He was nicknamed "Chocolate Thunder" for his powerful dunks.
Breaking the backboard
In
a game against the Kansas City Kings in November 1979, Dawkins threw
down such a massive dunk that the backboard shattered into tiny shards,
sending the Kings' Bill Robinzine ducking. Three weeks later he did it
again. A few days after that the NBA ruled that breaking a backboard was
an offense that would result in a fine and suspension.
Dawkins
named the backboard-breaking dunk "The Chocolate-Thunder-Flying,
Robinzine-Crying, Teeth-Shaking, Glass-Breaking, Rump-Roasting,
Bun-Toasting, Wham-Bam, Glass-Breaker-I-Am-Jam." [1]
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, and
the Spine-Chiller Supreme. The 76ers also kept a separate column on the
stat sheet for Dawkins’s self-created nicknames: "Sir Slam", "Dr.
Dunkenstein" and "Chocolate Thunder."
Also,
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.
NBA Carreer
Hoping
to follow in Malone’s footsteps, the 18-year-old Dawkins renounced his
college eligibility and applied for the 1975 NBA Draft as a hardship
candidate. The Philadelphia 76ers made him the fifth overall pick,
behind David Thompson, David Meyers, Marvin Webster, and Alvan Adams.
According to the New York Daily News, when Dawkins made his debut with
the 76ers, New York Knicks guard Walt Frazier took one look and said, "I
bet his teachers called him ‘Mr. Darryl.’"
With
his size, speed, and touch, Dawkins was expected to take over the
league. But he handled the expectations in typical fashion. "When I
walked into the league, they wanted me to be Wilt Chamberlain right
away—without one minute of college ball," he told the Daily News. "I
can’t be Wilt Chamberlain. Wilt is much taller than me."
A
raw talent who needed time to develop, Dawkins languished on the
Sixers’ bench for his first two seasons. As a rookie in 1975-76 he
played in only 37 games, averaging 2.4 points in 4.5 minutes per game.
The next year he played a limited role during the regular season but
began to emerge during the playoffs. The Sixers advanced all the way to
the NBA Finals that year, and Dawkins was called upon to help battle
Portland’s Bill Walton. The Trail Blazers won the series in six games,
but Dawkins earned respect among the Philadelphia coaching staff with
7.3 points and 5.4 rebounds per contest in the postseason.
In
the 1977-78 season Dawkins finally found a regular role, coming off the
bench for nearly 25 minutes per game. Now a robust 20 years old, he
averaged 11.7 points and 7.9 rebounds and ranked second in the league in
field-goal percentage at .575. With a club that included Julius Erving,
George McGinnis, Lloyd Free, and Doug Collins, the Sixers made another
solid postseason run, advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals before
losing to the Washington Bullets in six games.
Prior
to the 1978–79 season Philadelphia traded McGinnis to the Denver
Nuggets for Bobby Jones and Ralph Simpson. The move was made in part to
clear space for Dawkins on the Sixers’ front line, which also included
6-foot-11 Caldwell Jones. Over the next three seasons Dawkins and
Caldwell Jones split time at the center and power forward positions, and
Dawkins had the most productive stretch of his career. 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.
