Like many of us, Brian Dawkins spent time over the last month watching the ESPN documentary “The Last Dance,” which chronicled Michael Jordan’s journey and final NBA season with the Bulls.
And it brought back a memory for Dawkins.
Speaking to NBC Sports Philadelphia’s John Clark last week, Dawkins said there was one main thing that he took from Jordan.
I heard him say a quote and I took a liking to it. If that person comes to one game and that’s the only game they’ll ever [see], then I want them to see the very best I can give. So I took that. I took ownership of that. It became a part of me as I played. And it’s the same thing in my life. If you come to see me, I want to make sure that that one time you saw me, I gave it my all, my very best. I never took a play off, I never took a time off.
That definitely showed. Anyone who ever saw Weapon X play can attest to it.
When Jordan made his NBA debut in 1984, Dawkins had just turned 11 years old. And when Dawkins made his NFL debut in 1996, Jordan was already arguably the best basketball player ever.
Dawkins said we already knew about Jordan’s competitiveness before “The Last Dance” but we found out more information and more details about that competitiveness.
NFL
And a big part of the documentary was about Jordan as a teammate and a leader. While their styles were different, Dawkins became an important leader himself during his time in Philadelphia.
“My true and absolute belief was that I never wanted to give my teammates what I had left,” Dawkins said. “That means that I needed to sleep, that I needed to eat, I needed to do everything that I can to give you everything that I can. If I was not doing those things, if I was doing a whole bunch of other stuff, yeah, I can give you what I got left, but that’s not all that I have to give. So if I’m doing that and somebody asks me to help them out, I’m going to tell them what I feel would help them become a better versions of themselves as that time.”
Dawkins made sure to point out that he didn’t create that standard in Philadelphia. It was instilled in him by guys like Troy Vincent, William Thomas and Irving Fryar, who all came before him.
He did what they did, plus a little more.
“I added something to it and I wanted to make sure that I passed that on to the next cats,” Dawkins said.
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