Former Nets and longtime friends Micheal Ray Richardson and Otis Birdsong were walking back from grabbing a bite to eat Thursday morning in West Palm Beach, Fla. Richardson, phone in hand, started screaming.
“Sugar has been having trouble with his knee,” Birdsong said. “I thought his knee was hurting.”
The situation was far worse. Richardson had just received a message that good friend and former teammate Darryl Dawkins, the first player ever drafted directly out of high school into the NBA, was dead. He was 58.
“I can’t believe. I just can’t believe it, bro,” Richardson said. “He was one of my closest friends.”
Dawkins’ family released a statement Thursday afternoon, attributing the legend’s death to a heart attack.
“It is with great sadness that we share the passing of our beloved husband and father, Darryl Dawkins, who succumbed today to a heart attack. Darryl touched the hearts and spirits of so many with his big smile and personality, ferocious dunks, but more than anything, his huge, loving heart,” the statement said.
“His family, wife Janice, children Dara, Tabitha, Nicholas and Alexis, along with countless family, friends, and fans, all mourn his loss. More than anything Darryl accomplished in his basketball career as the inimitable ‘Chocolate Thunder,’ he was most proud of his role and responsibility as a husband and father. We ask that the public please respect our privacy as we grieve his loss.”
The grief reached across the league as players and executives shared their sorrow through social media. The NBA tweeted: “Gone too soon…#Chocolate Thunder.” Later, the league released a statement in which commissioner Adam Silver said “the NBA family is heartbroken” by Dawkins’ death.
“A sad day, a very sad day for the Nets,” said former team vice president Jim Lampariello, who joined in the laundry list of “Darryl stories” that quickly mounted throughout the day.
But aside from Dawkins’ disastrous foray into lobster cooking for a local New Jersey food critic — “Darryl put the lobsters in the oven, they caught on fire and he took them out and smashed them on the floor,” Lampariello recalled, laughing hysterically — the ex-Net exec had one fond memory of the man-child who claimed he hailed from Planet Lovetron.
“Darryl loved kids,” Lampariello, the former Nets PR director said. “He would tell me, ‘Jim, I’ll do anything for kids. Adults, not so much.’ ”
Dawkins’ last personal tweet concerned the Little League World Series where he was pulling for Pennsylvania, congratulating that team and the team from Texas. On Wednesday, Dawkins tweeted a picture of his dog for National Dog Day.
Dawkins played a total of 14 seasons in the NBA, five with the Nets, averaging 12.0 points and 6.1 rebounds over his career that also included time with the Sixers, Jazz and Pistons. He was the Sixers’ first-round pick, No. 5 overall, out of Evans High School in Orlando, Fla., in the 1975 draft.
Some say he could have been recognized as one of the greats if he took playing more seriously. But he was a fun-loving, heart-of-gold guy who became known for naming his dunks (“The Chocolate-Thunder-Flying, Robinzine-Crying, Teeth-Shaking, Glass-Breaking, Rump-Roasting, Bun-Toasting, Wham-Bam, Glass-Breaker-I-Am-Jam”) and breaking backboards as much as for his play.
“One time we were on a long road trip and back then, you practiced where you could,” said former Dawkins teammate and ex-Net Mike O’Koren. “We were in some high-school gym somewhere and we were all tired. Darryl said to me, ‘I got this, we’re just going halfcourt today.’ ”
Dawkins promptly pulled down the backboard on an ensuing dunk. The team practiced halfcourt.
“Just a great guy. Salt of the Earth who was the Pied Piper for kids. They followed him because he was one of them,” O’Koren said.
“Darryl Dawkins was thoughtful, fun, jovial, upbeat, positive, fun-loving, however you want to say it,” Birdsong recalled. “He would walk into any room and everybody felt better immediately. He was always positive.
“On the court, he could have been really great. He had a gift. He could shoot, run, jump, defend, handle. He just didn’t take it serious enough. He was too gentle in a way. But those times when he got upset and he decided he wanted to play, nobody could match him.”
But Dawkins’ legacy will be more the way he touched people with his heart and his gift to make people laugh — and not just with his often outrageous suits.
Mike Gminski another Dawkins’ Nets teammate, tweeted he was “Stunned to hear of the passing of Darryl Dawkins. He was a great teammate and better friend. RIP D.”
Gminski also quoted Dawkins, noting his favorite “Darrylism” as “After it’s all been said and done, there is nothing left to say or do!”
Others in the NBA community offered their condolences: