During his appearance on the Jaxxon Podcast, NBA legend Dominique Wilkins and UFC legend Rampage Jackson sat down and discussed martial arts and fighting. The conversation began with Wilkins pointing out that underestimating your opponent, despite a size difference, can often be fatal.
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This astute observation led to Rampage enquiring whether the former Hawks superstar had “ever trained in martial arts.” Dominique Wilkins confessed he had dabbled in Taekwondo as a young teen.
“When I was 13-15, I was doing Taekwondo. It takes discipline, a lot of discipline. A lot of practice, patience and you don’t look at it as just you going to go out there and kick somebody’s ass. Because in martial arts, that’s not what it is. It teaches you how to walk away from a fight more than engage in a fight.”
The human highlight machine understood that the best possible way to come out of a fight unscathed was to avoid one. To him, learning martial arts was never about indulging in violence but defending himself.
Despite playing in the brutal era of the 1980s-90s, Wilkins didn’t engage in conflict. Physicality during the prime years of his career was at an all-time high. However, the virtues the seven-time All-NBA member learned from his experience in Taekwondo impacted the way he reacted in a given situation. Fortunately, he never had to use it in his career as a basketball player. Unfortunately, he did end up using his training once after he retired.
Wilkins used martial arts to defend himself against a fan
In 2011, Wilkins was in an altercation with a fan following an Atlanta Hawks home game. The former Hawks star highlighted that the fan called him out, and it was “bad timing”.
The nine-time All-Star claimed that the fan “lunged” at him, resulting in a fight. The altercation was strictly an act of self-defense on Wilkins’s part. There were no consequences for the NBA legend. However, police arrested the fan for battery.
Another fan in the stands recorded the brawl. The video of the fight quickly made its rounds on TMZ, something the NBA legend was afraid of happening.
Moreover, Dominique Wilkins‘ track record has been squeaky clean since the incident. His display of patience and self-control embodies the lessons of Taekwondo, further proving the point that martial arts are not for picking fights.
