Like Mark Aguirre, Dominique Wilkins spent the majority of his career in the Rewritten Rings universe, making his story one of the more dramatically altered careers in our timeline.
Wilkins entered the NBA one year after Aguirre and one year before our simulation began in 1983-84, giving us a chance to see much of his career unfold in a completely different way.
Wilkins began his career with the Atlanta Hawks, averaging 18 points and 6 rebounds per game as a rookie. However, he lost out on Rookie of the Year to Terry Cummings.
The Hawks made the playoffs that season, and in reality they would return the following year as well, losing in the first round both times. In our universe, however, the Hawks' first two seasons went in opposite directions.
They missed the playoffs in Wilkins' second season, finishing just two games out with 27 wins, before making it the following year and falling in the first round.
The next three seasons are where the paths of Wilkins and the Hawks truly begin to separate from reality, creating a domino effect that would eventually reshape the rest of his career.
In real life, Wilkins and Atlanta reached the Eastern Conference Semifinals in all three seasons, losing to either the Boston Celtics or Detroit Pistons. In our universe, the Hawks missed the playoffs entirely in 1986, before finally reaching the semifinals in 1987, where they were swept by Boston.
That disappointing ending changed everything.
Instead of re-signing with Atlanta, Wilkins left the Hawks and joined the Cleveland Cavaliers, who had just selected David Robinson with the first overall pick.
The move gave Wilkins a fresh start and immediately made Cleveland a playoff team. The Cavaliers captured the fifth seed in his first season, but Wilkins once again found himself on the wrong side of a sweep, this time at the hands of the eventual champion Washington Bullets.
Cleveland returned to the playoffs the following year, but another difficult first-round matchup awaited. The Cavaliers pushed the top-seeded Sixers in a highly competitive series, only to see their season end once again in the opening round.
Then came 1990, and everything changed for Wilkins and Cleveland.
The Cavaliers added Joe Dumars and finished with the best record in the Eastern Conference. This was a completely different Cleveland team, and Wilkins finally had the supporting cast necessary to make a serious championship run. The Cavaliers advanced all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals, where they took Larry Bird and the Celtics to the brink.
Cleveland held a 3-2 series lead heading into Game 6 in Boston. Then, with the Cavaliers one win away from the Finals, disaster struck. Wilkins suffered an injury during the game, and Boston took advantage, completing the comeback to take the series.
The following season brought another chance at a title. Cleveland once again finished as the number one seed in the East and once again reached the Conference Finals.
This time, however, they ran into Len Bias and the Detroit Pistons. The Pistons eliminated Cleveland, leaving Wilkins with two straight Conference Finals appearances and two heartbreaking exits.
After two disappointing endings in Cleveland, Wilkins was on the move again. This time, he headed across the country to Los Angeles, but not to the Lakers.
Instead, he joined Hakeem Olajuwon and the Los Angeles Clippers, a franchise that had struggled to find consistent postseason success. Since Olajuwon arrived, the Clippers had won just one playoff series, and they had missed the postseason entirely in the two years before Wilkins arrival.
The addition of the Human Highlight Film immediately changed the franchise.
In his first season with Los Angeles, the Clippers returned to the playoffs and advanced to the Conference Semifinals, where they faced the defending and eventual two-time champion Houston Rockets. Houston was unstoppable that postseason, going undefeated throughout the playoffs and ending the Clippers' run.
But the Clippers were no longer an afterthought.
The following season, Los Angeles captured the number one seed for the first time in franchise history. Unfortunately, another disappointing postseason followed as the Clippers were eliminated by the other Los Angeles team in the semifinals. The Lakers would go on to win the Western Conference that year, leaving the Clippers wondering what could have been.
The following season, the Lakers won the Pacific Division, dropping the Clippers to the third seed. Los Angeles survived the first round and suddenly found itself in an advantageous position. The seventh-seeded Seattle SuperSonics had upset their first-round opponent, giving the Clippers a favorable second-round matchup.
Los Angeles took advantage and advanced to the Conference Finals for the first time in franchise history.
Once again, the Clippers had caught a break. The Lakers had been stunned by the eighth-seeded Rockets in the first round, while the fourth-seeded Portland Trail Blazers eliminated Houston in the semifinals. With the Lakers out of the way, the Clippers had home-court advantage and finally broke through.
Los Angeles reached the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history.
Standing in their way were the top-seeded Washington Bullets, led by two-time champions John Stockton and Clyde Drexler. Washington had won its most recent championship five years earlier, but this was still a team with championship experience and a legitimate chance to reclaim the throne.
The Finals went all the way to Game 7.
Wilkins and the Clippers delivered the road victory.
Los Angeles won the deciding game in Washington, capturing the first championship in Clippers history and giving Dominique Wilkins the one accomplishment that had eluded him throughout his real-life career.
A championship ring.
In real life, Wilkins would never advance beyond the Eastern Conference Semifinals during those three seasons with Atlanta in the mid-1980s. Even though he continued playing until 1999, he never escaped the first round again even after leaving the Hawks.
In the Rewritten Rings universe, his career could not have been more different. He became a champion, a franchise-changing player, and one of the central figures in the Clippers' rise from an afterthought to NBA champion.
But his story did not end in Los Angeles.
Following the championship, Wilkins was on the move again, joining Charles Barkley and the Philadelphia 76ers. Philadelphia had finished eighth the previous season, and the addition of another superstar created plenty of optimism heading into the season.
Instead, the Sixers missed the playoffs by four games.
Meanwhile, the Clippers replaced Wilkins with Cliff Robinson and went on to win another championship, proving that his former team had built something bigger than one player.
Philadelphia missed the playoffs again the following season, this time by six games, bringing Wilkins' time with the Sixers to an end. His final two seasons saw him bounce around the league, much like the final stages of his real-life career.
When the Human Highlight Film finally called it a career after the 1998 season, his Rewritten Rings legacy looked very different from reality. Dominique Wilkins retired as an NBA champion, an 11-time All-Star, and a Hall of Famer. In real life, he also earned his place in the Hall of Fame, but he finished his career without a championship and with two fewer All-Star selections.
The greatest difference, however, cannot be found in a stat sheet.
In reality, Dominique Wilkins is remembered as one of the greatest players of his generation who never quite reached the mountaintop. In the Rewritten Rings universe, The Human Highlight Film got his ring.
His journey took him from Atlanta to Cleveland to Los Angeles, where he finally turned years of playoff heartbreak into the biggest accomplishment of his career.
Dominique Wilkins didn't just put on a show.
He finished it with a championship.
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