[11][12], One of Hawkins' nephews is Jim McCoy Jr., who scored a school-record 2,374 career points for the UMass Minutemen basketball team from 1988 to 1992. "Someone said if I didn't break them, I was slow to obey them," Hawkins once said. He didn't play in the NBA until he was 27, the league keeping its distance because of a college point-shaving scandal in New York City while Hawkins was a freshman at Iowa in 1961.

ABA MVP (1968). "I was innocent, but no one would listen to me. [7] Hawkins led the ABA in scoring that year and won both the ABA's regular season and playoff MVP awards. We just weren't that sophisticated.". "It was totally devastating," Hawkins said in a 2009 interview with NBA.com. In 1969, Hawkins hit the ground running in his first season with the Phoenix Suns, when he played 81 games and averaged 24.6 points, 10.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game. "One of the first players to play above the rim," Colangelo said, "and kind of set the tone for those who followed, Julius Erving in particular, in terms of charisma on the court and the ability to do things on court.". All-NBA First Team (1970). Hawkins joined the Pittsburgh Pipers in the inaugural 1967–68 season of the ABA, leading the team to a 54–24 regular season record and the 1968 ABA championship. Connie Hawkins, byname of Cornelius L. Hawkins, also called the Hawk, (born July 17, 1942, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.—died October 6, 2017), American basketball player who is widely regarded as one of the sport’s greatest talents of the 20th century but who had limited impact on the professional leagues. 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. He was, Colangelo said, "a very warm, compassionate guy who was very humble in his own way. Official Sites. Due to knee problems, Hawkins played in the NBA for only seven seasons. Hawkins was All-City first team as a junior as Boys went undefeated and won New York's Public Schools Athletic League (PSAL) title in 1959. |  Finally, in 1969, then-commissioner J. Walter Kennedy lifted the ban. Hawkins' name surfaced in an interview conducted with an individual who was involved in the scandal. Hell, no. A New York City playground legend, "the Hawk" PHOENIX -- Connie Hawkins, basketball's dazzling New York playground legend who soared and swooped his way to the Hall of Fame, has died at 75. First Phoenix Sun elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. In 1962, he and three other college basketball players were banned from playing in the NBA for life by then-NBA commissioner Maurice Podoloff for associating with professional gambler Jack Molinas. ABL MVP at the age of 19 (1962).

His No. "His unique combination of size, grace and athleticism was well ahead of its time and his signature style of play is now a hallmark of the modern game. Plus, coming from a poor family, no one even thought about trying to get a lawyer to fight it. Colangelo has said that if Hawkins would have come into the league through college at the normal age, "he could have been one of the top 10 or 15 players to ever play the game.". Seeking to avoid a defeat in court which might jeopardize its ability to bar players who had actually participated in gambling, the NBA elected to settle after the 1968–69 season and admit Hawkins to the league. For the series, Hawkins averaged 25 points, 14 rebounds and 7 assists per game. [November 2003], View agent, publicist, legal and company contact details on IMDbPro. Team MVP (Phoenix Suns-1971). An original member of the Suns Ring of Honor, he was a community representative for the Phoenix franchise for many years after his retirement. Forward Barred in His Prime, Dies at 75", ESPN list of the Top 10 High School athletes of all time, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Connie_Hawkins&oldid=979994875, Banned National Basketball Association players, Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees, National Basketball Association All-Stars, National Basketball Association players with retired numbers, Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball), Undrafted National Basketball Association players, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Career statistics and player information from, This page was last edited on 24 September 2020, at 00:24. The Suns did not disclose the cause of Friday's death. Injuries limited his production in the 1974–75 season, and Hawkins finished his career after the 1975–76 season, playing for the Atlanta Hawks. People still to this day ask me if I was bitter about that, and I still tell them the same thing. The Suns, a 1-year-old franchise at the time, lost a coin flip with Milwaukee for the rights to Lew Alcindor that year but won a separate coin flip with Seattle for the rights to Hawkins.

The league paid Hawkins a cash settlement of nearly $1.3 million, and assigned his rights to the expansion Phoenix Suns.

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