Domimique Wilkins

When I was young, my favorite players were Dr. J., Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, and Dominique Wilkins. These players all had great athletic ability and were great dunkers.

I think Dominique Wilkins was a pioneer when it came to dunking. He would pull off dunk contest caliber dunks in close games.  He was also the originator of the windmill dunk. Lots of guys can cradle the ball and wiggle it around before they dunk it, but Dominique started the full blown windmill. Nobody could come near the range of motion he pulled off with his windmills.

There have been many players with great leaping ability, but Wilkins also had great dunking power. He wasn't content with just flushing the ball through the rim but looked more like he was trying to rip the rim off with his power dunks.

 I was a little surprised when he was not named to the top 50 greatest all time players since he was one of the top 10 all time career scorers in the NBA at the time.  The Human Highlight Film may have been known more for his scoring skills and dunking than he was for defense, but he still made some big contributions to the game.