What was the reaction to Dominque Wilkins getting traded to the Clippers from Hawks fans back in the day?

[givemesome1ce1]

https://twitter.com/georgefoster72/status/1665020595761827843?s=46&t=JVLcd4QJGp-FYCEkBb3y6g

 

 

 

Recently saw this tweet about Dominque Wilkins and had no idea he was a Clipper or a Celtic at the end of his career. I’m a newer Hawk fan since the Joe Johnson days as a kid. I want to know from the older members of this, what was the reaction when Dominque Wilkins got traded to Los Angeles Clippers from everybody? Betrayal? Happy it happened? What was the vibe?

[Gray Mule]

Finding out that your girlfriend, the one you are engaged to, had just ran away and eloped with some guy you never heard of.  

[hawkman]

Disappointment, confusion, and anger. The Hawks were playing well and traded their best player. I remembered the feeling in the pit of my stomach when I saw Nique playing so well in a Clippers uniform while Danny Manning looked like a role player for much of his time with the Hawks. This thread is giving me PTSD.

[swanlee]

It sucked, we all knew it at the time and we were not happy and we were right.

[sturt]

[Diesel]

I had never been so angry and disappointed at this franchise.  The message conveyed is we don't want to win.   The other message conveyed is that we don't value our stars.   Nique built Atlanta... Brick by Brick.  And we traded him away.

 

[warcore]

I was a kid and when my Dad broke the news to me, I started crying. 

He tried to turn it into a life lesson and said the reason they traded him was because he was a ball hog. 

Ever since then I've had trust issues with my Dad. 

[TheBigETrain]

It was the single dumbest thing the franchise has ever done.

The team was first in the East and Dominique was the star player. Why would you want to mess up that chemistry.

And if he was traded because he couldn’t agree to a new contract, why would you trade him for a pending UFA who could walk away from the team at the end of the season. Which exactly what Danny Manning did.

The team got nothing for their star player and at the same time killed a legitimate chance of Hawks being an NBA finals team.

[capstone21]

Just awful and to make it worse … Manning didn’t resign so it was all for NOTHING

[Dejay]

You really want me to get my account suspended here, don't you? 

[NBASupes]

Didn't like the return value. 

[Gray Mule]

  Trying to put a positive spin on everything, you think, "I hope the front office knows what they are doing."  Then, it turns out, No, they had no clue what they were doing to the entire Hawk world.  We're still trying to recover.  We get all nervous any time the GM attempts to make any move.  We have a long memory.

[Spud2nique]

I’ve told this story before but rumors that day were swirling all day about Nique being traded by the 6pm EST deadline and I used to follow updates on CNN headline sports by Van Earl Wright (loved his voice).

Anyhoo, 20 past the hour and 50 min past the hour were the updates. I watched the last one at 5:50 PST, the last where they would mention any trade. 
 

I kid you not he went through all the sports and covered everything and then in the last 5 seconds…

The Atlanta Hawks send Dominique Wilkins to the LA Clippers in exchange for Danny Manning. I’M VANNNN EARLLLLL WRIGHT AND THIS IS CNN HEADDDDDLIIIINNNNE SPORTS.

Me:    

…sick .. for months.. years.. honestly, sometimes I feel it’ll never heal, the pain I felt that moment.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

On 6/3/2023 at 3:16 PM, givemesome1ce1 said:

https://twitter.com/georgefoster72/status/1665020595761827843?s=46&t=JVLcd4QJGp-FYCEkBb3y6g

 

 

 

Recently saw this tweet about Dominque Wilkins and had no idea he was a Clipper or a Celtic at the end of his career. I’m a newer Hawk fan since the Joe Johnson days as a kid. I want to know from the older members of this, what was the reaction when Dominque Wilkins got traded to Los Angeles Clippers from everybody? Betrayal? Happy it happened? What was the vibe?

 

I was 3 paragraphs in, about to type a long post about everything that went on back then, before I erased most of it.  I was in college, and I still remember that shit like it was yesterday . . almost 30 years later.

There are some good Youtube videos that sum up everything. No sense in going through every detail.

 

 

 

What the Hawks did to Nique, and to the fan base, was inexcusable.  The coach ( Lenny Wilkins ), didn't like Nique shooting so much and not moving the ball.  And the GM thought he could trade Nique for a younger All-Star who is more of a team player.

Remember, there is no Michael Jordan in the league at this time, because Jordan had retired after the murder of his father.  So the East was wide open.

With the Hawks as the #1 team in the conference, and Nique being the star of the team, they may have had enough to take out everyone in the East.  That trade ruined a potential great ending to his legacy in Atlanta.

If the Hawks made the NBA Finals, they would've played the Rockets.

Maybe Nique would be able to do this vs that team in a Hawks uniform.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Diesel]

42 minutes ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

 

I was 3 paragraphs in, about to type a long post about everything that went on back then, before I erased most of it.  I was in college, and I still remember that shit like it was yesterday . . almost 30 years later.

There are some good Youtube videos that sum up everything. No sense in going through every detail.

 

 

 

What the Hawks did to Nique, and to the fan base, was inexcusable.  The coach ( Lenny Wilkins ), didn't like Nique shooting so much and not moving the ball.  And the GM thought he could trade Nique for a younger All-Star who is more of a team player.

Remember, there is no Michael Jordan in the league at this time, because Jordan had retired after the murder of his father.  So the East was wide open.

With the Hawks as the #1 team in the conference, and Nique being the star of the team, they may have had enough to take out everyone in the East.  That trade ruined a potential great ending to his legacy in Atlanta.

If the Hawks made the NBA Finals, they would've played the Rockets.

Maybe Nique would be able to do this vs that team in a Hawks uniform.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Damn...

Re-opened wound...

[JayBirdHawk]

On 9/5/2019 at 1:08 PM, JayBirdHawk said:

 

I've told my tales of that Nique trade...first ever Hawks game, excited to see the Human Highlight Film, I wake up, it's game day....the Hawks trade Nique for freaking Danny  Manning, SMDH. 

 

SIGH!!! 

WHY AM I STILL A HAWKS FANS???? 

These old wounds just won't heal. 

[AHF]

On 6/4/2023 at 12:15 AM, TheBigETrain said:

It was the single dumbest thing the franchise has ever done.

The team was first in the East and Dominique was the star player. Why would you want to mess up that chemistry.

And if he was traded because he couldn’t agree to a new contract, why would you trade him for a pending UFA who could walk away from the team at the end of the season. Which exactly what Danny Manning did.

The team got nothing for their star player and at the same time killed a legitimate chance of Hawks being an NBA finals team.

What made it 10x worse is that not only were we first in the East, Jordan was out of the league and the door was WIDE open to some other team stepping to claim a championship with the Bulls being demoted from "obviously the best team in the league" to "also ran playoff team" status. 

You have to be sensitive to the rare windows in which you can actually contend for a title and the trade was a betrayal of that based on the premise that Nique was getting old and too expensive and that they would be ok accepting a downgrade in the short term for a 27 year old who should be good years beyond the end of Nique's prime.  So we took our one seemingly legit shot at a ring during Nique's era and just threw it out the window for a guy who ended up being #5 of 10 on the team in ORTG and #6 of 10 on the team in DRTG in the playoffs -- i.e., a guy who wasn't a true standout talent.  For context, we played the #8 seed Miami Heat in the first round and Smitty both outscored and outrebounded Manning and Smitty was not a transcendent star of that or any other era.

The health issues were a secondary problem with the trade but less so (to me) than accepting a downgrade and a huge risk to chemistry on the court in the best season in decades with the presumptive champs scratched off the list.

Just an epic fail.

[thecampster]

On 6/3/2023 at 4:16 PM, givemesome1ce1 said:

https://twitter.com/georgefoster72/status/1665020595761827843?s=46&t=JVLcd4QJGp-FYCEkBb3y6g

 

 

 

Recently saw this tweet about Dominque Wilkins and had no idea he was a Clipper or a Celtic at the end of his career. I’m a newer Hawk fan since the Joe Johnson days as a kid. I want to know from the older members of this, what was the reaction when Dominque Wilkins got traded to Los Angeles Clippers from everybody? Betrayal? Happy it happened? What was the vibe?

about 9-1 fan fury

We were tops in the East off and on that season and Management tried to sell that Manning was a more complete player.  Nique was more than a stat line to many fans in Atlanta and people were hot.

They tried to get behind Manning but the team never recovered emotionally. Nique was a leader that season in the locker room.

[Atlantaholic]

Management punted one of the small handful of seasons the Hawks actually had a chance at a finals appearance. The trade did so much damage to Atlanta basketball it's probably one of the worst all-time moves in all of sports. 

[Diesel]

15 hours ago, thecampster said:

about 9-1 fan fury

We were tops in the East off and on that season and Management tried to sell that Manning was a more complete player.  Nique was more than a stat line to many fans in Atlanta and people were hot.

They tried to get behind Manning but the team never recovered emotionally. Nique was a leader that season in the locker room.

I don't know if Nique was a lockerroom leader, but Nique was the face of the Hawks.  It was a miscalculation.   Nique had struggled to make this franchise respectable for several years.   Then the one year that he has a clear shot...

• Finally got some help. 
• Jordan is gone. 
• The team is in position.
• Got a good coach..

He gets traded. 

This wasn't just a star player.  This wasn't just a notable player.   This was the identity of the Atlanta Hawks.   The self made player who pulled this franchise up with his own hands.  From UGA to the Hawks...  Homegrown superstar...  Traded?