💪Books & Biceps - The Human Highlight Film Issue 194

Books & Biceps is the only weekly e-mail that combines reading recommendations, bestselling author interviews, legit workouts and powerful quotes.

Join thousands of us by clicking ‘subscribe’ below:

BOOKS

Windmills & Tomahawks: Nine Chapters on Dominique Wilkins 

Last night one of my favorite athletes of all-time, and my favorite non-Celtics basketball player ever, Dominique Wilkins, was named to the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team. This was a long-overdue acknowledgement of his greatness, as well as a correction for the absurd slight of being left off the NBA’s 50th Anniversary team. This also makes it the perfect time for me to announce my new project and unveil the cover just for you:

If Dominique Wilkins played today he’d have a signature shoe and his own logo. His in-game dunks would trend on Twitter nightly. He’d be unstoppable in 2K. He’d be top five in jersey sales. He was like prime Blake Griffin AND Kevin Durant.

 That’s how dominant 'Nique was.

Back in his peak in the 1980s and early 90s he’d have three or four "did you see that!?!?!?" dunks and about thirty points every single night.

But he was more than the highlights and the stats. He had sponsorships with Reebok and Gatorade and Minute Maid. He was a 9x All-Star, 7x All-NBA Team member & Hall of Famer. He was a superstar.

Lunch room arguments would break out about who was a better dunker.

‘Nique or Jordan?

Jordan or ‘Nique?

Was a windmill swung down to your ankles harder than a foul line dunk?

Was it more explosive to jump off two feet or one?

Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins were like the McDonald’s and Burger King of our dunking universe for a solid decade…and yet we seem to have slowly and collectively begun to only remember the Jordan half of the equation.

When I started researching this project I got in touch with Spud Webb, Wilkins’ dunking rival and longtime Hawks teammate and friend, to get his take on Dominique’s legacy and he summed it up best.

“It’s amazing that people act like they’ve never seen anyone in the 80s and 90s play other than MJ,” he said. “People need to bring up Dominique. Dominique was an all-time scorer. He never got his credit.”

Exactly!

I’ve wanted to write about the Human Highlight Film’s highlights from the first time I saw his highlights on film. I’ve even had that sentence stowed away in a notebook for about eight years. And I’m damn glad to finally use it.

From ‘Nique’s legendary high school games to his bulldozing of the SEC at Georgia to his FIVE dunk contests to his duels with Jordan and Larry Bird and even his late-career EuroLeague Championship and Final Four MVP and beyond, you will love this digital, illustrated biography of the electric, incomparable Dominique Wilkins.

I’ve dug into the newspaper archives, watched all the games, interviewed NBA players and picked the brains of the best NBA historians and journalists around to make this the definitive short biography on the Human Highlight Film.

And to make it even better, I’m collaborating with the most talented NBA artist working today, Michael Farhat (AKA Art Mobb). Farhat is an absolute creative genius. He illustrated/designed the incredible cover and is creating original art work for each chapter. It’s awesome. The PDF comes out December 7th, but PRE-ORDERS ARE UP!

Everyone who pre-orders the e-book TODAY will receive a limited edition sticker of the cover.

For every hoops fan, dunk fan, Hawks fan, 80s/90s nostalgia-lover and of course, fan of Dominique Wilkins, you need this.

Thank you for your support!

We’ll be back to our regular Books & Biceps next week…

- Jon