‘Nique comes home: Wilkins etches his name into Pam Pack history

Published 7:37 pm Monday, December 15, 2014

GETTY IMAGES | CONTRIBUTED Dominique Wilkins

GETTY IMAGES | CONTRIBUTED
Dominique Wilkins

The greatest basketball player in Pam Pack history and arguably one of the top 10 all time returns to the banks of the Pamlico River today for the first time since he graduated in 1979.

Dominique Wilkins, along with a talented supporting cast that featured four other Division I players, navigated Washington to state championships in 1978 and ’79. And after the football team’s heartbreaking loss in the state championship on Saturday, Wilkins’ teams still stand as the last in Washington history to take a title, among revenue sports.

Today, Wilkins comes home with the hopes of mending the murky relationship he has with is hometown.

“I think it’ll be great for the community,” said Larry Sipe, a former assistant coach in the late 70s and early 80s. “Here’s someone who played in that old gym and packed it night after night after night. He’s set records in the NBA. There are still folks around who still remember how Dominique Wilkins played.”

At 4 p.m., a parade will take place on Stewart Parkway on the Washington waterfront to not only honor Wilkins’ return, but also the Washington football team’s historic 14-2 record and state championship appearance. If it rains, the ceremony will be moved inside the Civic Center.

Following the parade, Wilkins will hold a meet-and-greet and autograph signing at Festival Park. There will be tents set up and concessions for guests.

Later that evening, Washington’s girls’ and boys’ basketball teams will square off against Greene Central at Washington High School. During halftime of the boys’ game, which will begin around 7 p.m., Wilkins’ high school number will be retired, permanently and officially etching his name into Pam Pack history, deservingly so.

The ordeal will be filmed by ESPN Films and later turned into a documentary, though the channel upon which it will air is still undetermined. The documentary will focus on Wilkins’ early life, his detachment from Washington, his career at Georgia and his return.

Alongside future Wake Forrest standout Alvis Rodgers and three other Division I prospects, Wilkins won Class 3-A state championships in 1978 and ’79, playing on a team that lost just one game in three years (76-1).

Wilkins, who played most of an illustrious NBA career with the Atlanta Hawks, is a nine-time All-Star, a former scoring champion and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006.