YouTube Gold: Larry Bird And Dominique Wilkins’ Epic 1988 Showdown

This is the definition of two alpha players at the peaks of their powers

Over the years and decades, the NBA has had some memorable playoff performances. Magic Johnson has that baby hook to shiv Boston. Ralph Sampson had an incredible play to knock the Lakers out. Bill Walton was a Greek god, right down to the newly trimmed beard, in Portland’s 1977 championship run. Michael Jordan has about a million of them himself.

There has never been a greater playoff duel than that between Boston’s Larry Bird and Atlanta’s Dominique Wilkins in the 1988 Eastern Conference Finals.

To set the stage a bit, Atlanta was up 3-2 after five games and could not put the Celtics away in Game 6. After that win, Bird said that Atlanta “might as well forget” about winning because there was no way they were going to win Game 7 in Boston Garden.

And while Wilkins was brilliant, nearly matching Bird shot for shot in the fourth quarter, Bird and the Celtics prevailed, winning 118-116.

Wilkins finished with 47 while Bird had 34, but 20 of those in the riveting fourth quarter.

It still stands as the greatest duel in NBA playoff history and nothing has even remotely come close.