Sibling revivals

Sporting News, The, March 3, 1997 by Bill Fay

The twilight hours are the most difficult time of day to see clearly. The twilight hours of a career are no different.

It's hard to know when you should hang it up. You know the sun eventually will set on your skills, but as long as there is a little light left, why give it up?

Such is the attitude of the Wilkins brothers, San Antonio's Dominique and Orlando's Gerald. They are like two boys pretending not to hear their Mom's call for supper at the end of the day. There is still enough light left in their games to play a little more and they're taking full advantage of it.

Dominique, 37, the more talented and decorated of the two, is leading the injury-riddled Spurs in scoring (18.6 points per game), is third in rebounding (7.1 per game) and fourth in minutes played (31.1 a game). Gerald, 33, the more diligent and scrappy of the two, was the go-to player for the Magic when their young stars were injured the first two months of the season. He has since slipped comfortably into the sixth-man role that management envisioned when he signed last summer and is averaging 11.2 points per game.

Together, they have rejuvenated themselves and their careers. They have proved that even in their twilight hours, they can still play in this league. They plan to talk about it and enjoy it when the Spurs and Magic meet Friday in Orlando.

"It's going to be nice getting together with Dominique because I really haven't even had a chance to talk to him this season," Gerald says. "I follow what he's doing most every clay, but we're both so busy, we don't really get a chance to even get on the phone. I bet I've only actually talked to him once since the season started, so it's going to feel real good having him in town and getting together."

"I'm really happy for Gerald," Dominique says. "He's created a very nice situation for himself there in Orlando. People might have wondered if he had anything left after the last couple of years, but he's shown them there's still a lot to his game."

The same could be said for Dominique, who has surprised a lot of critics this season. There are nights when he can summon a mid-'80s performance from his body Dazzling Dominique, for example. made an appearance against the Jazz last week, producing 32 points (10-of-18 shooting) and 12 rebounds in 39 minutes. Bryon Russell, 11 years younger and a player who prides himself on his ability to shut down scorers, had the defensive assignment that night.

"That Dominique is still a scorer," Russell says. "He takes a lot of off-balance shots, does a lot of crazy moves in the air, but he gets in the basket. He's still got a lot of life left in him."

Dominique always has had a lot of life to his game. At the dawn of his career, he was "The Human Highlight Film," playing more of his game in the air, it seemed, than on the ground. He popularized the windmill dunk as an exclamatory statement. He double-clutched driving layups and even jump shots while floating beyond the reach of defenses. He averaged more than 21 points a game for ll consecutive seasons, including 1985-86, when he won the scoring title with a 30.3 average.

The Hawks, however, never got the right players to complement Wilkins' offense-first mentality They were virtually a rubber-stamp exit from the playoffs each year, never even getting as far as the Eastern Conference finals. When Lenny Wilkens took over as coach in 1993, the only thing he shared with Dominique was the pronunciation of their last names.

It was inevitable there would be a clash between Wilkens' conservative style and Dominique Wilkins' free-wheeling approach. and defense ... well, it's no secret that Dominique saved his energy for the other end of the floor. His tremendous jumping ability put a few frames in the highlight reels when he blocked shots, but too often his defensive responsibilities would slide instead of his feet. The relationship lasted half a season before Dominique was sent to the Clippers for Danny Manning at the trading deadline.

"That really upset me and still does," Dominique says. "Atlanta was all I knew. I don't think my talents had diminished; I was just in a situation where I couldn't play my type of game."

He never felt comfortable in a Clippers uniform and was even more restless the next season after he signed with Boston. Both were losing situations that didn't look like they would improve any time soon. Wilkins may not have had any championship rings, but at least he had played for a winner most of his Atlanta years.

That hurt, but it hurt even more when he realized that his star was plunging. He was available for next-to-nothing after that season with the Celtics, but no one wanted him. He couldn't understand why a winner wouldn't latch on to a nine-time All-Star. He couldn't see how a contending team that needed a little more offense could pass up a guy who had scored 25,000 points.

"I was so disenchanted with the NBA that I felt like I had to get out," he says. "I decided to experiment. Try Europe. I thought it might put the fun back into the game."