Remembering Connie Hawkins

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beantownbubba
Posts: 21745
Joined: Fri Apr 02, 2010 10:52 am
Location: Trying to stay focused on the righteous path

Remembering Connie Hawkins

Post by beantownbubba »

I was away when the Hawk died but want to say a few fond words.

If you grew up in a certain time and place where basketball was life and the gods of the game were treated like, well, gods, then simply hearing the name Connie Hawkins was enough to send chills down your spine. "Legend" doesn't even begin to capture the awe in which he was held by young and not so young men (mostly) on the streets, corners, playgrounds and courts of New York City and Brooklyn in particular (he was ours!) during the 1960's. Before there was Dr. J, there was the Hawk, except that the Hawk also had an outside shot and existed in a place beyond flesh and blood: We couldn't actually watch him play so he was literally a figment of our individual and collective imaginations, a ghost-like legend living on in hearts and minds and the authenticity of the street. Making it even more bittersweet and raising it beyond "mere" playground legend status was the unfairness of it all: banned from the game by The Man in a singular injustice in a time when injustices fueled much of life.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that I don't think I had a single male friend or acquaintance or any of their brothers and dads who didn't read David Wolf's Foul when it came out. It made Hawkins a mainstream "celebrity" and cause celebre and among his acolytes his cause flamed even brighter. Decades later the book still has enormous power and influence as I saw when my both of my kids read it, were floored by it, and couldn't talk about much else for days after they finished it.

Hawkins was, for most of us, pretty much the only reason to have any interest at all in the ABA. When the NBA finally relented and allowed him into the league it was a home team wins the championship kind of day. While nobody was about to stop rooting for the Knicks, the Phoenix Suns awkwardly became everybody's "second team" and every time they were on tv (1 national game a week plus your home team's away games back in those primitive times, folks) it was must watch tv. By the time he joined the NBA he had been away from top shelf competition for years and was past his peak so in his "rookie" season he only averaged something like 5 assists, 11 rebounds and 25 ppg. Despite the rust and his "advanced" age, he was a multi-time all star and the respect w/ which the other players treated him was obvious to anyone w/ 2 eyes. If memory serves, his first All Star game became his showcase and the other players were as awed as everyone else. When he briefly played for the Lakers, seeing him on the same team as Abdul-Jabbar was the thrill of a lifetime every game even though Hawkins was mostly a supporting or role player by then.

And oh my goodness, every once in a while there would be that flash, that moment when it all came together and the years and heartaches dropped away and you might see something like the one handed rebound turning immediately into leading the fast break, going coast to coast and finishing w/ a move or a pass never before seen by anyone who hadn't been there on those courts in Brooklyn, Harlem and Boys High.

Long may his legend live and long may he be an inspiration to those who are faced w/ institutional barriers that [hopefully temporarily] seem insurmountable.
What used to be is gone and what ought to be ought not to be so hard

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