Darryl Dawkins Dead at 58

The basketball world has lost one of its most colorful characters—Darryl Dawkins passed away Thursday at the age of 58.

Dawkins, who played with four teams during a 14-year NBA career, became famous for his rim-destroying dunks and an irrepressible personality.

Dawkins was the first player to be drafted straight out of high school and into the League; he was most recently the former head coach of the Lehigh Carbon Community College men’s basketball team.

Rest in peace, Chocolate Thunder.

Per the AP:

The Lehigh County, Pennsylvania coroner’s office said Dawkins died Thursday morning at a hospital. No cause of death was immediately announced and an autopsy was scheduled for Friday.

 

Dawkins spent parts of 14 seasons in the NBA with Philadelphia, New Jersey, Utah and Detroit. He averaged 12 points and 6.1 rebounds in 726 career regular-season games. […] He was selected No. 5 in the 1975 NBA draft by the 76ers.

 

Dawkins was as revered off the court as he was on it. He remained enormously popular after his playing days were done, even during his stint as a member of the Harlem Globetrotters. […] He would name his dunks — the “look out below,” the “yo-mama” and the “rim wrecker” among them — and often boasted that he hailed from the “Planet Lovetron.”