Wilkins' hoops legacy is more than 'Human Highlight Reel'

Dominique Wilkins, dunker.

No doubt, it conjures an image every bit as exciting, as electric, in memory as it was to witness at the time. Wilkins, the Atlanta Hawks' spring-loaded superstar, bounding through traffic near the basket and rising up suddenly on pogo-stick legs to jam home another two points.

It is, however, an incomplete representation, like saying Clint Eastwood, co-star in two movies with an orangutan. True, but ... That's how Wilkins feels about those who think of him only at this time of the NBA season, when another eager gathering of mostly young athletes, mostly budding or specialized players, prepares for the annual Slam Dunk Contest at All-Star Weekend. Wilkins once was one of them. Yet he was also so much more.

There were his 26,668 points scored in regular season games. Another 1,423 in 10 playoff appearances. A scoring average that was better in the postseason (25.4) when defenses supposedly muscle up, than in the less meaningful games (24.8). There was Wilkins' seven appearances to the all-NBA first, second or third teams and his nine All-Star selections.

So it is true that Wilkins -- by participating in five of the first seven Slam Dunk Contests, winning twice (1985, '90) and arguably getting jobbed out of another one or two -- set a standard that LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade seem to run from now, too proven or established or maybe just creaky to enter. But most of those who do deign to participate would be thrilled to have half the overall career that Wilkins, on the short list of the NBA's most spectacular dunkers ever, had. Counting nights when he hardly played above the rim at all.

Now a vice president with the Hawks and a spokesman for national diabetes education, Wilkins also serves as an analyst on the Hawks broadcast network. I spoke with him Tuesday while he was in Memphis for the team's game that night vs. the Grizzlies:

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NBA.com: Have you sensed any change in people's perception of you and your game since 2006, when you were inducted into the Hall of Fame?

Dominique Wilkins: When you're a Hall of Famer, you're put among an elite group. I mean, you're almost immortalized. That recognizes you as a great player.

NBA.com: But you had to wait until your second year of eligibility for it, right?

DW: Yeah. For whatever reason. I'm still puzzled by [the omission from the NBA's ceremonial 1997 list of] the 50 Greatest, and by not going in the Hall of Fame on the first ballot. But what matters is, I'm there now.

NBA.com: How do you feel about your All-Star Game appearances? What stands out the most?

DW: Playing against some of the greatest players to ever play, all in the same game. That was a wonderful time to be an All-Star. The one that stands out for me is the [1988] one in Chicago. [Michael] Jordan and I both had super games. I think he had 41, 42 [actually 40], I think I had 29 in that game.

NBA.com: People say that guys like you, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Reggie Miller, John Stockton and Karl Malone were just born at other wrong time: While Jordan was walking the NBA earth. Otherwise, a bunch of championship rings might have been spread around more.

DW: You know what, I don't look at it like that. I look at it that certain people excelled in certain areas. Some did it by winning a championship. But if you didn't, that didn't discount how great you were as an individual player. Malone, Stockton, Barkley, a lot of other guys who were great but didn't get a ring, they'd tell you the same thing.

NBA.com: So it comes down to team sport vs. individual?

DW: You can't lay it all on one guy. It's not like golf or tennis where you have to perform as an individual to be great and win championships. We have to rely on our teammates to help us excel as a team. If you don't have that team effort, it's hard. Michael Jordan's first few years, they had trouble. Until they got some extra pieces to take pressure off Michael, they weren't able to win. Now, Michael made everyone around him great, no question. But he had some great pieces on those teams.

NBA.com: Your first All-Star Game -- were you nervous? In awe?

DW [laughing]: I was both. It was just disbelief to be amongst the greatest players to ever play. When you look back on your career, you never would think you'd be a Hall of Fame player. That's something to look back on. But as you go along, making numerous All-Star teams, you start to think, `Well, maybe I can be a Hall of Famer in this league.' Then you start getting really serious about becoming a great, great player. That's when you think the hard work you put in is really going to pay off in the end.

NBA.com: How is playing in an All-Star Game different from other games? Do you end up deferring more to the other guys on your team? Those were more highly skilled and more accomplished teammates than you had with the Hawks.

DW: You didn't have to go all-out offensively, because you had so many guys who could get 20 or 30 a night. I never played with another great player in his prime -- I never used that as an excuse, but it was what it was. I still brought it every night, we still won games, we went to the playoffs nine out of my 12 years in Atlanta.

NBA.com: Of your 27 All-Star rebounds, 16 came on offense. Did you see that as the simplest way to get your hands on the ball?

DW: Those offensive rebounds, let me tell you something, a lot of times those are easy buckets. You can get there for put-backs and easy points. A lot of times, I knew that when I shot the ball, my defender would turn his back. But he wouldn't always box out. That was my opportunity to go to the offensive glass.

NBA.com: It still bothers you to be known first and foremost as a dunker, doesn't it?

DW: I hated that, in a sense.

NBAE via Getty Images

NBA.com: Some would say, wait, Dominique Wilkins hated being known for his dunks?

DW: I loved the play, because it was an intimidation tool for me. But it wasn't who I was. I tell our young guys, "When you see highlights of me, what do you see? You see the high-wire act. You see slam dunks.'' I tell them, "I scored more than 26,000 points in this league. I didn't get them all on dunks. I found creative ways to score. I got to the free-throw line more than 10,000 times. I had an in-between game, mid-range. I could post up, I could take it off the dribble, shoot the three. I had a lot of things I could do to keep the defender off balance.

NBA.com: Actually, I did the math for a story last year. If you figure an average of three dunks per game -- Dwight Howard has led the NBA in dunks for several years running, averaging about 2.7 -- someone could take those completely away from your career statistics and you still would have scored more points than David Robinson, Mitch Richmond, Terry Cummings, Bob Lanier and Scottie Pippen. Your scoring average still would top those achieved by Reggie Miller, Glen Rice, Chet Walker, Hal Greer, Earl Monroe, Nate Archibald and Kevin McHale.

DW: I may have averaged between one and three dunks a game. Maybe because so many of my dunks were dramatic, it looked like it was more. That's why, when some people talk about me and say, "He was a great dunker'' ... gosh, I was a great player. Sometimes when you're a great athlete, being a great basketball player gets overlooked. The guys I played against, they know. My peers knew I was much more than dunker.

NBA.com: That said, how do you feel about the dunk contest?

DW: Oh, I always enjoy it. I like to see guys' creativity. When I dunked the ball, a lot of times, that was the only play I could make [at that moment]. It wasn't all for show.

NBA.com: In terms of show, props weren't permitted in your days in the contest. Now they're almost mandatory. What do you think of the changes? Have, as some folks say, all the dunks been done already?

DW: There ain't too many different ones you can do. And I think you need to keep the element of surprise in the dunk contest. If you come out with props sometime, people know what you're trying to attempt.

NBA.com: You're going to be in Dallas. Who's your pick to win?

DW: I've got to go with Nate Robinson because he's the reigning champ.

Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA for 25 years. You can e-mail him here.

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