Jacques Dominique Wilkins
Born: January 12, 1960
Position: Small Forward
Height: 6-8 (2.04 m)
Jerseys worn: #21
In the NBA:
Dominique Wilkins, a.k.a. "the human-highlight-film" was one
of the NBA's most spectacular players for more than a decade.
A real scoring and dunking machine: He led the league in the 1985-'86 season with an average of 30.3 points/game and won the Slam-dunk contest twice (in 1985 and 1990).
Wilkins was selected by Utah in the 3rd pick overall of the 1982 draft.
His draft rights were traded to the Atlanta Hawks, where he played for the next 12 seasons. In his first year he averaged 17.5 ppg and 5.8 rpg and was selected to the 1982-83 NBA All-Rookie Team. In Atlanta, he set some records that still remain unbeaten: he's the team's all-time
leader in points, field goals made and steals. In 8/12/1992 he established a new NBA record hitting 23/23 free throws against the Chicago Bulls. He was named to the All-NBA First team in 1986, to the All-NBA second team 4 times (1987, 1988, 1991, 1993) and to the All-NBA Third Team
twice (1989 and 1994). He also played in 8 All-star games, missing one due to injury.
In February 1994 he was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers and he played for the Boston Celtics in the next season (1994-'95).
Nique made a great comeback to the NBA in the 1996-'97 season,
playing for the San Antonio Spurs and leading the team in scoring. He was signed in order to come off the bench for a few minutes in every game but as most of the team's players were injured, he was playing for about 31 minutes in every game and despite his age (37 years old) he averaged 18.2 ppg and 6.4 rpg.
His next comeback from Europe in 1999 was not that successful though. He was signed by the Orlando Magic and played 27 games in his last season, averaging just 5 points/game.
The highlights of his career include the famous "shootout" against Larry Bird in the 1988 playoffs and his participation in the 1988 slam dunk contest against Michael Jordan (whom he had defeated in 1985).
His jersey #21 has been retired by the Atlanta Hawks and he is a member of the Basketball Hall Of Fame.
Statistics:
| YEAR |
Team |
Games |
Pts |
FT % |
FG % |
3PM |
3-pt % |
Reb. |
Trn |
Ast |
St |
Blk |
Min. |
Star? |
| 1983 |
Atlanta |
82 |
17.5 |
.682 |
.493 |
2 |
.182 |
5.8 |
2.2 |
1.6 |
1.0 |
0.8 |
32.9 |
YES |
| 1984 |
Atlanta |
81 |
21.6 |
.770 |
.479 |
0 |
.000 |
7.2 |
2.7 |
1.6 |
1.4 |
1.1 |
36.6 |
YES |
| 1985 |
Atlanta |
81 |
27.4 |
.806 |
.451 |
25 |
.309 |
6.9 |
2.8 |
2.5 |
1.7 |
0.7 |
37.3 |
YES |
| 1986 |
Atlanta |
78 |
30.3 |
.818 |
.468 |
13 |
.186 |
7.9 |
3.2 |
2.6 |
1.8 |
0.6 |
39.1 |
YES |
| 1987 |
Atlanta |
79 |
29.0 |
.818 |
.463 |
31 |
.292 |
6.3 |
2.7 |
3.3 |
1.5 |
0.6 |
37.6 |
YES |
| 1988 |
Atlanta |
78 |
30.7 |
.826 |
.464 |
38 |
.295 |
6.4 |
2.8 |
2.9 |
1.3 |
0.6 |
37.8 |
YES |
| 1989 |
Atlanta |
80 |
26.2 |
.844 |
.464 |
29 |
.276 |
6.9 |
2.3 |
2.6 |
1.5 |
0.7 |
37.5 |
YES |
| 1990 |
Atlanta |
80 |
26.7 |
.807 |
.484 |
59 |
.322 |
6.5 |
2.2 |
2.5 |
1.6 |
0.6 |
36.1 |
YES |
| 1991 |
Atlanta |
81 |
25.9 |
.829 |
.470 |
85 |
.341 |
9.0 |
2.5 |
3.3 |
1.5 |
0.8 |
38.0 |
YES |
| 1992 |
Atlanta |
42 |
28.1 |
.835 |
.464 |
37 |
.289 |
7.0 |
2.9 |
3.8 |
1.2 |
0.6 |
38.1 |
YES |
| 1993 |
Atlanta |
71 |
29.9 |
.828 |
.468 |
120 |
.380 |
6.8 |
2.6 |
3.2 |
1.0 |
0.4 |
37.3 |
YES |
| 1994 |
Atlanta / L.A. Clippers |
74 |
26.0 |
.847 |
.440 |
85 |
.288 |
6.5 |
2.3 |
2.3 |
1.2 |
0.4 |
35.6 |
YES |
| 1995 |
Boston |
77 |
17.8 |
.782 |
.424 |
112 |
.388 |
5.2 |
2.2 |
2.2 |
0.8 |
0.2 |
31.5 |
YES |
| 1997 |
San Antonio |
63 |
18.2 |
.803 |
.417 |
70 |
.293 |
6.4 |
2.1 |
1.9 |
0.6 |
0.5 |
30.9 |
YES |
| 1999 |
Orlando |
27 |
5.0 |
.690 |
.379 |
5 |
.263 |
2.6 |
0.9 |
0.6 |
0.1 |
0.0 |
9.3 |
No |
| Career |
Career |
1074 |
24.8 |
.811 |
.461 |
711 |
.319 |
6.7 |
2.5 |
2.5 |
1.3 |
0.6 |
35.5 |
YES |
In Europe:
In the summer of 1995, Wilkins signed a contract with Panathinaikos, a Greek team. He was the biggest name from the NBA ever to play in Europe and a big crowd welcomed him in the airport. Despite a bad start in the season, he found his game in the mid-season and scored 32 points in a knock-out game against Olympiakos, helping the team advance to the Greek Cup's final-four. Panathinaikos got to win the cup and Wilkins was named the MVP. Then it was the turn of the European Championship's final-four. Wilkins scored 35 points in the semi-final against CSKA and he had 16 points and 10 rebounds in the finals, against Barcelona, leading his team to its first European title ever and winning another "final-four MVP" for himself.
Panathinaikos seemed ready to wear the "triple crown", if they'd
win the Greek Championship too. The team started the playoffs well and advanced to the
finals, playing against Olympiakos.
Dominique's performance was good in the first 3 games and the team showed the potential of breaking the court advantage.
The major problem was the team's chemistry. Wilkins had very
bad relations with coach Bozidar Maljkovic and after a fight with him, he left Panathinaikos and returned to USA! That happened before the 4th game of the finals. Panathinaikos without Wilkins lost the fight for the title.
His 1995-'96 statistics:
31 games (21 for the Greek and 10 for the European Championship), 20.7 points, 7.7 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 45% in the field goals, 31% in the 3-pointers and 85% in free throws.
Wilkins also played in Italy in 1997-'98, for Teamsystem Bolognia. He won the Italian Cup but failed to lead the team to the championship and the European final-four.