Darryl Dawkins

At 58 years old, Darryl Dawkins has this physical status:

Darryl Dawkins (January 11, 1957 – August 27, 2015) was an American professional basketball player best known for his time with the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Nets, but he also played briefly for the Detroit Pistons and Utah Jazz late in his career.

Stevie Wonder bestowed him with the nickname "Chocolate Thunder."

He was known for his bouncing the backboard on two occasions in 1979, leading to the NBA's introduction of breakaway rims due to his shattering the backboard on two occasions.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he appeared in the NBA Finals three times as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers.

In 1983-84, the Dawkins tied for fouls in a season (386 in 1983–84).

Personal life

Darryl Dawkins' autobiography Chocolate Thunder: The Uncensored Life and Times of Darryl Dawkins (co-authored with Charley Rosen) chronicles his NBA life as an NBA star. Dawkins chronicled some of the racial abuse he encountered during his NBA career, as well as his off-court experiences with drugs, partying, and women.

Dawkins eloped with Kelly Barnes of Trenton, New Jersey, in September 1986. The pair were planning to divorce when she died on November 1, 1987 at her parents' house in New Jersey; Dawkins was in Utah with his team at the time. Robbin Thornton, a former Nets cheerleader, married Dawkins in 1988; the pair divorced after ten years. Dawkins remarried; he and his partner, Janice, had three children: Nick, Alexis, and Tabitha, a daughter from Janice's previous marriage with Down syndrome.

In a Weekend Update sketch from 1999, Dawkins was dubbed the "Man of the Millennium" by Saturday Night Live.

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NBA career

As a 6 foot (10.08 m) senior at Maynard Evans High School in Orlando, Florida, the Dawkins averaged 32 points and 21 rebounds to lead his team to the state championship. He was heavily recruited by Division I colleges around the country, and he narrowed his options to Florida State, Kansas, and Kentucky.

In a surprising move, the Dawkins took the NBA draft out of high school rather than attending college. He made this decision because he wanted to make sure his grandmother, mother, and siblings were able to escape poverty. He was the first player to play in the NBA straight after high school.

The Philadelphia 76ers selected Dawkins as their fifth overall pick in the 1975 NBA draft. He was drafted behind David Thompson, David Meyers, Marvin Webster, and Alvan Adams. He has been with his father for seven years.

Dawkins spent his first two seasons on the Sixers' bench. Dawkins was called upon to assist the Sixers in their playoff run, as opposed to Celtics Dave Cowens and Moses Malone of the Rockets in his second season, after playing only minutes during the regular season. Both the Sixers' seasons were deemed as winners and progressed to the NBA Finals. Dawkins, a former Portland resident, aided the Sixers in their first two games before the Trail Blazers took the series in six games. Dawkins got into a brawl with Maurice Lucas, resulting in both players being banned from the game. Dawkins vented his dissatisfaction with the 76ers' locker room by tearing a toilet out of the wall and looding a locker door and barricading the door.

Dawkins' role in assisting the Sixers in winning the Eastern Conference championship established him as one of Philadelphia's top players, alongside Julius Erving, George McGinnis, Lloyd Free, and Doug Collins. Dawkins averaged 11.7 points and 7.9 rebounds per game in nearly 25 minutes per game, while the Wolves finished second in the league in field goal percentage at.575. The Sixers earned the top seed in the Eastern Division for the second year in a row, but the Washington Bullets defeated them in six games.

McGinnis was traded by Philadelphia to the Denver Nuggets prior to the 1978-79 season, allowing Dawkins to be a permanent frontcourt starter. Dawkins and Caldwell Jones split time at the center and power forward positions over the next three seasons. He averaged 14.7 points and a career-high 8.7 rebounds in 1979-80, helping the Sixers return to the NBA Finals, where they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in six games.

In the 1981 season, the Dawkins had a.607 field-goal percentage, second in the NBA to Artis Gilmore's.670. For the year, the Dawkins averaged 14 points and 7.2 rebounds, but Philadelphia was unable to return to the Finals. In the Eastern Conference Finals, the Boston Celtics defeated the Boston Celtics in seven games.

In 1982, the 76ers suffered another postseason humiliation, but they lost in six games to the Los Angeles Lakers. Sixers general David Dawkins traded Dawkins to the Houston Rockets and Caldwell Jones for Moses Malone, who helped Philadelphia beat the NBA championship the following year, after being dissatisfied with the team's inability to deal with Lakers center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

During the 1982 off-season, Dawkins was traded to the Nets in exchange for a first-round draft pick. At the age of 25, Dawkins joined Albert King, Buck Williams, and Otis Birdsong. Both sides were happy, as Dawkins experienced a career revival of sorts and the Nets had their most fruitful seasons to date.

The Dawkins averaged 12 points and shot.599 from the floor in the 1982-83 season, ranked third in the league in field-goal percentages. The Nets' 49–33 record in the year 2007-02 season was their highest record since the ABA–NBA merger, and it was their best record since the ABA-NBA merger, and they remained their highest record since the 2001–02 season.

He poured in a career-high 16.8 points per game on.593 field-goal shootings and grabbed 6.7 rebounds per game this season. During a 112–107 victory over the Chicago Bulls on November 3, 1983, Dawkins collected his first rebound as a Net, winning by 15. Dawkins set the Nets' single game record for blocks in a single game on November 5, 1983. The sixth seeded Nets were matched up with the Philadelphia 76ers, who were back in the first round of the playoffs. The Nets won the first two games in Philadelphia of the best-of-five series, the first playoff game victories in team history. The Nets won a decisive game 5 after Philadelphia beat Philadelphia in the first two games, when the Dawkins' defense of reigning MVP Moses Malone helped New Jersey overcome a late deficit to win their first playoff series. Sports Illustrated's seventh biggest playoff upset, the Nets' victory over the defending NBA champions was ranked as the seventh best playoff upset ever. Despite Dawkins' 22.3 points and 7.3 rebounds per game in the following series against the Milwaukee Bucks, including leading all scorers with a game-winning 122 points in a 106-102 victory, the Nets will lose the series in six games after losing Game 6, in which the Dawkins scored 29 points and grabbed 8 rebounds for the first time, defeating the Bucks by one point. The Dawkins averaged 18.4 points in the playoffs.

With the Nets looking to be a team led by Dawkins, they had a high hopes going into 1984-85. However, injuries limited him to 39 games. The Dawkins returned to form last season, scoring 15.3 points and shooting.644 from the floor, but an injury midway through the season kept him out of 31 of the team's final 32 games. After a second back surgery in less than two years, he only appeared six games in the 1986–87 season.

During the 1987 offseason, Dawkins was traded to the Utah Jazz in a seven-player, three-team trade. His time with Utah was short, but the Jazz traded him to the Detroit Pistons for two second-round picks and an undisclosed sum of cash.

Despite being limited to 14 games over two seasons, the Dawkins' personality made him a natural fit on the team's "Bad Boys" Pistons team, and despite being limited to 14 games over two seasons, he was considered to be one of the team's most versatile players. Dawkins was usually inactive for games as he recovered from his back pains and dealing with his estranged wife's death. The Pistons won the NBA championship in his last season in the NBA, and the Dawkins received their first championship ring in his career.

Dawkins was invited to the Orlando Magic for their inaugural season in 1989, but he chose to play in Italy. He spent many seasons in Italy, playing for Torino, Olimpia Milano, and Telemarket Forli. He attempted a comeback in 1994, attending the Denver Nuggets training camp and then the Boston Celtics in 1995.

During the 1983-1984 season, the Dawkins tied for the most personal fouls in NBA history. Despite playing nearly 350 fewer games, Michael Jordan committed one more personal foul during his career than Michael Jordan.

Dawkins broke the backboard, causing Bill Robinzine ducking in a game against the Kansas City Kings at the Municipal Auditorium on November 13, 1979. He did it again three weeks later, this time against the San Antonio Spurs at the Spectrum, this time at home. A few days after that, the NBA announced a new rule that breaking a backboard would result in a fine and suspension.

"The Chocolate-Thunder-Flying, Robinzine-Crying, Teeth-Shaking, Glass-Breaking, Rump-Roaking, Wham-Bam, Ether-I-Am-Jam," Dawkins said on the first backboard breaking dunk "The Chocolate-Thunder-Breaking, Wham-Bam, Wham-Breaking, Wham-Toasting, Wham-Bam, Glass-Bo He also featured other dunks: the Rim Wrecker, the Go-Rilla, the Lookout Below, the In-Your-Face Disgrace, the In-Your-Face Disgrace, the Cover Your Head, the Spine-Chiller Supreme, and the Greyhound Special (for the rare occasions where he went coast to coast). On the stat sheet for Dawkins' self-created nicknames, "Sir Slam," "Dr. Dunkenstein," and "Chocolate Thunder," the 76ers also included "Chocolate Thunder." During games until the 1980 NBA Finals, the Dawkins banned players from wearing them on court. One gold chain had a cross, while the other had a gold script with the word "Sir Slam" in gold script. In gold script, he had a similar necklace named "Dr. Dunk" throughout the series. Dawkins will sometimes shave his head and have it oiled, as well as wearing an earring.

At one point, Dawkins appeared to be an alien from the planet Lovetron, where he spent the off-season doing "interplanetary funkmanship" where his girlfriend Juicy Lucy lived.

The nickname "Chocolate Thunder" was given to Dawkins by Stevie Wonder, who attended Sixers games.

Post-NBA career

Dawkins spent a brief time with the Harlem Globetrotters before embarking on the Continental Basketball Association in the 1995–96 season. The Skyforce's games against the Florida Beach Dogs were nationally broadcast by ESPN throughout this season, as the Beach Dogs featured another former NBA player, Manute Bol. As part of ESPN's reality show Dream Job, Dawkins was one of many former NBA stars to audition for an analyst position.

He was the head coach of the American Basketball Association's Newark Express. In 1999–2000, he was also the player/coach of the Winnipeg Cyclone, a team of the short-lived International Basketball Association.

Before they folded, he was the head coach of the Allentown, Pennsylvania-based Pennsylvania ValleyDawgs of the United States Basketball League.

Dawkins, the head coach of Lehigh Carbon Community College (located in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania), announced on August 20, 2009, that Dawkins would be the head coach of the team's men's basketball team for the 2009–2010 season.

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