Philadelphia 76ers center Darryl Dawkins earned the nickname “Chocolate Thunder” for a reason during the late 1970s.
The 6-foot-11 big man was a ferocious dunker and nearly unstoppable around the rim. And on Nov. 13, 1979, Dawkins showed his full force when his monster dunk against the Kings shattered the backboard in Kansas City. Three weeks later, Dawkins shattered another backboard at home against San Antonio. Dawkins explained his backboard-shattering ways to the New York Times in 2004:
”The first one was an accident, but I wanted to see if I could do it again when I got back to Philadelphia,” The 6-foot-11, 275-pound Dawkins, who smashed his first backboard in Kansas City, said. ”All the fans were hollering, ‘You’ve got to do one for the home crowd,’ so I went ahead and brought it down. Everybody was in awe. Fans were running out grabbing the glass. People’s hands were bleeding. I felt like I was doing something no other human could do.
”Everybody says a dunk is only two points, but it gets your team hyped, gets the crowd all excited and takes the starch out of other teams, especially when you dunk on somebody,” Dawkins said. ”And I always dunked on somebody.”
From 1977 to 1982 with the Sixers, Dawkins averaged 13.1 points on 55 percent shooting and 7.8 rebounds in just 27.0 minutes. He retired from the league in 1989.
