Darryl Dawkins

Dawkins died on August 27, 2015, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, at the age of 58. 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.

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

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

In 1999, Saturday Night Live named Dawkins the "Man of the Millennium" in a Weekend Update sketch.

Following his NBA career, Dawkins had a brief stint with the Harlem Globetrotters, followed by a season spent with the Sioux Falls Skyforce of the Continental Basketball Association in the 1995–96 season. During this season, the Skyforce's games against the Florida Beach Dogs were broadcast nationally by ESPN, as the Beach Dogs included another former NBA player, Manute Bol. In 2005, Dawkins was one of several former NBA players to audition for an analyst position with ESPN, as part of the network's reality series Dream Job.

Dawkins received a training camp invitation from the Orlando Magic for their inaugural season in 1989, but he opted to play in Italy. He spent several seasons in Italy, playing for Torino, Olimpia Milano and Telemarket Forli. He attempted a comeback in 1994, attending Denver Nuggets training camp, and again in 1995 with the Boston Celtics.

Dawkins was traded to the Utah Jazz in a seven-player, three-team trade during the 1987 offseason. His tenure with Utah lasted just four games before the Jazz traded him to the Detroit Pistons for a pair of second round draft picks and an undisclosed amount of cash.

In September 1986, Dawkins eloped with Kelly Barnes of Trenton, New Jersey. The following autumn, the two were planning to divorce when she committed suicide on November 1, 1987, at her parents' home in New Jersey; Dawkins was in Utah with his team at the time. In 1988 Dawkins married a former Nets cheerleader, Robbin Thornton; they divorced after 10 years. Dawkins later remarried; he and his wife, Janice, had three children: Nick, Alexis, and Tabitha, a daughter from Janice's previous relationship who has Down syndrome.

On April 7, 1986, he appeared at WrestleMania II as a guest judge for a boxing match between Mr. T (with Joe Frazier, The Haiti Kid) versus Roddy Piper (with Bob Orton and Lou Duva).

With the Nets looking to be a team on the rise led by Dawkins, they entered the 1984–85 with high expectations. However injuries limited him to just 39 games. Dawkins appeared to return to form the following season averaging 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. He only played six games in the 1986-87 season, after a second back surgery in less than two years.

Dawkins set an NBA record by committing 386 personal fouls during the 1983-1984 season. He committed one more personal foul during his career than Michael Jordan, despite playing nearly 350 fewer games.

The 76ers suffered another postseason disappointment in 1982 when they reached the Finals but lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in six games. Frustrated with the team's inability to handle Lakers' center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Sixers management traded Dawkins to the New Jersey Nets and Caldwell Jones to the Houston Rockets in exchange for Moses Malone, who helped Philadelphia win the NBA Championship the following year.

Dawkins was traded to the Nets during the 1982 off-season in exchange for a first round draft pick. At age 25, Dawkins joined a Nets club that included Albert King, Buck Williams, and Otis Birdsong. His first two seasons with the Nets were successful for both sides, as Dawkins experienced a career renaissance of sorts and the Nets had their most successful seasons to that point.

In the 1982–83 season, Dawkins averaged 12 points and shot .599 from the floor, ranking third in the league in field-goal percentage. The Nets' 49-33 record that year was their best record since the ABA–NBA merger, and remained their best record until the 2001–02 season.

In the 1981 season Dawkins produced a .607 field-goal percentage, second in the NBA to Artis Gilmore's .670. Dawkins averaged 14 points and 7.2 rebounds for the year, but Philadelphia failed to return to the Finals. The club met the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals and lost in seven games.

Dawkins named the first backboard-breaking dunk "The Chocolate-Thunder-Flying, Robinzine-Crying, Teeth-Shaking, Glass-Breaking, Rump-Roasting, Bun-Toasting, Wham-Bam, Glass-Breaker-I-Am-Jam." He named other dunks as well: the Rim Wrecker, the Go-Rilla, the Look Out Below, the In-Your-Face Disgrace, the Cover Your Head, the Yo-Mama, the Spine-Chiller Supreme, and the Greyhound Special (for the rare occasions when he went coast to coast). The 76ers also kept a separate column on the stat sheet for Dawkins's self-created nicknames: "Sir Slam", "Dr. Dunkenstein", and "Chocolate Thunder." Dawkins also wore gold chain necklaces during games until the end of the 1980 NBA Finals when the NBA banned players from wearing them on court. One gold chain had a cross while the other featured one of his nicknames "Sir Slam" in gold script. He also had a similar necklace that has another nickname "Dr. Dunk" in gold script. Sometimes, Dawkins would also shave his head and have it oiled along with wearing an earring.

Dawkins appears in NBA Ballers and the NBA 2K video games as a reserve member of the 1980s Legends East Team. He also appears in NBA Live Mobile as a Legend based on his 1979–1980 season with the Sixers.

In a game against the Kansas City Kings at Municipal Auditorium on November 13, 1979, Dawkins broke the backboard, sending the Kings' Bill Robinzine ducking. Three weeks later he did it again, this time at home against the San Antonio Spurs at the Spectrum. A few days after that the NBA created a new rule that breaking a backboard was an offense that would result in a fine and suspension.

Prior to the 1978–79 season Philadelphia traded McGinnis to the Denver Nuggets, clearing way for Dawkins to be a permanent front court starter. Over the next three seasons Dawkins and Caldwell Jones split time at the center and power forward positions. In 1979–80 he averaged 14.7 points and a career-high 8.7 rebounds, helping the Sixers back to the NBA Finals, which they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in six games.

With the fifth overall pick in the 1975 NBA draft, the Philadelphia 76ers selected Dawkins. He was drafted behind David Thompson, David Meyers, Marvin Webster, and Alvan Adams. He signed a seven-year contract worth $1 million.

Dawkins averaged double figures in scoring nine times in his 14 years in the NBA, often ranking among the league leaders in field-goal percentage. He also played in the NBA Finals three times as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Dawkins set an NBA record for fouls in a season (386 in 1983–84).

Darryl Dawkins (January 11, 1957 – August 27, 2015) was an American professional basketball player, particularly known for his tenure with the National Basketball Association's Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Nets, although he also played briefly for the Detroit Pistons and Utah Jazz late in his career. His nickname, “ Chocolate Thunder”, was bestowed upon him by Stevie Wonder. He was known for his powerful dunks, which led to the NBA adopting breakaway rims due to his shattering the backboard on two occasions in 1979.