R.I.P. Darryl Dawkins, 58

[PiscatawayMike]

God bless the soul of Chocolate Thunder, one of the funniest guys I ever met.

I was fortunate to get to know Darryl a bit during the fall semester (Sept.-Dec. 1986) of my senior year at Rutgers when I interned in the Nets public relations office. After one practice, he had no ride back to his condo in Secaucus so I drove him. I had a 1974 Chevy Impala at the time. It was the size of a boat and players had no problem fitting into it, so I was the intern who was always chosen to give players a lift when needed (like picking up Orlando Woolridge at the hotel and bringing him to the press conference on the day he was signed as a free agent by the Nets).

The night I remember most, when Darryl was on top of his game telling stories, was after a preseason game in Hershey. The Nets had just played the Washington Bullets and the bus was headed back to Princeton, where the Nets trained that season. He was cracking everybody up! Players, coaches, staff. You name it, he had 'em in stitches. I can still remember some of his quips, which cannot be repeated here for obvious reasons.

http://www.si.com/nba/2015/08/27/darryl-dawkins-dead-dies-stats-career-sixers-nets

 

[Scarlet Shack]

I met him a couple of time too...a very very personable nice guy

RIP

 

[Rutgers81]

Planet Lovetron here he comes.

 

[shields]

RIP Darryl. Too young.

 

[Mr_Twister]

Saw Darryl play as an 18-year old professional right out of high school at a preseason game in Hampton Roads, VA. Believe it or not, an ABA team, the Virginia Squires, playing the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers. He gave meaning to the word manchild. Never developed his game the way another high school player, Moses Malone, did. Darryl would have been an amazing player if he'd done a few years of college ball and had some serious coaching before the distraction of serious money.

 

[RUnion]

Saw Darryl play a few times at the RAC in 1978 / 1979 ish ?? when the Nets played their home games on the RU campus. Was my first Pro bball game seen in person....We had seats under the basket (the side opposite the student section) and we were 2nd or 3rd row from the court.. .right on the floor. I'll never forget how shocked I was how physical the game was, especially from Dawkins... and how he was pushing and shoving and dropping the F bomb everywhere. Just constantly trash talking the Nets players. As a teen, watching the game from down low near the floor, dawkins was immense... what a physically intimidating guy. I had never seen a college game that close and seeing the size and the demeanor of Dawkins was pretty eye opening.

 

[HALL85]

Met him back in my (and his) 20's at a company meeting that he was a guest. Shook his hand and his finger tips wrapped around my wrist...also said he had a 32 inch waist which I didn't doubt. Really nice guy and recently had coached an ECBL team here in Allentown and stayed in the area.

 

[Jumba72]

He was friends with Mike O'Koren who brought him back to the neighborhood to support the church in a summer league. Dude was a beast. RIP