- Dominique Wilkins opened up on what it was like to play against Larry Bird as a rookie
- He revealed that Larry Bird refused to shake his hand in their first game against one another
- Dominique Wilkins said Larry Bird told him he couldn’t believe the team let Wilkins guard him
Dominique Wilkins was traded to the Atlanta Hawks after being drafted No. 3 overall in the 1982 NBA Draft. He was highly regarded, but his initial Eastern Conference battles were against Larry Bird and the legendary Boston Celtics. And he opened up on what the experience of going against a prime Bird was like.
“It was shocking and I’m a rookie, we’re both small forwards and guys guarded each other back in the day,” Dominique Wilkins said. “You couldn’t duck each other.
“And so I go to shake his hand and he put both hands behind his back. And I’m saying okay, he getting his head ready to play. First play of the game, he says, ‘I don’t know why they got you guarding me, homes.’ And he shoots a three.
“I was pissed. I wasn’t mad he hit the three but this sumb*tch just called me homes. It set up a really interesting game.”
Larry Bird scored 21 points in his first game against Dominique Wilkins in a game that the Boston Celtics won. He then dropped 30 on Wilkins and the Hawks in their next game just over a month later.
Plenty of players from the 1980s have spoken about Larry Bird’s trash-talk and how devastating it was, including Gary Payton. But perhaps no one dealt with it as much as Dominique Wilkins, who had to face Bird 57 times in his career.
Larry Bird And The Boston Celtics Dominated Dominique Wilkins And The Atlanta Hawks
During his time with the Hawks, Dominique Wilkins became a 9-time All-Star, an NBA scoring champion, and a 2-time winner of the Slam Dunk Contest.
Despite his greatness and accolades though, Wilkins was rarely able to get the better of Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics, with Bird’s team winning 40 games out of the 57 they played against one another.
His playoff record against Dominique Wilkins was 10-5 too, and he once dropped 60 points on the Hawks in a legendary game. If Larry Legend was talking trash to Dominique Wilkins, it was nothing he couldn’t and didn’t back up.
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