RIP Chocolate Thunder

[bluejohnson]

Daryl Dawkins dead at 58

 

[Smashcat]

RIP Hard to believe.

 

[sefleming]

Saw this on cbsports.com

Darryl Dawkins, the first NBA player drafted directly from high school, has died at 58, a hospital spokesperson says.

 

[bigbluehomer]

Chocolate Thunder, haven't heard that in a while. I seem to remember something about Planet Lovetron as well. LOL!

Dawkins was a good, solid NBA player. But perhaps not quite as good as his self generated hype IIRC. Played on some really good Sixer's teams - Dr. J, Caldwell Jones, Mo Cheeks, Andrew Toney, Bobby Jones (wonder what his college transcript looks like LOL!), and coached by Billy C. When they brought Moses in was when they were truly great though.

I'm a big Celtics fan and that was a great rivalry with Philly at the time. The couple of years that Robey was a Celt were classic. He wouldn't be in the game more than a minute or two before he and Dawkins would be going at it - pushing, shoving, ref's having to separate them, etc. LOL!

Dawkins went straight to the NBA out of HS. I seem to remember that Hall/UK recruited him pretty hard and he might have been UK bound without the straight to NBA option, but I could be mistaken.

 

[downthehatch]

Actually not ALL the Rolling Stones made it to 90. Brian Jones died at 27

 

[UKhoopCat]

RIP big guy. No one attacked the basket any harder.

 

[sambowieshin]

 

[TheThack]

I seem to remember that Hall/UK recruited him pretty hard and he might have been UK bound without the straight to NBA option, but I could be mistaken.

My recollection too was that had he gone to college he was coming to UK. Of course that was so long ago. I remember him being the next big high school star after Moses Malone.

 

[brianpoe]

Be great to see Poythress utilize the dribble/spin up and dunk power move.

 

[UKvisitor]

The Chocolate Thunder

 

[UKvisitor]

deleted Double post..I don't know why.

 

[Kycatspaws]

RIP D.D.

 

[KWilt43atbuzz]

RIP Double D.

 

[UKvisitor]

The Original "None and done" Straight outa High School



"I think we were so busy having fun, that sometimes we forgot to play," Dawkins said.

• Dawkins was from Orlando, Fla. ... we think. He claimed he was born on planet Lovetron, moved to Chocolate Paradise in another galaxy and lived there in the offseason with girlfriend Juicy Lucy:

"Lovetron was a planet that I even thought about in high school, and everybody'd say, "Man, you crazy." It was just a planet in my own little mind that I could escape to," he said. "And it was a drug-free planet, you know. It was just, 'you get your girl and you go off and y'all just chill out somewhere.' And it was Lovetron. And it was a lot of fun for me. I started to talk about it in Philadelphia, you know, and I thought people would think I was crazy, but people said, "I like that!"

OT: Who was Juicy LUCY?

 

[TeoJ]

The same year a second high school player was drafted in the first round Bill
Poodles Willoughby a commitment to Kentucky that Joe B got,also a lot of people think Dawkins would have ended up at Kentucky.

 

[jameslee32]

Chocolate Thunder died too young of a heart attack. An autopsy likely reveals it was just too big.

 

[westerncat]

RIP 58 way to young.

 

[mj2k10]

“The Chocolate-Thunder-Flying, Robinzine-Crying, Teeth-Shaking, Glass-Breaking, Rump-Roasting, Bun-Toasting, Wham-Bam, Glass-Breaker-I-Am-Jam.”

How can anyone not appreciate the awesomeness of that? Definitely one of a kind. There's a documentary from 1989 called the "The Big Bang", about widely divergent peoples' feelings about the meaning of life, in which Dawkins appears extensively, and seems like a genuinely great guy (maybe part of why he was never quite what people wanted as an athlete).

 

[KMKAT]

Of all the guys who played in the NBA, he was one who I never thought would end up being a coach in his latter years.

Heck of a talent, and played during an elite time for the NBA.