NBA Legend Didn't Talk To Dominique Wilkins For Almost A Decade After Getting Posterized

Hawks legend Dominique Wilkins almost ended a friendship with one unforgettable dunk.

When talking NBA’s greatest dunkers of all time, many would drop Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady or prime Blake Griffin. But one player that always pops out in any conversation is Wilkins.

Over the course of his entire NBA career, Wilkins has dunked on an array of basketball superstars including Larry Bird and Robert Parish.

However, there was one in-game dunk the nine-time NBA All-Star will never forget, the one on NBA journeyman Bob Lanier.

Normally, players find it hard to deal with the embarrassment of getting posterized during games. But for Lanier, the humiliation of Wilkins’ off-the-baseline dunk on him almost changed his life.

Speaking to “The B.S. Report Full Podcast,” Wilkins revealed the aftermath of his dunk on Lanier, which is considered as the best dunk of his career.

According to the NBA Hall of Famer, Lanier intended not to talk to him from the day the said dunk happened until he officially retired.

Apparently, the humiliation did not end inside the court and the then-Milwaukee Bucks big man had to do some explaining to his kids regarding the play.

“Right after I retired, he [Lanier] said, ‘ You know, I just started talking to you again,” Wilkins recalled. “I was like, ‘Why ?’ He said, ‘The dunk you had on me on the baseline when I was with Milwaukee, I had to go home and talk to my kids, and my daughter said that dunk was on TV, you got dunked on by Dominique Wilkins like that? I didn’t like you after that, so I didn’t speak to you for nine years.’”

While Lanier got a little too personal about the highlight-worthy dunk, Wilkins insists that it was just part of the game.

As per “The Human Highlight Film,” he did his best to dunk on his opponents as hard as he can in the hopes to intimidate them and possibly stop them from contesting his shots.

“In-game dunking, particularly in traffic—those are the special ones because you catch people off guard,” Wilkins explained.

“The reason I dunked so hard is to keep big guys from trying to challenge my shot,” he added. “Give them a second thought, so if you challenge my shot, I’m gonna put you on the poster. That was my attitude, but more importantly, it gave me free rein to the basket because they weren’t going to challenge it most times. ”