Dominique Wilkins spent the majority of his NBA career playing for the Atlanta Hawks. Because of that, he saw a lot of Larry Bird during his league tenure because his Hawks and Larry's Celtics both played in the Eastern Conference.
The two all-time greats faced off in a total of 57 games, including 15 in the playoffs across a dozen NBA seasons. But despite all those hard-fought battles they shared, Wilkins revealed that he and Bird never spoke to each other.
"Larry and I, we played against each other like 12, 13 years," said Nique during his recent appearance on the All The Smoke podcast. "We never spoke. As a great player back then, you didn't want another great player to get close to you so none of us liked each other, never spoke. I didn't speak to him for 13 years straight."
Larry's Celtics dominated Nique's teams in the NBA
Wilkins and Bird played during an 80s decade defined by fierce rivalries and physical play. Larry's main rival was Magic, and Nique was paired against MJ. However, because the Hawks and Celtics resided in the same conference, Larry Legend versus The Human Highlight Film was also a top attraction. And like the other rivalries back then, it was intense.
With the better team, Bird easily dominated their all-time head-to-head at 30-12 in regular-season play and 10-5 in the postseason. Larry averaged 25.3 points, 8.9 rebounds, and 6.4 assists per game, while Wilkins put up 25.9 PPG, 5.5 RPG, and 2.4 APG during those games.
"I give him the utmost respect because of who he was as a player," said Wilkins. "And again, I'm talking about guys that if you hadn't played against them, you had no idea. Cuz they gonna take your heart. If you think you're tough, they're taking your heart."
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Wilkins and Bird became friends, but only after retirement
Fast forward to the current NBA era, and this generation's players have not only become cordial with each other, but even rivals have become too friendly. This was something that the late Lakers legend Jerry West was very puzzled about .
"Why shake hands with the enemy who wants to kill you? You should want to kill them first. It's a war," West said in his appearance on "The Buster" show. "As I said, this is a completely different league than it has ever been before."
According to Dominique, he and Larry finally talked to each other after their playing days were over. In fact, Wilkins said that he and Bird became good friends after retirement. That was the code of conduct back then, but that 'kill or be killed' mentality is gone.
Related: "Go back to the bench and sit down" - Larry Bird's blunt warning to rookie Dominique Wilkins during a bench-clearing brawl
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