Zak Keefer

zak.keefer@indystar.com

INDIANAPOLIS – There have been too many nights Slick Leonard has stared up into the rafters at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, seen five retired numbers hanging there, seen the letters “HOF” inscribed on four of them and shook his head.

Wasn’t right. Wasn’t fair.

“I’ve seen every player that’s come down the road the last 60 years,” said Leonard, the legendary player-turned-coach-turned-broadcaster, “and you’ve got to be kidding me. There are guys that are in the Hall of Fame already that Big George would eat alive. I guarantee you that.”

When it came to the Hall of Fame, Big George — that’d be George McGinnis — was left to wait ... and wait ... and wait.

Before Saturday, of the five most iconic Indiana Pacers of all-time — four players and Leonard, the winningest coach in team history — four had been inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Reggie Miller made it in 2012. The late Mel Daniels the same year. Roger Brown in 2013. Slick a year later.

Their jerseys hang from the rafters at the fieldhouse, “HOF” inscribed beneath Miller’s No. 31, Brown’s 35, Daniels’ 34 and Leonard’s 529 — his coaching victories. McGinnis remained the lone legend left out, and in recent years the 66-year-old seemed to come to grips with the reality that he’d never make it.

That changed Saturday.

The decades-long wait for McGinnis is officially over. The Hoosier high school basketball legend who dominated in his one season at IU before playing on two ABA championship teams with the Pacers found out he’s headed to Springfield, Mass. Big George finally got the call.

“I’ve said for a while that I wanted to live long enough to see George go in,” added the 84-year-old Leonard. “I’m excited as hell. Talk about a long time coming!”

Indeed. And it’s remarkable McGinnis has made it after the Hall of Fame chose to eliminate the ABA selection committee, which played a central role in the elections of ABA greats like Daniels, Brown and Leonard in recent years. McGinnis will be inducted with the rest of the 2017 class in Springfield later this summer, along with fellow honorees Bill Self, Tracy McGrady, Rebecca Lobo and others.

"Flabergasted," McGinnis said Saturday. "I had kind of put it on the back shelf. I wasn't going to worry about it anymore. I just tried to deal with it in a particular way, and that's why all of this is so shocking."

McGinnis' election, the fifth for the Pacers in the past six years, speaks further to just how good those Pacers championship teams of the 1970s were. As Leonard proudly notes, his entire frontline — Brown, McGinnis and Daniels — all ended up in the Hall of Fame. Not bad. Not bad at all.

“How many teams can say that?” Leonard boasted.

Until Saturday’s announcement, McGinnis remained the only former NBA or ABA Most Valuable Player who was eligible for the Hall of Fame but not in it. His resume speaks to the breadth of his hardwood accomplishments, from his history-making days at Washington High School to one varsity season at Indiana University to his championship years with the Pacers.

In his IndyStar Mr. Basketball year of 1968-69, McGinnis became the first player in Indiana high school basketball history to top 1,000 points in a single season, leading Washington to a sparkling 31-0 campaign that still stands as one of the most impressive in state history. Consider for a moment his tally for the final four games of his high school career: 148 points.

That’s a 37-per-game average in the four biggest games of the season. That's dominance.

Eligible to play at IU as a sophomore – freshmen still weren’t allowed on varsity back then – he scripted one of the finest seasons by an Indiana player ever, averaging 29.9 points and 14.7 rebounds per game. McGinnis became the first sophomore in history to lead the Big Ten in scoring and rebounding, earning All-American and Big Ten honors in the process.

He later became one of the most dominant players in the ABA, a key cog in the Pacers’ run to back-to-back titles in 1972 and ’73 and the league’s MVP in 1975. Jumping to the NBA after that season, McGinnis helped the Philadelphia 76ers reach the NBA finals in 1977, and later played for the Denver Nuggets. He landed back with the Pacers in 1982 but lasted just two more seasons. The team cut him in 1982.

At his best, McGinnis was a dazzling scorer, as good as any in his era, among the backbones behind the greatest franchise in ABA history. In his first four seasons in the league, he averaged nearly 24 points a game, 12.2 rebounds and 3.3 assists.

“George put us on his back during all of those playoff series,” Leonard said. “That’s how tough he was.”

McGinnis was nearly just as good after the jump to the NBA, averaging 22 points, 11.7 rebounds and 3.2 assists his first three years with Philadelphia.

Long denied induction into the Hall of Fame, McGinnis in recent years came to accept his reality. Mel made it. Roger made it. Slick made it. And he was thrilled for them. Great as his career was, the Hall of Fame just wasn’t in the cards.

“I probably won’t get inducted,” he told IndyStar in 2015. “I know and I know the guys I played with know what I did and what I brought to the game. That’s good enough for me.”

Good enough, it turns out, for the Hall of Fame, too.

"My first thought was Slick," McGinnis said. "And Mel. He fought so hard for this."

Now, when Slick Leonard gazes up to the rafters at Bankers Life Fieldhouse and sees five retired numbers hanging, he’ll see “HOF” inscribed beneath each of them.

Big George has made it.

“At last,” Leonard said.

Call IndyStar reporter Zak Keefer at (317) 444-6134. Follow him on Twitter: @zkeefer.