2023-08-23 05:21:05
Connie Hawkins he was the prototype player of the future, playing 15-20 years ahead of his time. He paved the way -better: he opened the airways- for players like Julius Erving and Michael Jordan. He passed the ball like a point guard, shot like a forward, dominated the boards like a center, made up plays like Dr. J and MJ later did.
Huge hands, great coordination, wide strides, gliding with a perfect extension of the hand that ended in dunks as terrifying (for the time) as they were revolutionary. All this and much more was ‘The Hawk’. A nickname assumed from the root of his last name, and very appropriate for his flights to the basket.
If you ask any connoisseur of idols in the golden age of the New York playground, no one would fail to mention him, along with the usual and well-known Goat (Earl Manigault), Fly (James Williams), ‘Copter (Herman Knowings), Jumpin’ Jackie (Jackson), Destroyer (Joe Hammond) and Pee Wee (Richard Kirkland). With one difference, Hawk was one of the few street basketball pioneers who retained his legendary status in the NBA as well. Although, unlike other specimens like him, Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and Nate Tiny Archibald, he didn’t come into the league with a bright future under his belt.
Cornelius Lance Hawkins was born on July 17, 1942, in the New York neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant on Lexingon Avenue, an African-American ghetto that optimists continue to call, with a mild understatement, a very bad part of Brooklyn.
He was the fifth of six children, his mother Dorothy was blind and his father Isaiah an alcoholic. Connie last saw his father when he was ten years old, after he left his family. He sought to escape from his day to day on those asphalt and concrete courts. He was too skinny and weak to be recruited by the oandillas and too shy to make friends. Yet the young Cornelius proved talented in a field in which many had failed. At the age of eleven, Hawkins was already capable of dunking. The fame of him for escaping the laws of gravity spread throughout the neighborhood.
However, he could not avoid the temptations of living in a ghetto like his. At 13 he was getting high on marijuana and at 14 he was drinking quite often. His fate didn’t look very rosy even though he was considered the best high school prospect in town. Connie Hawkins he started playing on the Boys High School varsity team a year before all the boys his age. In his junior season he became an undefeated champion with his team in the Public School Athletic League. The New York Post was already echoing his adventures.
In his last year, after experiencing remarkable growth, he was champion again without losing a single game, averaging 25.5 points. He was named an All American by the prestigious Parade magazine. More than 250 universities wanted to recruit him despite his limited IQ (well below average). He was offered cash, free meal tickets and game tickets. Even the University of Kentucky, reluctant to recruit players of color, offered him a scholarship. Hawkins finally opted for the University of Iowa.
In his first year, Hawkins could not compete with the Hawkeyes because current regulations prevented freshman players from playing, however, in training sessions, he destroyed one session after another the star of the university, a white forward who went by the name of Don Nelson. . But in December 1961, during the Christmas holidays, he was summoned to testify in an investigation into a gambling scandal. Hawkins was never arrested or charged. However, he was linked to Jack Molinas, the instigator of this entire matter of rigged bets. Connie Hawkins he met Molinas a year earlier. He was often seen riding in a car she owned, driven by another great New York street basketball legend and contemporary, Roger Brown. Hawkins had received a few favors from Molinas like accepting a $250 loan.
Molinas had already been arrested 10 years earlier for a similar matter. His modus operandi was to approach highly talented young boys, gain their trust through favors and then involve them in match fixing in which they participated. Between 1957 and 1961, Molinas had involved 476 players from 27 different universities. In exchange for his services, he offered them money and prostitutes. When Molinas was arrested he acknowledged that he had not involved Hawkins who had nothing to do with his scams. Despite everything, Hawkins became part of the blacklist of colleges and professional teams. Iowa withdrew his scholarship and expelled him from the university. Although there was no official veto from the NBA, it was clear that Commissioner Walter Kennedy had prohibited Hawkins from being drafted, and so it was in 1964, when all franchises omitted him from their picks.
Hawkins was considered persona non grata by the NBA. They took away the possibility of demonstrating his talent in the best years in terms of his physical condition. Due to his way of playing, he would have shaken all the pillars of the established order of traditional basketball. His impact would probably have been greater than Julius Erving’s in the 1970s. After the Iowa penalty he returned to his neighborhood as an outcast. He had to start over and find his life after almost all the doors were closed to him.
In the fall of 1961, he committed to the Pittsburgh Renaissance of the newly created ABL for $5,000. That parallel league to the NBA was founded by Abe Saperstein, owner of the Harlem Globetrotters. Hawkins was MVP and leading scorer (with an average of 27.5 points). He led his team to the playoffs where they would be defeated by the Washington-New York Tapers. The technical level of the league was not very high, but at least it allowed Hawkins to do what he liked best, play basketball. There were two peculiarities that made this league an attractive tournament, the first, it was the first official competition that added a 3-point line and the second, the one that the players liked the most, had a franchise in Hawaii. However, the league did not complete its two years of life.
Hawkins, who had an average of 27.9 pts per game when the league went bankrupt, was once again without prospects of continuing to make a career in the world of basketball. A year later, Abe Saperstein offered him a way out, to join the Harlem Globetrotters. It might not be Hawkins’s dream job, but it was a way to earn a living, because right now he risked going broke. He never adapted to that environment, but he had no other choice. In his heart of hearts he knew that his place was in the NBA, conquering a place among the best players in the league. And the NBA athletes themselves knew it. «The Hawk played with us in the summer. We all knew that he was a player with NBA superstar status », recounted Willis Reed, who shared the field with Hawkins in the New York playgrounds.
Hawkins began to move further and further out of the orbit of the Harlem Globetrotters. In his childhood he had been teased by other children for his ragged appearance. It only reinforced the shy and introverted aspect of his character, which is why he hated being a laughingstock and clowning, which was one of the prerogatives of the Globetrotters’ way of acting. The only thing he liked about that circus was traveling. When he left the United States, he better understood the state of segregation they lived in compared to how they were treated in other countries. Hawkins parted ways with the Globetrotters and settled in Pittsburgh playing in an industrial amateur league. During that time he received a piece of news that was the final nail in his coffin, the NBA board of governors officially voted against disbarring him. Connie Hawkinsavoiding the temptation that any team could hire him.
Hawkins had hit rock bottom. He lived in a hovel on the North Side of Pittsburgh with her two children, her wife and her brother, who was mentally handicapped. He once again opened a window of hope in his life in the form of a new competition, the American Basketball Association. He signed with the Pittsburgh Pipers. The commissioner of that league was George Mikan, the first superstar of the NBA. His first move was to open the doors to the players on the 1961 blacklist, all those who were sanctioned, whether they were involved or not. Among those players there were names like Roger Brown or Doug Moe. Connie suddenly became one of the faces of the new competition. He was one of the few players who were capable of attracting an audience to the half-empty fields of the ABA. People would pay a ticket just to see him.
Thanks to Hawkins’ play, and supported by Art Heyman, Charlie Williams, Chico Vaughn or Trooper Washington, the Pipers achieved first place in their division with a 54-24 record. Hawkins was the league’s leading scorer with 26.5 pts per game and second-highest rebounder with 13.8 sacks per game. Only Mel Daniels averaged more rebounds than him. He also averaged 4.6 basket passes per game, fourth best in the league. He was chosen MVP in this premiere campaign. In the playoffs they reached the finals against the New Orleans Buccaneers of Larry Brown, Jimmy Jones and Doug Moe. The Pipers rallied from 2-3, and Hawkins scored 41 points in Game 7. Hawkins was voted MVP of the finals after averaging 30.7 pts and 11.2 reb.
At the end of that season, Hawkins missed his usual appointment with Rucker Park, and did not sign up with any team. When the organization had to vote for the members of the All Star party in which the best players would take part, Connie Hawkins It was one of the most voted despite the fact that it had not participated in that year’s edition. “If you decide to host an all-star party at the Rucker, either you vote for Connie or you don’t vote,” said Bob McCollough, a longtime legend of the place. Hawkins had to appear at the game by popular demand and was named MVP.
The Pipers’ owner decided to move the franchise to Minneapolis. The team was plagued by injuries that even Hawkins couldn’t shake off (he only played in 47 games). While he was healthy he recorded his quality: 30.2 pts and 11.4 reb. They barely managed to get into the playoffs to fall in the first round. It would be Hawkins’ last appearance in the ABA.
In 1969 there was a paradigm shift in relation to his disqualification due to gambling. Life magazine published an article stating that Hawkins had been intimidated and threatened by government agents into admitting to crimes he had not committed. There were no lawyers present, he and half a dozen other boys were isolated in a federal building without being able to have contact with anyone. Hawkins had filed a lawsuit against the NBA for his disqualification, a lawsuit that was won by the player. The verdict forced the NBA to reach an agreement with Connie Hawkins If you didn’t want to shell out $6M all at once.
Hawkins was released to sign with the Phoenix Suns in a draw to determine his rights between the Arizona team and the Seattle Supersonics. It was the end of a nightmare that lasted too long and took away the best years of Hawkins and the health of his knees.
On another occasion I will talk about his journey in the NBA and his short but intense stay in Italy.
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