NBA Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins says he still remembers being trashed talked by Larry Bird the first time he played against the Boston Celtics as an Atlanta Hawks rookie, and it made him steam.
Bird razzed him in their first matchup during the 1982-83 season, Wilkins told
the Boston Herald.
"I went out for the opening tip and I went to shake his hand," said Wilkins. "He just stood there and looked at me stone-faced with his hands behind his back. I was like, 'Whoa.' Then we were getting ready for the tip and he says to me, 'You don't belong in this league, Homes.' I couldn't believe it, but it happened so fast, I didn't know what to think."
Wilkins said Bird opened the game by making a couple of 3-point shots while he was guarding Boston star and that Bird continued to taunt him.
"So now I'm hot," said Wilkins. "I'm hot. I mean, I'm steaming. Then a little while later, I came down on a break and he was backpedaling. I just went right after him. I jumped up and he tried to challenge, but I took that right through the rim. He fell and hit the basket support."
"He got up and said, 'I like you, rookie. You've got (guts),'" said Wilkins. "I was happy for a second, and then he said, 'But I'm still going for 40 on you tonight.'"
Wilkins said he got the best of Bird. "He only scored 39."
Wilkins, nicknamed the "Human Highlight Film," would go on to score 26,668 points in the NBA, averaging 24.8 points per game over his career and enter the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame with Charles Barkley and Joe Dumars in 2006,
according to the NBA.
On Tuesday, the Hawks announced they will debut a sculpture of Wilkins outside of Philips Arena in Atlanta.
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