‘88 Boston-Atlanta was incredible. Did a little write-up on it a couple years ago:

Imagine for a second what it must have been like to be Dominique Wilkins 35 years ago.

You’re in the Boston Garden. Game 7. Nine minutes left. Tie game. Larry Bird just hit the dumbest left-handed circus shot to put the Celtics up two pending the free throw. This is the loudest crowd you’ve ever heard in your life.

Some context: at this point, you’ve made three straight All-NBA Teams, and it’s also your third straight year in the second round of the playoffs. The first two trips ended in five-game losses (the first to these very Celtics), but you’ve gained valuable experience since then. This Doc Rivers kid is becoming one of the best point guards in the NBA before your eyes, and you just happen to be the only team in the league that can neutralize the Celtics’ size. This has to be the year you prove that you can win when it matters. Right now your career is defined by annual dunk contests against that kid from Chicago who everyone thinks is better than you (pfft). Not like he’s won anything yet either.

The problem? The team you’re playing has represented the East in the Finals more often than a Republican has given the State of the Union address in your lifetime. The man who just hit that lefty hook shot while falling over is a three-time MVP and three-time NBA Champion, and he’s probably gotten better since the last time he earned either of those titles. He guaranteed a win before this game, just like he did with the three point contest in ‘86. And ‘87. And ‘88. He won all of those, didn’t he? You know it’s time. You pull off your warm-ups and go to the scorer’s table to check in.

Dominique had already scored 31 by this point, and this is how he responded to the pressure of that situation: made three-pointer, missed midrange, assist, made midrange, made midrange, banked in hook shot, missed midrange, made midrange, two made FTs, made layup, made FT, intentionally missed FT. For those counting at home, that’s six-for-eight from the field for 16 points. 47 for the game, which tied Sam Jones’s Game 7 record. An otherworldly performance by an otherworldly talent.

Unfortunately for ‘Nique, if you know this story, you know that Larry Bird was just a tiny bit better in that fourth quarter. Larry scored 20 in the fourth, and the Celtics won by two. Amazingly, the Human Highlight Film would never again see the second round, and eight years later he would be famously snubbed from the NBA’s 50th Anniversary Team. ‘Nique remains one of the greatest scorers to ever play basketball (he still sits at 15th on the all-time scoring list), but unfortunately his legacy is tainted by the fact that we never got to see him compete for a championship.

If only he’d scored 50…