Dominique Wilkins Beyond The Glory | The Human Highlight Film Documentary

dominique wilkins used basketball to free his family from poverty he used to play for 20 a game to buy food and became the nba's human highlight film beyond the glory next on fox sports now [Music] before kobe or insanity kg or even mj there was dominique i didn't like the name dominate growing up but i kind of like it now he was the man of the house by the age of 12. i didn't have much of a childhood and neither did he a bona fide basketball star by 16 we just heard that he could do i mean he could spit in the rim the hype of the fame the glory the women we would always joke the film if you ever gotten into rest though i'd only know what you could accomplish on the court when he found love his life turned upside down she had threatened my life and i was afraid to do anything i never thought i would be up here in a courtroom with him it got blown way out of proportion they didn't need to make up stories because it was all true in the midst of this civil war he was sent into exile he said somebody hugged me he was devastated that's what killed him the only thing i regret is not winning the championship that's the only thing the bizarre odyssey of a true slam dunk artist this is dominique wilkins absolutely boston garden may 1988. bird is eight for the field wilkins is four of six wilkins ties it for atlanta what a game it was standing room only and it was hot you can feel the heat from the people in the stands it was a sweat box and and they just kept turning the heat up play after play those two guys was like literally just going after each other the consummate showman versus the quintessential team 30 for players dominique would take the one-on-one battle you are watching what greatness is all about larry legend would win the war oh [Applause] the boston celtics win this series [Applause] we had a great opportunity great opportunity to win but unfortunately it didn't happen the defeat would define his game perhaps unfairly for the rest of his career i wish more people in the coaching profession could have gotten to know what he's really about you know his reputation of not being a defender or not being a rebounder or not being a team guy i mean to me that was completely ludicrous to me he was a winner his quest for a title would consume him and lead him home to the city of lights the wild finish they're the european club champion and we have bedlam here in paris it's kind of bittersweet yeah he won the championship but it wasn't the nba championship and that's what his real heart's desire is [Music] the superstar simply known as dominique we got his famous name in paris france i was actually born in paris outside the past called football military base [Music] nurse came and said uh look at little dominic and he's cute i said who gertrude wilkins kept the name for her oldest boy she would have her hands full my mind basically raised eight kids by herself dominique's father john was a military man and a playboy my father loved the woman and he ran a lot whenever he did see the kids he showed them a lot of love the wilkins family returned to the states and settled in baltimore by the time dominique was 12 his father had abandoned the family in the projects known as o'donnell heights during the time i lived in baltimore it had the highest crime rate in america i mean it was tough his name didn't help boys used to call him a because they thought well what kind of name is that sounds like a girl dominique became the man of the house when i was a baby i was really sick i had epilepsy and i can remember dominic's taking care of me if the younger kids got out of hand believe me he gave him a good whipping he had to do what he had to do you know nothing outrageous or you know over the top but he did what he had to do to make sure that um we survived the lanky kid with the girlish name quickly discovered the best way to stay alive in baltimore he used to go out and play basketball for twenty dollars a game and bought the money home to buy food on these courts a showman was born one day i thought there was some older guys he said young fella you dunked on this goal they give you 20 got about three or four dribbles went up kept going kept going nobody said it was just quiet and i kindly walked up there can i have my twenty dollars but courtside gambling can't feed a family and baltimore seemed more dangerous by the day i'm looking out the window this guy's robbing us already i said i gotta get out of this city this city is too crazy in the summer of 76 sixteen-year-old dominique visited his grandmother in little washington north carolina a tiny harbor town along tobacco road he never went back to baltimore he was coming up the street and it was like a movie you know like he was walking in slow motion real tall skinny didn't look like nothing but bone the high school coaster saw me play on the playground he asked me what can we do to get you to come and play ball here that winter gertrude moved the rest of the family south the washington pampax named after the pamlico river began one of the most celebrated runs in the history of high school basketball my first year we won our first 28 game we lost in the summer i found to go to state it would be his only loss in three seasons from 77 to 79 we had the longest winning streak in the nation 56 consecutive games i think they had us number six in the nation i would have gave anything to play one through five our fans in washington followed us to every game everybody was there before it started just to watch the warm-up through the hog and glow trolling things all behind our backs and heads he had taken up the game to survive his talent would make him a star he didn't look at the coach he didn't look at the players he just want to please the crowd he had flirted with perfection to begin his basketball life but glory is fleeting you see your knees swell up in seconds i thought that my career was over family is forever he found him living in a shelter and i said you gotta bring him here [Music] he's the human highlight filmmaker dominique wilkins got his nickname long before arriving in atlanta the high-flying hawk heard it first in north carolina at the age of 17. i couldn't understand how i was scoring these points i was this skinny kid 180 pounds and you know slip and slide through people so they say i had to roll the film back and keep seeing what i was doing and they still couldn't figure it out so that's how i got to name in 1979 dominique was the main attraction in little washington leading the team to back-to-back titles two undefeated seasons you could say he kind of jumped out jumped out at you because you know what what an explosive leaper he was dominique landed in athens georgia with coach hugh durham's [Applause] bulldogs the day that he signed uh to go to university georgia we all have to watch them me and all the other seven kids individual red georgia pulled on from head to toe and i'd be cheering and everything and that was great coach durham had recruited a fab four freshman class terry fair lamar heard derek floyd and dominique the human highlight film george's all everything i had to live up to that nickname so i had to come in with a lot of confidence his dynamic play led to an early season double overtime win over sixth ranked lsu and a national reputation we constantly had reporters in and out of the room everybody wanted to see him meet him get an autograph and things like that the young dogs won nine of their first 12 games but the cinderella run would end in alabama my knee went one way my foot stayed there wasn't anything other than just probably a physical play inside i thought that my career was over actually because you know you see your knees swell up in seconds you know you're like oh i'm just done [Music] a severe strain would sideline him for six weeks with dominique on the bench the dogs were done we leaned heavily on dominic when dominic wasn't there we lost too many close games back on campus dominique met a man with an eye on his future jack found a way to meet players that wasn't uh that wasn't hard to do jack manton was an attorney who believed the human highlight film was bound for a profitable run he would take care of certain players for a while buy clothes for you and stuff like that help your family you see your mother your mother's been on welfare you got eight brothers and sisters i mean it's really a no-brainer for a young kid it was also a violation of ncaa rules [Music] in the fall of 1980 herschel walker arrived in athens like a freight train the following spring in stegman coliseum dominique reminded georgia fans of the other game in town we had the football players interested in coming to watch us now rather than us just going to watch them dominique averaged more than 20 points a game but it was the way he scored like a live wire it seems strange that a ball player your caliber would go down to georgia that didn't have tradition they're known for football right that's true i just wanted to go to the school to help build into this [Music] dominique led the dogs to 19 wins and a spot in the national invitational tournament he considered turning pro after only one complete college season a surprising move for the times [Music] i basically said hey the money is there you can just take it whenever you get ready so mom what y'all do you getting food stamps you're on welfare i don't like that i said well tell you what you do i know i need you you'll help but you go in the room and yourself prayer and when you come out the decision that you make that's what you do mentally i just wasn't ready dominique would have one more run in athens before a starring role on the grandest stage of all but his dog days would come back to haunt him i don't understand you know what jack wanted out of me it didn't like he needed the money he got his money right off my contract so money would be the least of his worries the newspaper half the things they put in that was live they didn't need to make up stories because it was all true [Music] for more than a decade dominique wilkins was the unofficial ambassador of atlanta georgia he meant a lot to atlanta he was basically the man you know just like ted turner the man here in atlanta he was the man here utah jazz choose he was almost the man in salt lake city utah took him with the third overall pick in 1982 but ted turner saw a potential gold mine in the former georgia star the media mogul gave the jazz a million dollars and two proven players including veteran john drew for the rookie john drew was one of the eldest statesmen of the team to get win of you know john drew getting traded for a rookie you know it almost blew us out off our feet the rookie made the deal seem like a steal he'd wear himself out sometimes before the game started just trying to put a show on for the people that come to watch him play you get the fans into the game it even makes you feel better and that's the way i like to play i like to try to get the people around me going it was a song came out called freakazoid he was out dunking and freaking and everything so we started calling freakazor oh my god the thing is it's a thrill it's something when you come and live you can't believe you know you didn't you can't believe it he was riding around in one of his cars one day saw a couple kids out playing basketball in the driveway george would say let's stop and play basketball let's blow their minds right we get out you know the kids eyes like light up but that's just the type of things he would do i mean he would we would try to bring george to everybody that he was around by 1984 dominique was the hawks leading scorer he bought his mother a house and showered his little brothers and sisters with his newfound wealth tommy was able to do things and make me happy it wasn't anything that i wanted that he wouldn't get for me you know any where i wanted to go he wouldn't send me and he wouldn't just send me he sent me and two of my friends his little brother gerald followed him into the league in 1985. a guard for the knicks gerald was workmen like nothing like dominique sparked he was spectacular i mean just spectacular uh the dunks the explosions to the basket he's just like thunder like boom dominique dominique reached his biggest audience that year at the second annual slam dunk competition he faced off against a talented rookie named michael jordan [Music] dominique took the individual trophy but he wanted a championship [Music] i asked him what do you think you could do for this team and he said i think i can score more and help us win more basketball games well we went on to win 57 games and he wound up leading the nba and scoring over 30 points per game so i think he pretty much called the shot his own rebound the hawks would win the atlantic division and cruise through the first round of the playoffs atlanta would have to play the defending champion boston celtics to move on [Music] the atlanta hawks just will not surrender to the favorite boston sussex it's kind of a clash of two worlds in bird you've got somebody who's already an icon he's already been sanctified as a boston saint and dominique represents a different kind of basketball the frenetic hawks led by the freakazoid had old school boston by the throat up three games to two in the best of seven series all atlanta has to do is go down to atlanta and close the series out [Applause] we blew the opportunity awesome i think in the last 10 seconds of that game boston has won the game number 21 would need a win in historic boston garden for a shot at the title i never forget zory came in the locker room and said we're going to win a bleep bleep game and if you're not gonna fight don't come up here game seven would go down as one of the greatest games in nba history dominic was an unstoppable player no guy could guard him in the league with man for man you could see his competitiveness you could see his determination in that game seven there was only one player on the floor who could match his will end of the third kevin willis came out with it don't let this son of a gun score anymore bruh's eyes got this i look like kevin what are you doing and from that point it was it was a shooting match dominique had 47 points but he was denied a final chance at 50. there's five seconds left for the miracle we were down three and ainge runs and fouls him rather than one more attempt at a three-pointed that's how hot he was that's how much he was in that zone ange feared he might make a three and tie the game he will quite obviously miss the second one he had brought the hawks within seconds of advancing to the eastern conference finals it was as close as they would ever get nothing can ever take away the memories of the game he played that day he was the best player in the game to never win the big one but with fame came the chance to forgive the man who had left him behind i heard that he was in atlanta i sent my son john to see if he could find him he found him living in a shelter and i said you got to bring him here suffering from diabetes john wilkins would spend the rest of his life surrounded by his family he just wanted you know live life you know and enjoy himself and maybe to a fall like father like son zoy could like hang out all night and steal and come give you a hard 48 minutes it's not too many people that have been through this league can do that yeah i had a little bit of cash in my pocket back then uh it was fun in atlanta i mean i think uh we were joking with the ratio there were men the women it was like 17 to one or something women to men or whatever and you know i guess zoro tried to get his 17 so to speak by 91 he had fathered two daughters out of wedlock one of the women would later accuse him of sexual battery everything that gluta isn't gold and when you think you really know people or know a person you really don't her complaint was thrown out but she wasn't the only one to take him to court his first agent jack manton sued dominique trying to reclaim money loaned to wilkins during his days at georgia dominique eventually settled the case without an ncaa investigation for 43 thousand dollars i think he got caught up uh into college athletics at a time when nobody cared [Music] dominique like his dad would find himself at odds with his family they're very strong family very tight-knit family they want what's best for him for sure even though they may go about it in strange ways being that close is like okay you're taking him away from us i was devastated you know it was my son that that would die for me and now i can't come to this house [Music] [Applause] by 1990 dominique wilkins had two slam-dunk titles now there's a 360 with just a little authority folks but he didn't have a reign instead he had a reputation as an individual artist in a team game dominique wilkins is a repeat champion when you're a flashy player and you do a lot of dunking and that sort of thing that sticks with you they don't see the other parts of your game and i tell people all the time you know you can't get 29 30 points a game just on dumps the human highlight film had led the hawks to four straight 50 win seasons only to lose twice to boston in the playoffs 160. you know god only knows that if there was not a boston team there how many championship would dominique been able to win some wondered whether atlanta could ever win it all with dominique in the lineup when he is the man the guy that has to get up 22 24 25 shots a night other people might look at it and say this guy doesn't want to give the ball up this guy doesn't want to share [Music] january 28 1992 dominique needs 33 points to top 20 000 for his career but the crowning moment of a decade of dominance would have somebody hit me or kicked me i turned out saying who kicked me i turned on no one was there but he's in a lot of pain dominating nursing the ankle and he'll see received limping off and i looked down my foot it was almost straight in the air he torn his achilles tendon dominique returned courtside an hour later his leg in a cast [Music] [Applause] why did i do that i don't know why i did that it was an emotional moment i never forget and the team just you see the tears coming out of guys i mean guys was literally crying in the locker room and that's when you know people respect you don't be a strong person he'll be back charles thanks for your time i feel appreciative man unbelievable there was no one near me i just turned and just popped you know this when they catch you up on the stretcher i knew something was i knew it was bad then he was like my career is over and i was like nah your career is not over you're a healthy young man you'll be able to come back stronger than ever he faced surgery and eight months of rehabilitation within weeks dominique changed his life this man on crutches humped up to us sat down and just started talking and he just talked and talked nicole berry was a 22 year old college student and former model dominique proposed two weeks after they met i guess it you know it's a vulnerable moment so it made you more focused on how precious every minute is the wedding plans caught the wilkins off guard and sparked a bitter family feud i couldn't even comprehend exactly everything that was going on and couldn't believe that people were behaving so badly everybody says things when they're mad you know you know she might have said some things to us that wasn't right we said some things to her the hawks leading man found himself starring in a sports page soap opera whenever that kind of controversy you know with family you're always in the middle even if you don't want to be you're in the middle domic was the oldest there for me if i had any kind of problem when she came in that stopped so i was devastated she had threatened my life and i was afraid to do anything so a war of words evolved into criminal action nicole was charged with pointing a gun at some family members the family struck back we had the closet full my side was empty everything was in the pool the pool had to be drained and all my stuff had to come out and it was all ruined the bride would get a restraining order against her future mother-in-law i never thought i would be up here in a courtroom with him going against me for something he knows wrong 600 people were invited to the wedding i was dating the chief of police so he escorted me into the wedding that's how i got hit dominique's sisters did not attend it wasn't that we were jealous because he was taking a wife it's just we were so close and you know being that close is like okay you're taking him away from us in all my wedding pictures you see a man in a nice suit sitting quietly well that was my undercover police officer as outlandish as it seems it all happened by the winter of 92 dominique was more than ready to return to his first love it just would give me chills because i was in love with him i had no idea how much everyone loved him women were just crying because they were so happy that he was back and healed he was 33 and trying to return from major surgery i think he had the responsibility that he felt to the city to the franchise to his teammates and then to all of his family members who must put a special burden on his shoulders his remarkable return to form had the hawks poised for another title run we were playing great leading this eastern conference playing great basketball on february 24 1994 team president stan caston came to the wilkins house vividly remember stan kind of pacing around and he just told me well we made a trade today and it's we traded neat to the los angeles clippers atlanta trained its franchise player for the younger danny manning he came over the house that night he said somebody somebody hugged me somebody he was devastated that night the star of the south disappeared he would never contend for an nba title again that's what killed him he got pushed away he didn't walk away i was surprised that someone didn't go after him pick him up march 24 1994 dominic wilkins uniform for the first time atlanta welcomed the hawks all-time leading scorer back home he was very nervous i've never seen him i mean he was almost shaking wilkins going for three terrible first half thing had like four points at halftime but the human highlight film was determined to put on a show i just told harper give me the ball just give me the ball get out of the way it was so strange because the fans were torn for me i'm like i'm back home dominique has come back and conquered his old team it would be his last starring role in the nba dominique wilkins would finish his career as a journeyman role player on mediocre teams contenders never took a chance on number 21. that's what killed him he couldn't understand what was going on he just totally feels like they just shut him out i'm not sure that from a distance they really could appreciate how much winning meant to this guy it meant so much to when we left the country to win a title in 1995 he signed with panafi nakos athens of the greek league [Music] that season would be the hardest of his life my father got ill when i was in greece they say he fell into a diabetic coma john wilkins passed away on december 27 1995. [Music] dominique returned home to be with his family the greeks were pressing him to come back to europe to not stay for the whole funeral and everything so that was that was terrible they weren't thrilled about me coming in and they didn't really care about if someone was passing or not i mean they would act like them but they didn't really care dominique's grandmother died just weeks later in little washington they pressed him so badly when it came to his father's funeral that he actually wasn't even able to go to his maternal grandmother's funeral i went in his stead and i just crushed him here's wilkins he'll shoot it and he'll make it dominique is in the groove emotionally spent physically exhausted dominique would win his championship in the city of his named the game's birth valuable player it's a championship and it's something that in that country is i mean it's bigger than life but it's not the nba it's tough to walk it's still tough to walk with i watch games now i'm like man what is this guy doing he was depressed him not having a goal he was just lost to the fans of atlanta i want to say for the bottom of my heart i love you more than you ever know and i appreciate all the support over these years life beyond the game proved too much for their marriage because he was miserable she was miserable they were just two young people that didn't know which way they wanted to go the women who had once hated the union now see the wisdom in keeping it intact i said to dom hey maybe you know think about talking about getting that with your wife he looked at me so i can't believe he's come from here we all make mistakes but forgiving is the best part [Music] dominique is back in atlanta with his family and the hawks starting all over again in basketball but on the other side on the management side if it could end the way you think it should end dominique would win his championship be named one of the 50 greatest players in the nba which he should be he wasn't recognized as one of the top 50. to me dominique is one of the top 25. he would still be playing right now if anybody invited him to he pulled up put on his shoes socks and go still get out there shoot him you don't lose a touch you might lose the knees but you don't lose touch you

Channel: SQUADawkins

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Keywords: Dominique Wilkins Beyond The Glory, Dominique Wilkins, The Human Highlight Film Documentary, Dominique Wilkins Documentary

Id: 4Lgz9S9YhCY

Length: 37min 11sec (2231 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 07 2022