Dominique Wilkins Revealed He Was Mad At Michael Jordan And Took It Out On Scottie Pippen
What was one of the most entertaining things in Wilkins’ entire career, were his games against other all-time greats; mostly against Larry Bird and Michael Jordan.
When the Hawks played the Celtics or Bulls in the 80s and early 90s, you knew beforehand that this would be a game you wouldn’t want to miss.
In an interview with Basketball Time Machine’s Sean David, Wilkins now was asked about his rivalry with Jordan, and a Scottie Pippen statement regarding that matter.
Sean David: “Scottie Pippen recently said in an interview that he hated to play against you, because he always had the feeling that you were mad at Michael and you took it out on him. Is there some truth to that?”
Dominique Wilkins: “Probably yeah… for that to come from him, it was definitely a major compliment. But yeah, he’s probably right. You had to have the same energy that Mike had. Mike had fire in his ass every time you played against him.”
Wilkins’ rivalry with Jordan peaked in the 1988 dunk contest during All-Star weekend in Chicago. Jordan finished with a perfect 50 dunk from the free-throw line to win the contest, however, the announcers did note that Wilkins was given abnormally low score for his breathtaking third dunk, a 45, allowing Jordan to win it by 2 with his perfect 50. To this day, the allegations of “home cooking” still float around surrounding the event, and even Jordan himself thought that Wilkins was better that day.