.7 respectively. His 22.6 rebounds-per-game average also makes him second all-time in Division I history in that category, and the highest among all players since 1971.

• 4. Dominating the ABA

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  In 1971, both the ABA's Kentucky Colonels and the NBA's Chicago Bulls drafted Gilmore. The Bulls used a 7th-round pick, calculating they had no real chance of signing him. They were right. ABA teams had coordinated to keep Gilmore in their league, and Kentucky signed him with a 10-year contract worth $2.5 million. The Bulls' 7th pick was a hedge, nothing more.

  Gilmore's impact on the Kentucky Colonels was immediate and dramatic. The team had gone 44-40 the season before he arrived. In his first year, they went 68-16. Gilmore won both the ABA Rookie of the Year award and the ABA Most Valuable Player award that first season, edging out Virginia Squires rookie Julius Erving for both honors. No other player in ABA history matched that double distinction as a first-year player.

  Over five ABA seasons, Gilmore led the league four times in rebounding average, twice in field goal percentage, twice in blocks per game, and once in personal fouls. He was named to the All-ABA First Team all five seasons, and to the All-Defense team four times. He appeared in the ABA All-Star Game every year he played in the league, and won the 1974 All-Star Game MVP award. His ABA records for career blocked shots at 1,431, blocked shots in a single season at 422 in 1971-72, and rebounds in a single game at 40 all stood as league bests.

  The championship came in 1974-75, alongside teammate Dan Issel. In the deciding Game 5 of the ABA Finals against the Indiana Pacers, played in front of 16,000 fans at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Gilmore scored 28 points and grabbed 31 rebounds. He was named Playoffs MVP for that run.

• 5. The NBA Years

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  When the ABA dissolved after the 1976 season, four of its franchises joined the NBA. The Kentucky Colonels were not among them, and their players entered a dispersal draft. Gilmore went first overall to the Chicago Bulls. He signed for $1.1 million over three years.

  Gilmore's best individual performance in a Bulls uniform came on the 18th of March, 1977, when he scored 42 points, grabbed 15 rebounds, and recorded 9 assists in a 114-112 win over the Kansas City Kings. That game represented his NBA career high in scoring. In five full seasons with Chicago, he averaged 19.3 points and 11.1 rebounds per game and earned four All-Star selections.

  In July 1982, the Bulls traded Gilmore to the San Antonio Spurs for Dave Corzine, Mark Olberding, and cash. At San Antonio, he played alongside George "The Iceman" Gervin, giving the Spurs a pairing that operated effectively both inside and outside. In Gilmore's first Spurs season, San Antonio finished 53-29 and won their division. In the 1983 Western Conference Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers, Gilmore led the Spurs to a Game 2 victory with 27 points, 20 rebounds, and 5 blocks. The Spurs ultimately lost that series in six games.

  Gilmore's NBA statistical legacy is built largely on shooting efficiency. He led the NBA in field goal percentage in four consecutive seasons. In 1980-81, his 67% shooting from the field was the third-highest single-season percentage in NBA history at that time. When he retired, his career NBA field goal percentage of 59.9% (minimum 2,000 shots made) was the best in league history. He finished his NBA career with a brief stint on the 1988 Boston Celtics team that reached the conference finals, though Gilmore played limited minutes as a reserve.

• 6. Life After the NBA

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  After the Celtics run, Gilmore spent the 1988-89 season playing in Italy for Arimo Bologna. He averaged 12.3 points and 11.0 rebounds per game for the club and was named to the European All-Star Team, a recognition that his skills remained competitive even as his professional basketball career wound down.

  Gilmore married his college sweetheart, Enola Gay, in 1972. They have five children together. In 2007, he returned to Jacksonville University, the school where he had nearly won a national championship decades earlier, taking a position as Special Assistant to the President and working in various public relations capacities. He also provides radio color commentary for Jacksonville University athletics on WJXL, the school's flagship station.

  His path to the Hall of Fame was slow. Gilmore had retired as one of the statistical leaders across multiple categories in professional basketball history, but the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame did not induct him until April 2011. He was inducted into the Gardner-Webb Athletics Hall of Fame in 1995 and the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in May 2012. On the 12th of January, 2024, the Chicago Bulls inducted Gilmore into their inaugural ring of honor class, recognizing his place in the franchise's history during one of its pre-championship eras.