RIP Connie Hawkins

NewRoxFan · Oct 7, 2017

http://www.nba.com/article/2017/10/07/report-nba-hall-fame-forward-connie-hawkins-passes-away-75#/

RasaqBoi · Oct 7, 2017

RIP (not old enough to remember him or his game) -- I first read it as Hersey Hawkins.

pippendagimp · Oct 7, 2017

RasaqBoi said: ↑

RIP (not old enough to remember him or his game) -- I first read it as Hersey Hawkins.
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commentators used to compare otis thorpe to him, b/c they were both able to easily palm the ball on the fastbreak

Snow Villiers · Oct 7, 2017

Great dunker

awc713 · Oct 7, 2017

His backstory is crazy.

During Hawkins' freshman year at Iowa, he was a victim of the hysteria surrounding a point-shaving scandal that had started in New York City. Hawkins' name surfaced in an interview conducted with an individual who was involved in the scandal. While some of the conspirators and characters involved were known to or knew Hawkins, none – including the New York attorney at the center of the scandal, Jack Molinas – had ever sought to involve Hawkins in the conspiracy. Hawkins had borrowed $200 from Molinas for school expenses, which his brother Fred repaid before the scandal broke in 1961.[2] The scandal became known as the 1961 College Basketball Gambling Scandal.

Despite the fact that Hawkins could not have been involved in point-shaving (as a freshman, due to NCAA rules of the time, he was ineligible to participate in varsity-level athletics), he was kept from seeking legal counsel while being grilled by New York City detectives who were investigating the scandal. Hawkins never admitted to any wrongdoing.[3]

Expulsion from Iowa and ABL/Globetrotter/ABA years[edit]

As a result of the investigation, despite never being arrested or indicted, Hawkins was expelled from Iowa. He was effectively blackballed from the college ranks; no NCAA or NAIA school would offer him a scholarship. NBACommissioner J. Walter Kennedy let it be known that he would not approve any contract for Hawkins to play in the league. At the time, the NBA had a policy barring players who were even remotely involved with point-shaving scandals. As a result, when his class was eligible for the draft in 1964, no team selected him. He went undrafted in 1965 as well before being formally banned from the league in 1966.[2][4]
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eman · Oct 7, 2017

What he could have been, but for those knees... He made the most amazing move I've ever seen on a basketball court-- and only someone with incredible hops and meathook fingers would even conceive it: drove baseline, cut back up court and just f-ing soared, windmilled and then reverse-windmilled the ball and gently released it from above the rim as he was fading away. Hit nothing but net with a swooping, underhanded finger roll from above and ~4-5 feet away from the rim, while flying away from the bucket! Landed ever so smoothly and just kept gliding back on D like it was the layup line.

RIP, Hawk, and thanks for the memories.

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RIP Connie Hawkins

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