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Hawks Celebrate Dominique Wilkins And Unveil Larger-Than-Life Statue

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ATLANTA -- ‘Nique Week,’ the Atlanta Hawks’ tribute to franchise icon Dominique Wilkins, will culminate with ‘Dominique Wilkins Night’ on Friday, March 6, when the Eastern Conference-leading Hawks host the Cleveland Cavaliers at 7:30 p.m. Early-arriving fans will witness a state-of-the-art 3D projection tribute to the 2006 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee prior to tip-off, and the first 21,000 attendees will receive a commemorative, Wilkins jersey-inspired, No. 21 t-shirt courtesy of Novo Nordisk. To further enhance the night, the Hawks are replacing traditional game programs with 21,000 individually-numbered Wilkins-themed magazines. Additionally, Levy, the food and beverage vendor at Philips Arena, is offering specially-designed cups for drinks purchased at concession stands on the day of game.

“Dominique is one of the greatest athletes in the history of Atlanta sports and it’s only fitting that Friday night be as memorable for him as he has been for the Hawks franchise and this city,” Atlanta Hawks and Philips Arena CEO Steve Koonin said. “Every facet of our game will pay homage to the legacy he’s created on and off the court.” 

Throughout the game, career highlights and special acknowledgement videos from fans and current players will be aired in the arena. During a halftime ceremony, Wilkins will be presented with a special gift from the 2014-15 Hawks team, and will also receive a one-of-a-kind piece of art before addressing the Philips Arena crowd. Fans are also encouraged to visit Hawkville in Philips Experience and leave a personal message for the legend inside an awe-inspiring Dominique Wilkins photo gallery.

The week-long toast to the Hawks’ all-time leader in points and games played includes the unveiling of a 13.5-foot tall statue, nationwide media coverage, and a private luncheon for invited guests. Highlights from the private ceremony honoring Wilkins will be televised in a special hour-long presentation, Celebrating Nique, tonight, at 8:00 p.m. on SportSouth. The program will re-air the same night at 11:00 p.m. and will air again on Friday, March 6, at 6:00 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.

“Dominique’s greatness on and off the court as a Hawks player and now a broadcaster is unmatched,” said Jeff Genthner, senior vice president and general manager, FOX Sports South. “Celebrating Nique will put a well-deserved spotlight on the most iconic player to ever wear the Hawks uniform.”

The Hawks vs. Cavaliers game will be televised exclusively on SportSouth; coverage will begin at 7:00 p.m. with the Hawks LIVE! pregame show. The telecast will feature live coverage of Wilkins addressing the Philips Arena crowd at halftime.

A limited number of seats remain for the largest celebration in Hawks’ history on Friday. Tickets can be purchased without ticketing fees by clicking here.

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Historic Tribute Set For 'Dominique Wilkins Night' On March 6 Against Cleveland

Thirteen-and-a-half feet tall and 18,500 pounds of granite? Sounds about right. The fact that the long-awaited statue of Jacques Dominique Wilkins can't fly, well...that's the only unrealistic part as far as I'm concerned.

Let's begin at the beginning. Where did this man come from? I haven't obtained his birth certificate, but let's assume that he was born the normal, natural way - in France of all places. He was an Air Force kid, with added emphasis on the air part. From Paris, his family moved to Baltimore, MD. There wasn't much grass to play on where he lived, so he chose the concrete courts. He knew he'd be a pro by the time he was 12. Twelve!

When he was 16, he moved to Washington, NC, just up the coast from Wilmington, where a fella named Michael Jordan was dribbling balls and stretching himself on chin-up bars. Wilkins grew from 6'3" to 6'8" in the course of his tenth grade summer. He went 76-1 at Washington High and accidentally set the school record in the quarter mile (48 seconds), because there was no one else to run it that particular day. Drool from NBA scouts drained into the Pamlico River.

Wilkins was every bit as big a deal as Jordan if you came up in Atlanta, like I did, when he was soaring. He was our Jordan, and we weren't myopic, either. He outscored MJ in half of the 48 games they played against each other, dropping 57 on him in 1986. He even beat His Airness at the dunk contest once - should have been twice, most say - which I reenacted obsessively on a duct-taped Nerf court in my childhood bedroom. Wilkins was the scoring champ in '88, a nine-time all-star, a Hall-of-Famer; and, according to plenty of fans, one of the 50 greatest players ever (official list be damned).

How did we get so lucky? This is how Ted Turner, who owned the Hawks from 1976 to 2004, remembers it:

"Back in 1982, he was the big star in the SEC at the University of Georgia. We would have drafted him, but we didn't have a draft pick that high. We picked tenth. So he went to Utah with the third pick. But they were having financial problems. So we offered them John Drew and Freeman Williams, plus a million in cash, for Dominique. They accepted. I didn't have a million dollars at the time. I was really up against the wall. A million dollars was a lot of money in 1982."

Stan Kasten, the president of the Hawks at the time, was there for the deliberations.

"Ted turned to our CFO, Bill Bevins, and said, 'Can we get a million bucks from the bank or our lenders?' And Bill said, 'Well, no, Ted, I don't think we can.' And without missing a beat Ted turns and says, 'Stan, go do it.' He saw the extraordinary opportunity this was. And that's exactly how it turned out."

That's right, historians of technology: we have Ted Turner to thank for cable television and the Human Highlight Film.

"I remember the local celebration when he came to the Hawks after being such a dynamic and exceptional talent at UGA," Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, who was 13 at the time, said. "He was my generation's first real local superstar."

Former Atlanta Mayor and Ambassador Andrew Young, in his 80s now, was one of those celebrants.

"I had just been elected mayor," Young said. "We weren't a basketball town. We were basically a football town. And Dominique was the first of the homegrown heroes that made us a basketball city. He filled the Omni. He was a superhero! He walked with such a bounce, it looked like he might take off with any step."

Wilkins was, among many other things, a marketer's dream.

"We had a rule in our PR department," Kasten said. "Whenever we wrote something about him, we had to put the word electrifying before his name. We made that part of his name."

The double pump reverses, the one and two-handed windmills and sidewinders, the thunderous throw-downs over most every marquee player. There's a reason they call them "videogame dunks." His former teammates and rivals still feel their power more than 20 years later.

"He had one dunk against New Jersey where he shot the ball at the top of the key, and I was under the basket," former Hawks center Jon Koncak, who played with Wilkins from 1985-1994, recalls. "Kevin Willis was there. Buck Williams, too. But the ball hit the back of the rim and went straight up. The next thing I know, there are these arms grabbing the ball and dunking it. I was like, What the heck! He covered that distance, jumped above everybody, caught the ball and dunked it over three of us—two on his own team! I think even he was shocked that he could do that."

Being on the other team, of course, was more embarrassing. Celtics legend and hall of famer Larry Bird doesn't mince words.

"It was difficult playing against Dominique. Very difficult. He was one of the best scorers in my era. He dunked on me a lot. If you let him get a running start, he got up there pretty high. He'd go up over you. I remember one where I never seen him coming, and I went up to get a rebound and he came down hard on me. I was like, What the..."

Just two points, but still etched in Bird's mind. Wilkins had 26,688 of them in his 15-season NBA career (I probably saw him score 18,000 of those, each a little jolt of kinetic energy across the TV screen. The rest were west coast games, which finished after my bedtime). And they weren't all dunks.

"The first time I ever saw him play in college," Kasten said, "Three things jumped out at me right away: He could jump out of the gym; he could not shoot; he did not care that he could not shoot. But as his career went on, he became an outstanding shooter. Because, in addition to his extraordinary physical abilities, he loved to play and work on his game. And that's no small thing."

Nor is the fact that Wilkins has always been active around the city of Atlanta, whose profile he helped raise with both his play and his work, supporting a number of organizations: Big Brothers Big Sisters of Atlanta, the American Heart Association, the Women's Sports Foundation, and the American Diabetes Association.

"Dominique kept us in the news," Young said. "He kept us relevant. But most of all, he was—and still is—an inspiration to young people. When I was a little bitty boy, 5 or 6, I met Ralph Metcalf right after he came back from the Olympics, running just behind Jesse Owens. Well, I figured I could beat everyone else running just because I knew him. Dominique has done the same for kids here."

Thomas Dortch, chairman of the service organization 100 Black Men of America, has often watched Wilkins speak to children. One moment stands out.

"He said to them: 'You've got heroes all around you. You don't have to look up to a superstar in sports or entertainment,'" Dortch recalls. "Those are words that will resonate in the minds of these kids for years to come, like they have in mine."

"I've had this conversation with other players, owners and general managers," Kasten said. "Most agree that Dominique was maybe the nicest superstar that we had in the sport at that time. Superstars all have their posses and agents and everyone sucking up to them. It can swell your head. But Dominique was always a sweetheart, the nicest person, in addition to being this electrifying physical talent."

Like everyone who watched him play with at least one eye open, Dortch puts Dominique at the pinnacle of Atlanta's sporting pantheon.

"In my opinion there are two great athletes Atlanta has had in modern times: Hank Aaron and Dominique."

With the support of a number of prominent Atlanta business figures, Dortch pushed for the statue. Mayor Reed became an early supporter as well.

"We'd done a great deal to honor Hank Aaron," Reed said, "but we hadn't acknowledged Dominique Wilkins in a similar fashion and I thought we should do that. I'm pleased that we are treating Dominique in a manner that is consistent with his contributions to the sport and the city."

"Cities need heroes," Young said. "And Dominique sure was ours for a long time. And still is. He's a presence everywhere he goes. I'm proud that they're putting up a statue. But I really don't know how they'll mount it. Because if they were gonna have a legitimate statue, they'd put a basketball in his hand and solder the hand to the top of a rim and let him hang in free flight, because that's how we'll always remember him."

An optimistic analyst for the Hawks broadcasts on SportSouth these days, Wilkins is 55 years old years old. But, with his bright eyes and trim figure, he looks younger than that. Maybe that's immortality taking hold.

"A statue immortalizes you," he said. "It represents not just your body of work as a player, but it represents you as a man. A man who gave all he had, not just to the game but also to the people who supported him." He pauses, grabbing a huge handful of popcorn - he loves the stuff - courtside before a recent game.

"I don't know what it looks like up-close yet. I'm nervous. I think I'm flying, though."

Story by Charles BetheaTwitter: @charlesbethea

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Dominique Wilkins: Hall-of-Famer, Community Leader, Atlanta Legend

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Dominique Wilkins Goes Through ESPN "Car Wash"

ATLANTA -- The Atlanta Hawks and Philips Arena today announced plans to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Philips Arena and will construct a larger-than-life-size statue of Hawks’ legend Dominique Wilkins. The statue, which is to be unveiled at a special ceremony at Philips Arena on March 5, 2015, will be a symbol of the Hawks’ legend’s success as a player both on and off the court.  Details of the statue and the ceremony will be released at a later date.

Additionally, the Hawks have named Wilkins as Special Advisor to CEO Steve Koonin and signed the legend to a new long-term partnership. He will also continue in his role as Vice President of Basketball.

“Being honored by the great City of Atlanta and my beloved Hawks team is incredibly humbling, I have to thank all the fans, the community and the Hawks organization, in particular the Gearon family, Rutherford Seydel and Tommy Dortch, who have been close friends and important figures since the day I was drafted,” said Wilkins. “I look forward to continuing my partnership with the team and the City for many years ahead.”  

"There is no player more deserving of such an honor than Dominique for his continued commitment to the Hawks and the City of Atlanta. Beyond his amazing play on the court during his Hall-of-Fame career, he has been an ambassador for this franchise and the city for three decades," Koonin said. "For all he has accomplished and continues to do for the Hawks franchise and the City of Atlanta, we are proud to bestow this permanent recognition of his legacy."

Wilkins is the Hawks’ all-time leading scorer, ranking second in team history in steals, fourth in rebounds, sixth in blocked shots and seventh in assists. The 12th-leading scorer in league history is also a nine-time NBA All-Star and two-time Slam Dunk champion (1985, 1990).

Nicknamed ‘The Human Highlight Film’, Wilkins is one of three players in franchise history to have his uniform number (#21) retired, joining Bob Pettit and Lou Hudson. He was named to seven All-NBA teams and won a Gold Medal as a member of the United States World Championship team in 1994. Wilkins starred collegiately at the University of Georgia where he ended his career as the all-time scoring leader with averages of 21.6 points and 7.5 rebounds. A three-time All-SEC performer and Most Valuable Player of the 1981 Southeastern Conference Tournament, he was selected third overall in the 1982 NBA Draft.

Wilkins statue

Hawks Celebrate Dominique Wilkins And Unveil Larger-Than-Life Statue

Historic Tribute Set For 'Dominique Wilkins Night' On March 6 Against Cleveland

Dominique Wilkins: Hall-of-Famer, Community Leader, Atlanta Legend

Dominique Wilkins Goes Through ESPN "Car Wash"

Philips Arena Celebrates 15th Anniversary By Announcing Plans To Build Dominique Wilkins Statue