Found this article while surfing.......about Nique

[Admin]

Now I am not sure how old this is, but its from an ESPN Page 2 article that I found while looking for pictures of the inside of Phillips Arena, which I couldnt find any good ones.....anyways, its a great read if you are a fan of the Hawks and especially of Niques.

In reply to:

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Is Dominique Wilkins not the most underrated NBA player ever? Does anyone realize how good he was and that the best players he ever played with were Doc Rivers and John Battle?

-- J. Disher, Columbus, Ohio

For better or worse, Dominique Wilkins was a one-man scoring machine.

That's an excellent call. 'Nique somehow became one of those "Slip Through the Cracks" guys, along with Gus Williams, Andrew Toney, Paul Westphal and even Moses Malone (who was more dominant than Kareem, year in and year out, from 1977-1988, and for the love of God, I will not argue about this). Nobody ever mentions these guys anymore. It's mystifying. Thank heavens for NBA.comTV.

Four things you need to know about 'Nique:

1. MJ may have been better at controlling his body in the air and creating a shot from nowhere, but 'Nique was the greatest "in-game" dunker of all-time. Nobody dunked on people as consistently and violently; he made it an art form. Just an electric player to watch in person. There's nobody in the league right now quite like him. No, not even you, Vince.

2. The Hawks won 50 games or more for three straight years ('86 through '88) during the league's strongest period, when there were only 24 teams, the Bird/Magic/Moses/Isiah generation was still thriving and the MJ/Hakeem/Malone generation was coming into its own. Watch a tape of the '88 All-Star Game some time: Kevin McHale, Barkley and Patrick Ewing came off the bench for the East. Yikes. Anyway, during that time, 'Nique averaged 30.0 points-per-game and doubled as the only bona fide All-Star on his team, during a time when most contenders had two, three, even four stars. Quite a feat.

3. 'Nique averaged 26-plus points for 10 straight years ('85 thru '94). Remarkable.

4. On a personal note, I have probably attended 500 to 600 NBA games in person over the years, and Wilkins made the single most spectacular play I've ever seen: During the '88 playoffs, he bricked a jumper from the top of the key, jumped from (practically) the foul line and rammed home the rebound over at least two Celtics. I can't even properly describe it; everyone in the Garden made this low-pitched "Oooooooh" noise when it happened, almost like a "Swoooooosh." We didn't know what to do. He jumped like 50 feet. I'm not kidding.

So how did Dominique Wilkins not get selected for the NBA's "Top 50" a few years ago? For one thing, he never even played in a Conference finals, which hurts the cause. And he battled the stigma of being a "Me First" guy; Doc Rivers once claimed that you could stand in the huddle with Wilkins during the final 30 seconds of a one-point playoff game and ask him, "'Nique, how many points do you have?" and Wilkins would respond with without missing a beat, "37 ... and I would have 39 if they called that foul back in the second quarter."

If that wasn't enough, Wilkins never displayed the all-around brilliance of some of his contemporaries; he could score points with anybody, but he always seemed to make a better foil than anything. It's somewhat fitting that his most memorable game happened during an eventual Hawks loss ('Nique's famous shootout with The Man in the '88 playoffs). But to say that Wilkins wasn't one of the best 50 NBA players of all-time ... that's just absurd.

Put it this way: Had Wilkins and Clyde Drexler switched teams back in 1985, Wilkins would have been the one playing for the Dream Team in '92. Case closed.

(And don't even get me started on Bob McAdoo's omission ... that's a tale for another time ...)

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[Guest]

Everything in that article was true. 'Nique is still the best dunker in the Nba ever! Mj got way too much hype.

[Guest]

Dunking contests aren't championship rings so what does

it matter?