Connie
Hawkins, a high-flying basketball sensation who was molded on the
playgrounds of New York and inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame,
but whose career was unjustly derailed when the N.B.A. barred him until
his prime years had passed on suspicions of involvement in a college
point-shaving scandal, died on Friday. He was 75.
The
Phoenix Suns confirmed the death but did not say where he died.
Hawkins, who lived in the Phoenix area, joined the team when he was 27
after starring with two lesser leagues and the Harlem Globetrotters. The
Associated Press said he had been in frail health and was found to have
colon cancer in 2007.
Even
as a playground legend, Hawkins had the jaw-dropping flash that
superstars like Elgin Baylor, Julius Erving and Michael Jordan would
display, turning pro basketball into a national sports spectacular.
“He
was Julius before Julius, he was Elgin before Elgin, he was Michael
before Michael,” the longtime college and pro coach Larry Brown once
said in an ESPN documentary on Hawkins. “He was simply the greatest
individual player I have ever seen.”
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