"Darryl touched the hearts and . 5 in the 1975 NBA draft by the 76ers. "A guy who never saw me," a beaming Dawkins said in a 2011 interview, "gave me the name 'Chocolate Thunder.'". There was the Rim Wrecker, the Look Out Below, The In Your Face Disgrace, The Yo Mama, The Spine Chiller Supreme, and on the occasion that he went coast to coast for a dunk, well those were called the Greyhound Specials. #chocolate thunder, A photo posted by Dwight Howard (@dwighthoward) on Aug 27, 2015 at 12:31pm PDT. The world of basketball lost one of its most colorful characters with the death of Darryl Dawkins on Thursday. Ex-NBA star, Jazzman Darryl Dawkins, aka 'Chocolate Thunder' has died A native of Orlando, Fla., Dawkins was part of the 76ers' playoff teams of the late 1970s and early 1980s, alongside Julius Erving and World B. However injuries limited him to just 39 games. Former 76ers star Allen Iverson tweeted: Condolences to the family of Darryl Dawkins, a great man! The team had been to the NBA Finals three times while Dawkins played on the team. This is decades before Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, or LeBron James would make coming out of high school seem like a normal thing. Legendary Sixers center Darryl Dawkins dies at 58 Who Is Darryl Dawkins's Wife? - Ourhairstyles The spring absorbs most of the force and not the backboard. the cause of death was a heart attack. 2015 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. Dawkins spent parts of 14 seasons in the NBA with Philadelphia, New Jersey, Utah and Detroit. Darryl Dawkins, nicknamed by Stevie Wonder, dies at 58 Darryl Dawkins, a high-scoring, big-dunking center who played the bulk of his 15-year NBA career with the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Nets, has died at the age of 58 . Richardson had just received a message that good friend and former teammate Darryl Dawkins, the first player ever drafted directly out of high school into the NBA, was . Darryl Dawkins, thunderous NBA dunker, dead at 58 | Sporting News His final choices for college were Kentucky, Kansas, and Florida State. He was 58. I do all of those things. [9] Two days later, on November 5, 1983, Dawkins set the Nets' franchise record for blocks in a single game, with 13. We went up for the dunk and Doug Collins, his point guard, was already running away before the dunk was even completed. His two ferocious dunks in 1979 caused the league to switch over. They had been working on it for a few years and the breakaway rims made their debut at the 1978 Final Four. He was 58. . A Lehigh . The Lehigh County coroner's office announced that an autopsy would be performed on August 27, but according to a statement released by Dawkins' family, the cause of death was a heart attack.
