“I would rather play in All-Star game than win the slam-dunk contest against Michael Jordan”: Dominique Wilkins was not pleased with NBA’s ignorance of him for the 1985 All-Star game

Akash Murty | 19/01/2022
“People Only Wanted to See a Michael Jordan or Dominique Wilkins Highlight”: Hawks Legend Who Brought Out the Best Out of MJ Was Once his Closest Competition

A rookie Michael Jordan faced Dominique Wilkins in a dunk contest at the All-Star weekend, as the Hawks legend had something else bugging him.

Dominique Wilkins is one of the greatest players to ever play the game of basketball. The 6’8 forward was much more than just prolific a dunker, for which he is much more famous.

But the 9-time All-Star did have some astonishing posters throughout his career, for which he also has a nickname – “The Human Highlight Film”.

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Wilkins was drafted by the Utah Jazz in 1982 and due to financial crunch and his lack of will to play for the Jazz was dealt away to the Atlanta Hawks.

It was with the Hawks where Wilkins would start writing history for a small-market franchise. Apart from leading them to their four consecutive 50-win seasons during the 80s, he also won a slam-dunk contest with them. Their only individual (player’s) award since Bob Pettit’s MVPs in the 50s and 60s.

That dunk contest in 1985 also had another future great, arguably the greatest, Michael Jordan.

In a clash of the titans, Dominique Wilkins won over Michael Jordan

A rookie Mike would not only make his first All-Star game that season, but also participated in the dunk contest just to get knocked out in the final round by Wilkins. The Atlanta forward got perfect scores on two dunks in the final round to defeat MJ 147-136 in the final round.

“This is something to give the fans some thrills,” Wilkins said after winning the contest. “The guys just have a lot of fun.”

But he was still sour about not making it to the All-Star game. “I’ll just have to watch it [All-star game] on TV,” he said.

Although Jordan had an otherworldly first season averaging over 28-points, 6-rebounds, 6-assists, and 2-steals, Wilkins also had an All-NBA caliber season with 27.4-points, 6.9-boards, 2.5-dimes, and 1.7-steals a game that season. But still failed to make it to the All-Star game.

Also read: “If you say LeBron James one more time I’mma pull this trigger”: Shannon Sharpe was ready to die for GOAT James when an intruder held him hostage

Wilkins averaged more than 25 points per game for ten consecutive seasons and captured a scoring title the very next season following his snub in 85, with an average of 30.3 points per game.

He made 9 All-Star appearances and 7 All-NBA teams scoring well over 26000 points in his 16-year career, at an average of 24.8 points per game. The Hall of Famer was also recently named among the NBA’s top-75 players of all time.

Post Edited By: Amulya Shekhar
Atlanta Hawks Chicago Bulls Dominique Wilkins Michael Jordan Slam Dunk Contest

About the author

Akash Murty

An Electrical and Electronics Engineer by degree, Akash Murty is an NBA Editor at The SportsRush. Previously a Software Engineer, Murty couldn’t keep himself away from sports, and his knack for writing and putting his opinion forward brought him to the TSR. A big Soccer enthusiast, his interest in basketball developed late, as he got access to a hoop for the first time at 17. Following this, he started watching basketball at the 2012 Olympics, which transitioned to NBA, and he became a fan of the game as he watched LeBron James dominate the league. Him being an avid learner of the game and ritually following the league for around a decade, he now writes articles ranging from throwbacks, and live game reports, to gossip. LA Lakers are his favourite basketball team, while Chelsea has his heart in football. He also likes travelling, reading fiction, and sometimes cooking.

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