Rodman, Winter and Gilmore Inducted Into Basketball Hall of Fame

By Soyoung Kwak in News on Aug 13, 2011 4:00PM

Back in April, we mentioned that Dennis Rodman, Artis Gilmore and Tex Winter - three men with strong ties to the Chicago Bulls - would be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame this year. How was the induction ceremony this year? Pretty spectacular.

In his usual outgoing manner, Dennis Rodman entertained the whole crowd and even shed a few tears at the podium. Dennis Rodman was the last honoree of the evening, closing out the star-studded night with an emotional 15-minute speech:

"This game has been very good to me," Rodman said. "I could have been anywhere in the world. I could have been dead. I could have been a drug dealer. I could have been homeless; I was homeless. It took a lot of hard work and bumps along the road."

"I didn't play the game for the money," he said. "I didn't play the game to be famous. What you see here is just an illusion that I love to be an individual that is very colorful."

As moving as Rodman's speech was, it didn't completely outshine the honors for Gilmore and Winter. Former Chicago Bulls center Gilmore waited 23 years after his retirement to accept this honor. Former Bulls assistant coach Tex Winter was finally inducted into the Hall of Fame on his eighth nomination this year after being rejected the past seven times. Although WInter suffered a stroke in 2009 which left him with a fleeting memory and having to learn how to speak all over again, he was able to attend the ceremony and truly take in the moment:

Apparently feeling uneasy about his ability to speak, Winter had Chris [his son] speak for him. “My dad never won a championship during his college career,” Chris said. “But he developed championship-caliber teams that took the champions to the limit.’’

That's what the game is all about, and we congratulate all of the 2011 Hall of Fame inductees.