A Retired NBA Player Says He Faced Racism At A Restaurant
Dominique Wilkins reported mistreatment in Atlanta
He played primarily for the Atlanta Hawks in the NBA.
Getting accepted as a player for a team in the National Basketball Association (NBA) is a goal of many young athletes. Only a relatively few are able to make the grade and become stars in the NBA. It is a huge accomplishment which came to Dominque Wilkins.
Jacques Dominque Wilkins is an American former professional basketball player who was born on January 12, 1960. His birth was in Paris while his father was stationed in France as an officer in the U.S. Army. The family lived in Dallas and Baltimore before settling in Washington, North Carolina, where Wilkins attended Washington High School. He was an outstanding basketball player and was MVP for his team’s Class 3-A State Championships in 1978 and 1979. [Wikipedia]
Wilkins entered the University of Georgia in 1979 where he was a star basketball player. He was named the SEC Men’s Basketball Player of the Year in 1981. He left college after his junior year when he was selected the NBA draft’s third overall pick by the Utah Jazz.
He did not want to play in Utah where they wanted him to play power forward. He wanted to play small forward. The Jazz traded him to the Atlanta Hawks for two other players and $1 million in cash.
Wilkins led the NBA in scoring in the 1985–86 season. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He played eleven seasons with the Hawks and had short stints with the Los Angeles Clippers, the Boston Celtics, Panathinaikos Athens in Greece, the San Antonio Spurs, and the Orlando Magic before retiring in 1999.
He was a member of the U.S. Men’s National Team in the 1994 FIBA World Championship and was honored in 2021 as one of the league’s greatest players of all time by being named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team.
He is viewed as one of the most acrobatic slam dunkers in NBA history and was given the nickname, “The Human Highlights Film.”
Although Wilkins was important to the Atlanta Hawks NBA team for years, he is apparently not recognized by all in the area.
A story by Yakshpat Bhargava in BasketballNetwork.net was titled: “They refused to let me sit down and have lunch” — Dominique Wilkins says he was denied entry to an Atlanta restaurant because of his race.
Despite Dominique Wilkins being one of the best athletes to ever represent Atlanta and giving the city enormous pride, ‘The Human Highlight Film’ was denied admittance to Le Bilboquet restaurant because he did not adhere to their specified dress code in 2021.
During his interview with DJ Vlad, the nine-time All-Star discussed the same situation, emphasizing that his race played a role rather than his failure to follow the dress code. He continued by saying that shortly after him, ‘two white gentlemen’ in buttoned-down shirts approached the desk and requested seats, and to his dismay, both were given seats right away.
“I went in with a friend of mine. We wanted to eat outside, and I was dressed better than every guy in there at that time. And they said, ‘Sorry, we can’t serve you.’ I was like, ‘What?’ And they said, ‘You have track pants on.’ I said, ‘What is your definition of track pants?’ They said, ‘We don’t care, we just can’t seat you,’” Wilkins said. “It’s two white gentlemen walk up beside me, they had shorts on and buttoned-down shirts and sandals, and she said, ‘Excuse me, sirs, we’ll seat you in a minute. Let us finish talking here.’ And they refused to let me sit down and have lunch.”
This is a surprising account of an incident which seems to be clearly a racist act. Of course, they may not have acted that way if they had known who he was. They seemed to just see Black people.
Dominique Wilkins wants that Atlanta restaurant to be shut. He said: “People like that should never be in business, ever. To say I would never eat at that place ever again is an understatement,” Wilkins added. “To me, I hope they shut down sometime. If they not shut down already, they need to be.”
The Atlanta restaurant issued a statement shortly after the incident apologizing to Dominique and also defending its dress code which did not seem to apply to the white men.
Restaurants are allowed to have dress cmodes, but they should apply universally and not by race.
That was not the first time that Wilkins has faced racism. Some Black people and other racial minorities encounter racism regularly.
If famous, rich athletes who are Black are treated in that manner when they are not recognized, it is evident that there is racism against Black people.
Such racist actions should not be allowed in this day and age. Diversity should be accepted and embraced. There is still work to be done in the area of justice and civil rights.
Thank you for reading.
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