Gerald Wilkins

infobox NBA Player
name = Gerald Wilkins
position = Shooting guard
height_ft = 6 | height_in = 6 | weight_lbs = 185
nickname =
nationality = USA
birth_date = birth date and age|1963|9|11
birth_place = Atlanta, Georgia
college = University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
draft =
draft_year = 1985
draft_team = New York Knicks
career_start = 1985
career_end = 1999
former_teams = New York Knicks (1985–1992) Cleveland Cavaliers (1992–1994) Vancouver Grizzlies (1995–1996) Orlando Magic (1996–1999)
awards =

Gerald Bernard Wilkins (born September 11 1963, in Atlanta, Georgia) is a retired American basketball player. A 6'6" shooting guard/small forward, who played collegiately at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and later in the NBA.

Gerald is the younger brother of former Atlanta Hawks superstar Dominique Wilkins and father of current Oklahoma City Thunder guard Damien Wilkins. He was a key player on the New York Knicks team of the late 1980s, consistently being the second leading scorer after Patrick Ewing. He was selected in the 1985 NBA Draft and was once named Player of the Week (3/3/91). Gerald followed in his brother's footsteps, participating in the 1986 and 1987 slam dunk competition.

Though initially a starter on the Knicks, his role decreased with the arrival of fan-favorite shooting guard John Starks in 1990 and small forward Xavier McDaniel in 1992. He proved an excellent defender and scorer off the bench, but became a free agent after the 1992 season when he was no longer needed in New York. Wilkins signed with the Cleveland Cavaliers, which had a core of Mark Price, Larry Nance, and Brad Daugherty. The Cavaliers hoped that Wilkins would be the final piece of the puzzle and play his notorious defense in order to finally defeat Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. He was even labeled as "the Jordan stopper." However, in the 1993 Eastern Conference Semifinals, Wilkins learned that the help defense he benefitted from in New York would not be around and Jordan scored countless points whilst being guarded by Wilkins, humiliating him and making the Cavaliers' ultimate plan a failure. Jordan would hit the shot that would sweep the Cavs in that semi-finals series while Wilkins was guarding him. He remained with the Cavs for a few more years, but languished due to injuries, especially during 1994-95 when he was out of action the entire season.

In 1995 he was picked up by the Vancouver Grizzlies in the expansion draft, and had a forgettable year; unable to help out the team due to injury and lack of use, only playing in only 28 of 82 games. He signed as a free agent with the Orlando Magic in 1996 and looked good for them as a reliable sixth man. The Magic signed him up again for 1997-98 with a $300,000 contract. In 1999, he signed a three year contract worth seven million dollars. It was in his final season with the Magic that Gerald got to play with his older brother Dominique Wilkins, although both were in the twilight of their careers and thus used sparingly.

Recently, he was a contestant on ESPN's Dream Job because season two of the show auditions for the next basketball analyst position for ESPN. In the contest, he was pitted against other former NBA players such as Dee Brown, Darryl Dawkins, and Matt Bullard. He was voted off the competition on March 6, 2005. In the summer of 2008, he worked with Andrew Bynum and his personal trainer in Atlanta to get him back to playing shape after a season ending knee surgery.

External links

* [http://www.basketballreference.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=WILKIGE01 "databaseBasketball.com" Gerald Wilkins stats page ]

* [http://www.nba.com/playerfile/gerald_wilkins/index.html?nav=page] Gerald Wilkins' stats page at NBA.com