Athletes - Gerald Wilkins

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	Athletes - Gerald Wilkins

Gerald Bernard Wilkins (born November 9, 1963 in Atlanta, Georgia) is 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 Seattle SuperSonics 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 even 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, with the arrival of rising shooting guard John Starks in 1990 and small forward Xavier McDaniel in 1992, his role had decreased, though he was an excellent defender and scorer off the bench. With the Knicks core finalized, Gerald was no longer needed on the Knicks. As a free agent at the end of the 1992 season, he came over to the Cleveland Cavaliers to help them out. With a core of Mark Price, Larry Nance, and Brad Daugherty, the Cavaliers hoped that Gerald 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, Jordan scored countless points whilst being guarded by Wilkins, making the Cavaliers' ultimate plan a failure. 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.

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