Wilkins said he has known MJ long enough to be wrong about his take.

Dominique Wilkins is one of the NBA Hall of Famers who were able to delve into the depths of Michael Jordan’s competitive drive. During their prime years in the NBA, Nique, and MJ had their fair share of on-court duels.

Through those battles, Wilkins realized that Jordan was indeed one of them. For him, comparisons were inevitable in the NBA, but from what he had witnessed, everybody else paled compared to His Airness.

“He held people accountable and you know he didn’t care about people’s emotional attitudes or their feelings you know, get over it, we got to win. And so, when you talk about comparisons and all these different things, I don’t get into that because I don’t think you’re able to see a competitive soul like Michael again,” Wilkins said during a discussion with Dell Curry and Brevin Knight on Bally Sports South in 2020.

MJ was all about the team

It has been decades since Wilkins last played a competitive game against Jordan. However, even to this day, he still remembers how MJ carried the Chicago Bulls to new heights.

Nique also acknowledged that rumors back then portrayed Michael in a bad light. But whether they were true or not, all he ever saw in Jordan was a leader who cared for his team.

“Knowing Michael long enough, and we’ve been knowing each other since college and the toughness that he displayed throughout his career was pretty amazing and you know a lot of the rumors… you’d hear about [it] but he held guys accountable. He was that tough guy that expected the best out of you,” Wilkins added.

“And the great thing about that Chicago Bulls is that no matter what turmoil they went through they was able to pull through, come together and concentrate and focus on winning,” he continued.

Nique doesn’t need to hear more about the GOAT debate

Almost every ’80s and ’90s NBA legend has their own savage Jordan moment. For Wilkins, this was the time MJ went straight into the Atlanta Hawks’ locker room to deliver his famous “Lace ’em up, it’s gonna be a long night” line.

“So we’re in Chicago, Michael walks into our locker room, suit and tie. I’m like, what is this son of a gun coming into our locker room for? I’m thinking he’s going to the training room or something. He walks by me, he walks by Kevin Willis, he gets to Randy Wittman, and he taps him on his leg, and he said, ‘Lace ’em up, it’s gonna be a long night.’ And I’m shocked, I ain’t even know what to say, so he’s walking out…and I yell something, and I said, ‘Well you tell that son of a b*** Scottie Pippen I’m gonna kick his a**.’ He had 60 that night,” Wilkins once recalled.

Having heard Wilkins’ take on Jordan’s legacy, we now have an idea of what his stance would be on the GOAT debate.