The Atlanta Sports Council awarded former Hawks great Dominique Wilkins with its 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award. The Atlanta Sports Council is an organization comprised of local leaders dedicated to bringing major athletic events to Atlanta and encouraging sports in the city.

Wilkins is a nine-time NBA All-Star and played with the Hawks from 1982 to 1994. He is currently the Hawks’ vice president of basketball and TV analyst.

Former Braves manager Bobby Cox won the award in 2011.

This year, the award will be presented to Wilkins on February 27 at the Fox Theater.

In today’s edition of “Minor Moves that Probably Won’t Matter”…

The Knicks acquired Tyson Chandler in a major deal and Chris Paul and Dwight Howard rumors continue to swarm. Meanwhile, the Hawks have signed Vladimir Radmanovic who averaged 5.1 points per game and just under 16 minutes per game with the Warriors last year. Radmanovic is a ten-year veteran and is known for being a strong 3-point shooter. Great. So we can continue to be a jump-shooting team that’s scared of the paint. He was drafted 12th in the first round by Seattle in 2001.

The Hawks also lost guard/forward Damien Wilkins who signed with the Detroit Pistons. Wilkins 3.5 points in 52 games with Atlanta last year and is the nephew of former Hawks star, Dominique Wilkins.

Remember way back in March when Dominique Wilkins got in a fight over some unpaid debts for custom suits? Apparently that little altercation has resurfaced.

Rashan Michel, a former referee, claimed Wilkins owed him around $12,000 dollars for custom suits. After Wilkins had finished calling a game against the Orlando Magic on March 30, a fight broke out between the two. Wilkins claims Michel instigated the fight and witnesses confirmed this. Videos also show Wilkins landing punches on Michel’s face. Wilkins was never charged and the charges against Michel were dropped.

And now Michel is suing Wilkins for a fight seven months ago. Looks like those suits are turning out to be even more expensive than Wilkins initially thought.

Wayne "Tree" Rollins

NBA fans, players, coaches, employees, WRITERS– pretty much all stakeholders involved– are struggling with how to work around the lockout. Official team websites have stripped players’ photos from their pages, making things like the cheerleading squad and Dominique Wilkins’s every move worthy of the front-page.

But I’ve got to say, I appreciate the most recent endeavor: a slideshow featuring nicknames of former players. A few of my favorites:

• Walt “Big Bells” Bellamy
• Wayne “Tree” Rollins
• Stacey Augmon: Plastic Man
• “Pogo” Joe Caldell
• Vernell “Bimbo” Jones

…and I am a sucker for catchy advertising.

The former Hawks star signed a strategic marketing agreement with Nexercise, an incentive-based exercise app for iPhones.

Nexercise tracks physical activity and awards points based on it. Users can choose from everyday activities such as running, walking, biking and sit-ups, or use it to track far-fetched things like hula hoop, laser tag and snow shoveling. With the points, users can win gift cards and discounts on healthy food and lifestyle products. The app also includes a social media component that connects it with Facebook and allows users to compete against friends.

Wilkins plans to promote Nexercise throughout Georgia to help motivate people to exercise and stay healthy. Wilkins was diagnosed with diabetes and has devoted time to promote healthy lifestyles on a number of occasions.

I’m not sure how it tracks something like “trampoline,” or why exactly someone would want to go surfing with their iPhone… but it’s a novel (and free!) idea. Which I may have immediately downloaded.

Former Hawks star Dominique Wilkins led a group of NBA coaches and former players in Rio de Janeiro in the Basketball without Borders (BWB) program.

BWB is an international development program run by the NBA and FIBA to promote positive social change in education, health and wellness through basketball. Since its inaugural year in 2001, the program has reached out to communities throughout Asia, Europe, Latin America and Africa. Players 19 and under work with NBA players and coaches in a training camp that also emphasizes leadership, character development, education and diversity.

During this year’s program in Brazil, which ran from July 29 to August 1, 50 players from Latin America and Canada joined together for seminars, workshops and of course, a little friendly competition. BWB Americas was one of three camps that took place this summer. BWB Europe was held in Slovenia earlier in August, and BWB Africa will be in South Africa this September.

The NBA Finals begin tomorrow night with the Miami Heat taking on the Dallas Mavericks. My heart’s with Dallas, but my head is leaning towards Miami.

It’d be great to see Dirk finally take home a ring, but a one-man team is going to have its work cut out for itself in a seven game series. Not that I don’t think highly of Kidd, Chandler, et. al., but the Big Three are The Big Three for a reason, and they’ve managed to live up to the hype thus far during these playoffs.

Former Hawks superstar Dominique Wilkins appeared less impressed with the potential of the Wade-Bosh-James trio, however, and had actually picked the Bulls over the Heat:

“(The Heat) has two superstars and a very good player in Chris Bosh, but they’re not that strong on their bench so I think it will be tough for them to beat Chicago.”

[Sidenote: I think poor Chris Bosh might forever be relegated to his place in the shadows of Wade and LeBron.]

And Wilkins probably would be against contraction in the NBA, preferring that superstars play against rather than with one another:

“We didn’t want to play with one another. We wanted to kick each other’s butt. Basically, that’s the way it was. I didn’t want to team up with (Larry) Bird or team up with Magic (Johnson) or (Michael) Jordan. I wanted to play against those guys.”

So we’ll soon see if Dirk and Wilkins-style basketball can overcome the Heat and this new-fangled contraction trend.

While he’s not providing color commentary as a Hawks television broadcaster and getting into fights with fans, Dominique Wilkins has been active in the community. A little known fact about the “Human Highlight Film” is that the former Hawks star lives with Type-2 diabetes, the same disease that took the lives of his father and grandfather.

This past Monday, Wilkins visited several locations throughout Savannah, Ga to tell his story. He made stops at Calvary Day, the SouthCoast Medical Group, Candler Hospital and West Broad Street YMCA in hopes that his efforts will help in the fight against diabetes.

“The worst thing we can do with bad health is ignore it. When your life slows down, you find out you’re mortal,” said Wilkins.

It’s hard to imagine Dominique as a mortal when you look back on dunks like these:

There’s a lot of exciting basketball going down in H-town this weekend. Last night’s Final Four thrillers have No. 8 Butler and No. 3 UConn going to the Championship Game on Monday, and the Hawks will take on the Rockets tonight as Houston struggles to keep its postseason hopes alive.

The Toyota Center

Houston is riding a six-game home winning streak, and the Hawks come in with a four-game winning streak of their own. Something’s gotta give. Houston has been playing well of late, winning its last seven of nine overall, including an overtime victory over league-best San Antonio. The Rockets are in the ever-nerve-wracking 9th place in the West, three games back from the Hornets with six games left to play in the season.

And though the Hawks appear to be bouncing back from their recent struggles, there seems to be something in the water in Houston that just gives Atlanta some trouble. Prior to its win on January 25 in Houston, Atlanta had lost ten straight and 16 of 17 games in the city.

In other news: Celtics coach Doc Rivers managed to make light of the recent Dominique Wilkins fight, with some good-natured joking with his former Hawks teammate:

“I told him… I was considering hiring him for security. I had no idea he had that skill set. Now that it has happened and everybody’s okay, I’m gonna roast him forever! It’s terrific! With Nique, if you have ammunition, it’s awesome. And I have ammunition.”

Well, glad someone’s got a sense of humor about the whole thing.

Dominique Wilkins

After Wednesday night’s win against the Magic, former Hawks Hall of Famer, Dominique Wilkins got into an altercation with an ex-referee causing quite a stir. Supposedly, Wilkins owed the former referee, Rashan S. Michel $12,500 for custom suits and took out his frustration on Wilkins near Philips Arena floor following the game. After Wilkins finished broadcasting the game, Michel hit Williams in the chest, according to an Atlanta police spokeswoman.

A video taken by a witness shows Wilkins punching Michel in the face before the brawl was broken up, leaving him with a nasty black eye. Wilkins managed to leave unscathed.

The next day, went on a local Atlanta R&B/Hip-Hop radio station expressing his desire to “handle this like men.” He also tweeted “I call what happened at Philips Arena earlier, Operation Repo… Next time have my money!”

The incident is unfortunate, but you know, what’s a little drama to stir things up a bit? Although I’m going to go out on a limb and say this one probably won’t make the Human Highlight Film…

Hawks-Celtics, tonight at 8 PM. Go Hawks!