Darryl Dawkins
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Darryl Dawkins (born January 11, 1957 in Orlando, Florida) is a former professional basketball player, most noted for his days with the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Nets, although he also played briefly for the Detroit Pistons and Utah Jazz late in his career.
Dawkins is currently head coach of the Pennsylvania ValleyDawgs, an Allentown, Pennsylvania-based team affiliated with the United States Basketball League.
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[edit] Drafted by the 76ers
Dawkins was one of two players to go straight from high school to the NBA, drafted fifth overall out of Maynard Evans High School by the Sixers in the 1975 NBA Draft.
[edit] Fan favorite for backboard-breaking dunks
He almost instantly became a fan favorite in Philadelphia because of his backboard-shattering dunks (which he would name). He broke two backboards in the 1979-80 season: one at Kansas City's Municipal Auditorium on November 13, 1979 (which he called "The Chocolate-Thunder-Flying, Robinzine-Crying, Teeth-Shaking, Glass-Breaking, Rump Roasting, Bun-Toasting, Wham-Bam-Glass-Breaker-I-Am-Jam") and a second backboard 23 days later at the Philadelphia Spectrum. Because his dunks resulted in delays while teams went to find another backboard, the NBA eventually modified their basketball rims to make them collapsible in the event another superstar wanted to emulate Dawkins' dunks.
Additional Dawkins dunk names include: In Your Face Disgrace, Go-Rilla Dunk, Earthquaker Shaker, Candyslam, Dunk You Very Much, Look Out Below, Yo Mama, Sexophonic, Turbo Delight, Rim Wrecker, Greyhound Bus (went coast-to-coast), Cover Your Head, and Spine Chiller Supreme.
His nickname was "Chocolate Thunder", and he claimed to be an alien from planet Lovetron where he spent off-season practicing "interplanetary funkmanship" and where his girlfriend Juicy Lucy still lived [1].
Dawkins was also immortalized by the song "Darryl Dawkins: Sound of Love" by the Screaming Headless Torsos. Also, in a farce, he was declared "Man of the Millennium" by Saturday Night Live.
[edit] Post NBA career
Following his NBA career, Dawkins did a brief stint with the Harlem Globetrotters. In 2005, along with other former pro basketball players, Dawkins auditioned for an NBA analyst position with ESPN as part of the network's reality series Dream Job.
He was the head coach of the American Basketball Association's Newark Express. He was also the head coach of the short-lived Winnipeg Cyclone.
[edit] Pennsylvania ValleyDawgs head coach
He is now head coach of the Allentown, Pennsylvania-based Pennsylvania ValleyDawgs of the United States Basketball League.
[edit] Personal
Dawkins is the author of Chocolate Thunder: The Uncensored Life and Times of Darryl Dawkins (co-authored with Charley Rosen) [2], which chronicles his on and off-the-court life as an NBA star. In the book, Dawkins writes of some of the racism he encountered during his NBA career, playing alongside 76ers superstar Julius Erving, and his off-the-court experiences with drugs, parties and women.
Dawkins resides currently in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
[edit] Trivia
- Dawkins has the record for most personal fouls committed in a season, with 386 in 1984, which is seven more than his 379 fouls the previous year, which ranks second all time. [3]. He committed one more personal foul during his career than Michael Jordan [4].
- In 1999, Saturday Night Live named Darryl Dawkins the "Man of the Millennium" in a "Weekend Update" sketch.
