Dominique+Wilkins

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Career NBA Stats
 * **G** || **FG%** || **3PFG%** || **FT%** || **Rebs** || **RPG** || **Asts** || **APG** || **Stls** || **Blks** || **Pts** || **PPG** ||
 * 1,074 || .461 || .319 || .811 || 7,169 || 6.7 || 2,667 || 2.5 || 1,378 || 642 || 26,668 || 24.8 ||

Jacques Dominique Wilkins was born January 12,1960 in Paris, France, due to the fact that his father lived their. He grew up in Washington, North Carolina where he attended Washington high[|.][|Dominique Wilkins]. Wilkins was the oldest child and a younger brother Gerald Wilkins who also played in the NBA.

Dominique attended college at Georgia, where he averaged 21.6 points over three seasons. He chose not to stay for his senior year and he decided that he was ready to turn professional. His success in college his first three years determine that he was ready to pursue his life long dream. The only obstacles that stood in his way were was he ready to play at a faster pace on a nightly basis. It was 1982 the draft was here and he was selected third overall by the Utah Jazz, but he refused to sign with them.

Come September 1982 Wilkins was traded to the Atlanta Hawks for two players and cash considerations. He was on his way to success from there. I his rookie season he averaged 17.5 pts per game. Dominique came back in his second season with an average of 21.6 pts per game, starting a remarkable streak in which he would average above 20 points per contest for 11 consecutive seasons. Wilkins was the key to the Hawks success in the late 1980s as the team accomplished 50 wins in four straight seasons from 1985-86 to 1988-89. During that run he averaged more than 30 points per game twice, and for the four years combined he averaged 29.1 pts per game. In 1988 he also scored 29 points in 30 minutes of playing time in the NBA All-Star Game. In the postseason he averaged 31.2 points and despite the Hawks narrowly missing out on reaching the Eastern Conference Finals after losing to the Boston Celtics by a small deficit of two points in Game 7 of the conference semifinals, he ganied more respect as a result of his ledgendary battle with the great Larry Bird. When the 1990s came the Atlanta Hawks turned into a mediocre team, but Wilkins was still developing as a player. In the 1991-92 season Wilkins nearly suffered what some would call a career ending injury due to a ruptured achilles tendon. The following year the 32-year-old Wilkins came back feeling better than before, averaging 29.9 ppg to finish second to Michael Jordan for the league scoring title.

Halfway through the 1993-94 season Wilkins 12th season with Atlanta the Hawks shocked fans by trading their all-time leading scorer and franchise player to the Los Angeles Clippers for Danny Manning. Wilkins became a free agent after the following season and he signed with the Boston Celtics for 1994-95. Although he led the Celtics in scoring, his average of 17.8 pts per game was his lowest average since he first came to the league as a rookie. The following season Dominique signed with the Panathinaikos Athens of the Greek League. In this league he averaged 20.9 pts and 7 rbs in 14 games for Panathinaikos and led the team to the European Championship for Men's Clubs in 1996. Wilkins was named the MVP of the European Final Four in Paris. He returned to the for three seasons with the San Antonio Spurs and The Orlando Magic. In Orlando he played on the same team ashis younger brother Gerald. Unfortnately that was his final season he averaged 5 pts per game and 2.6 rbs per game in only 27 games.

In 2007 Dominique was named to the Hall of Fame. He had many highlights such as being named a Allstar nine times, he was on the all rookie team, two time slam dunk champion, and he been named to the all NBA team 7 times. Dominique will be mentioned along the greats such as Michael Jordan, Ervin Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Julius Erving.

__Work Cited__ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominique_Wilkins

http://www.nba.com/history/players/wilkins_bio.html