When the NCAA tourney got canceled in March we entered a whole new world, which included a sports void the likes of which we have never seen before. The fine folks at ESPN came to the rescue in mid-April with “The Last Dance”, a 10-part miniseries about the 1998 Chicago Bulls and their quest to win a 6th NBA title in an 8-year span before Coach Phil Jackson and most of his star players all went their separate ways. While it has been comforting to spend the past several Sunday nights with behind-the-scenes stories from Steve Kerr/Scottie Pippen/Dennis Rodman, the star of the show as always is Michael Jordan. Even though the documentary concluded on May 17th, HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel has dug through his archives and discovered oodles of unpublished interviews about Jordan’s career, from his early days as the leading scorer for team USA at the 1983 Pan Am Games to a 55-PT playoff performance during Chicago’s final title run in 1998. We continue our trip down memory lane by chatting with Chattanooga radio play-by-play man Jim Reynolds about former Mocs star Gerald Wilkins, who competed against Jordan in the 1987 Slam Dunk Contest and lost the the 1993 Eastern Conference Semifinals with Cleveland after Jordan made a series-winning jumper over him at the buzzer.
In the 1983 NCAA tourney in Houston when Gerald was a player at Chattanooga he scored 11 PTS in a 1-PT loss to Maryland: what was your 1st impression of freshman Len Bias (who made a game-winning jumper at the buzzer)? Chattanooga was up for most of the game and thought they would win but Maryland made a run at the end of the game. The final play was designed for Adrian Branch but he was covered so the ball went to Bias and he made the shot. At halftime I told someone that I was glad I packed for 2 games!
What are your memories of the 1984 NIT (Chattanooga had a 5-PT OT win over Georgia and then a 2-PT loss to Tennessee)? Coach Murray Arnold had worked with Georgia coach Hugh Durham in the past so they were good friends. Some people wondered why Gerald had not gone to Georgia like his brother Dominique did. It was a bigger deal for Chattanooga than it was for the Bulldogs. They had tried to play their in-state rival Tennessee time and again in the regular season but the Volunteers did not want to play them so there was a lot of hype around that game.
Take me through the 1985 NIT:
He scored 26 PTS/12-18 FG in a 2-PT win over Clemson: how was the team able to hang on for the win? I remember seeing Clemson coach Cliff Ellis pacing up and down the street outside the arena after the game because he was surprised that he lost.
He scored 27 PTS including a shot at the end of regulation in a 1-PT OT win at Lamar: where does that shot rank among the best of his career? It is among the best. Chattanooga was down by 7 PTS with 1:19 left but they kept making shots and Lamar kept missing FTs. They made a long pass to Gerald for the game-tying shot that was very similar to the famous Grant Hill-to-Christian Laettner play several years later: Gerald was kind of a legend before then but that 1 made him famous in school history. We did not have a big traveling party back then but there was a lot of celebration late into the night after that 1. When they went back to the hotel to eat the players were all eating 2-3 lobsters each and there was some discussion about how to divide the bill!
In the summer of 1985 he was drafted in the 2nd round by the Knicks: what did it mean to him to get drafted? Dominique was a big deal by then so when they announced that Gerald had signed at Chattanooga they would refer to Dominique as his older brother. There is a fine line between cocky and confident and he was the most confident player I have ever seen: he was just matter of fact about his plan to end up in the NBA. Gerald was much smarter with his money/entourage after watching how Dominique had some problems that got discovered by the media. He made some big changes in his eating habits before the draft and was in the best shape of his life.
He finished 4th at the 1986 Slam Dunk Contest (including a perfect score of 50 in the 1st round) as Spud Webb won the title over Dominique in Atlanta: what is the best dunk he ever made, and where does Dominique rank among the best dunkers that you have ever seen? We were on the road when Dominique won the 1985 Slam Dunk Contest, which back then came with a cash prize of $10,000. Gerald said that he was rooting for Dominique because he was going to give Gerald half of whatever he won! There is no particular dunk that stands out in my mind but I remember LSU assistant coach Rick Huckaby dissing Gerald after a bad game due to a broken toe.
He was also a participant in the 1987 Slam Dunk Contest (www.youtube.com/watch?v=poEE_mfHKN0), the 1st of 2 in a row won by Michael Jordan: what was it like to compete against a guy who was taking off from the FT line? My memories of Gerald in the pros are actually as the Jordan stopper: he relished the role and accepted the challenge of guarding the best player on the court.
In Game 4 of the 1993 Eastern Conference Semifinals with Cleveland he scored 22 PTS but Jordan scored 31 PTS and made a 15-foot turnaround jumper over Gerald/Hot Rod Williams to clinch the series for eventual champion Chicago: was he getting sick of seeing Jordan bring an end to his playoff run for the 4th time in 5 years? I am sure that was frustrating for him: all he cared about was contributing to victories.
He later wrote a 17-volume curriculum about the history of basketball: why did he decide to write it? I saw him a few years ago when he was watching his daughter Holli play basketball at Furman. He just loved the sport and was a very intelligent guy.
He also spent a couple of summers training Andrew Bynum: what kind of contribution has he made as a trainer? 1 of our former assistant coaches was Johnny Taylor, who was picked 17th overall by Orlando back in 1997 (8 spots behind Tracy McGrady). He trained with Gerald a lot before getting drafted and Johnny always mentions how important Gerald was to his own development.
His son Damien played pro basketball for 15 years, his daughter Holli was SoCon ROY at Furman, and his daughter Jasmyn was crowned Miss Georgia USA in 2012: how proud is he of everything that his kids have accomplished? Gerald takes a lot of pride in being a father. He was very involved with helping Damien improve during his college career. His kids probably care as much about basketball as he does, which certainly means a lot to him. I think that he is just enjoying being a dad at the moment.