When we look back in the history of the great Dominique Wilkins. We see a player that always put on a show. When you think of players that everybody would enjoy watching. Dominique Wilkins was one of them. When it came to his dunks. I still blast out an exhale when I watch them.
Back in the day. There were many future legends playing each other. Battles like Magic-Bird were well documented. But Wilkins remembers when he had to play Larry Legend. They were two very different players in their own right. Nique talked to Steve Bulpett of The Boston Herald. Reminiscing the first time he played Bird.
“One of the first times I ever played against him, I went out for the opening tip and I went to shake his hand. He just stood there and looked at me stone-faced with his hands behind his back,” Wilkins said recently.
“I was like, ‘Whoa.’ Then we were getting ready for the tip and he says to me, ‘You don’t belong in this league, Homes.’ I couldn’t believe it, but it happened so fast, I didn’t know what to think.
“Then they had the ball and I was on him and he said, ‘I don’t know why they got you guarding me, Homes. You can’t guard me.’ Then, whap, he hit a 3. Then he came down again and said, ‘They made a mistake putting you on me, Homes,’ and he took another 3.”
Getting into the story, Wilkins began to act things out with his facial expressions.
“So now I’m hot,” he said. “I’m hot. I mean, I’m steaming.
“Then a little while later, I came down on a break and he was backpedaling. I just went right after him. I jumped up and he tried to challenge, but I took that right through the rim. He fell and hit the basket support.
“He got up and said, ‘I like you, rookie. You’ve got(guts).’ I was happy for a second, and then he said, ‘But I’m still going for 40 on you tonight.’?”
He then paused the story, stepped back and smiled.
“But I got him,” Wilkins said. “He only scored 39.”
If you expect that Wilkins would carry a bit of bitterness toward Bird and the Celtics after all these years, you don’t know ’Nique. He carries those moments, even the bad ones, as a badge of honor.
“Let me tell you something: I wouldn’t trade that for nothing in the world,” Wilkins said. “You know why? Because those guys like Larry and Doc (Julius Erving) and Bernard (King), they made you a better player.
“You know, if you didn’t have the heart, you got destroyed.”
You can’t help but enjoy hearing stories like this. War stories from the days where trash talking was the norm. Got to love it
