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gw67
07-09-2011, 08:13 AM
For those who remember the late Armen (then Armon) Gilliam playing college basketball or the hapless New York Nets of the mid-90's, Mike Wise wrote a column in today's Post of his experience following the Nets while a writer for the Times. A bunch of folks had nice words to say about Gilliam after he recently died but I had no idea that the tough-looking, big forward was a bright, funny and personable guy among the knuckleheads of the NBA.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/wizards/on-a-team-of-characters-armen-gilliam-actually-had-some/2011/07/08/gIQAnIwQ4H_story.html

gw67

NSDukeFan
07-09-2011, 08:38 AM
For those who remember the late Armen (then Armon) Gilliam playing college basketball or the hapless New York Nets of the mid-90's, Mike Wise wrote a column in today's Post of his experience following the Nets while a writer for the Times. A bunch of folks had nice words to say about Gilliam after he recently died but I had no idea that the tough-looking, big forward was a bright, funny and personable guy among the knuckleheads of the NBA.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/wizards/on-a-team-of-characters-armen-gilliam-actually-had-some/2011/07/08/gIQAnIwQ4H_story.html

gw67

Thanks for sharing this. Gilliam was one of my favorite players growing up (I was a big Freddie Banks fan on his college team.) The article brought back memories because I really liked those Nets teams as Derrick Coleman was one of my all-time favorite players from his days at Syracuse and I enjoyed watching Kenny Anderson and Chris Morris as well. I was much more impressed with athletic talent than basketball smarts and work ethic at that point in my life. Sounds like I may have been wise to be a fan of Gilliam's though.

DUKIE V(A)
07-10-2011, 03:55 PM
For those who remember the late Armen (then Armon) Gilliam playing college basketball or the hapless New York Nets of the mid-90's, Mike Wise wrote a column in today's Post of his experience following the Nets while a writer for the Times. A bunch of folks had nice words to say about Gilliam after he recently died but I had no idea that the tough-looking, big forward was a bright, funny and personable guy among the knuckleheads of the NBA.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/wizards/on-a-team-of-characters-armen-gilliam-actually-had-some/2011/07/08/gIQAnIwQ4H_story.html

gw67

Thanks for sharing this piece. As a High School sophomore and Air Force brat living on an Air Force Base in Spain, I had the pleasure of meeting Armen Gilliam during the 1986 World Basketball Championships in Malaga. I am not 100% sure, but I believe the team was coached by Lute Olson. I do recall the team featured players such as Tommy Amaker, David Robinson, Kenny Smith, Sean Elliot, Steve Kerr, Brian Shaw, Rony Seikaly, and Gilliam amongst others. The team of college kids went on to beat the Soviet Union led by Arvydos Sabonis in what I think may have been the last major basketball competition ever won by the US Men using college players. I remember watching the Final and one of the Spanish Announcers saying the US was 20 years ahead of the rest of the world in basketball after we held on to edge the USSR -- only to lose in the 1988 Olympics Games.

Anyway back to my meeting with Armen...The games I attended were in the opening round and my friend and I made our way into the fifth row for this particular game even though our tickets where no where that close. After the games, the players who played would go into the stands and watch the games from whatever seats they could find. My friend and I thought this an incredible opportunity to meet the players. The two guys I really wanted to meet were Tommy Amaker (I was a Duke fan even then) and David Robinson who both played high school hoops in Northern Virginia where I moved to Spain from. I never had the chance to meet either of them but met Sean Elliot (who sat right next to my friend and I for an entire game), Kenny Smith, and Brian Shaw. However, Armen Gilliam was the most memorable player I met at the tournament. Somehow my friend and I ended up walking into a back corridor (security must have been incredibly poor) and standing there alone was Armen Gilliam. He was absolutely huge and had an incredibly unhappy scowl on his face. He had just had a pretty poor game by his standards -- maybe only scoring a basket or two -- and clearly was not happy about it or something else. I remember thinking we probably should not bother this guy. However, and I still don't know why I did it because I remember feeling intimidated, I ended up congratulating him on the team's win. Armen ended up thanking me and going out of his way to be friendly. We talked some about UNLV, team USA, and signed a bunch of autographs. Definitely a very nice guy who genuinely appreciated us as fans. As we walked away, I turned and looked over my shoulder and he was back to being upset about his performance (or whatever he was upset about). Real nice guy and obviously quite a competitor. RIP Armen!

DUKIE V(A)
07-10-2011, 04:43 PM
Here is a link to the 1986 World Championships...The players I forgot from the 1986 roster were the very talented Charles Smith (Pitt; NY Knicks), strong all around Derrick McKey (Alabama; Sonics?), and two former ACC stars Tommy Hammonds and Mugsy Bouges. Apparently Bobby Cremins was an Assistant on the staff. Didn't remember that.


http://www.usabasketball.com/mens/national/mwc_1986.html