Years: 1975-89 | Teams: PHI, NJN, UTA, DET
Signature Style: Power Dunker
Iconic Dunk: Shattered backboard over Bill Robinzine, 1979-80 regular season, 76ers vs. Kings | Watch Here
It’s often hyperbole to describe a dunk as rim-rocking or bringing down the house. To say that Darryl Dawkins’ dunks were destructive, though, would be selling them short.
In 1979, Dawkins shattered the backboard not once but twice in a span of three weeks. The first incident came on a two-handed slam that sent glass cascading down on Dawkins and Kansas City Kings forward Bill Robinzine. The second involved less shattered glass, as Dawkins ripped the rim clear off the backboard.
And if shattering the glass wasn’t enough, Dawkins also named all of his dunks. His creative monikers, according to History.com, included the “In-Your-Face Disgrace, the Look Out Below, the Turbo Sexophonic Delight, the Rim-Wrecker, the Go-Rilla, the Spine Chiller Supreme, the Cover Your Head, the Yo Mama and the Get-Out-of-the-Waying, Backboard-Swaying, Game-Delaying, If-You-Ain’t-Grooving-You-Best-Get-Moving Dunk.” His first backboard-breaker was dubbed the Chocolate-Thunder-Flying, Robinzine-Crying, Teeth-Shaking, Glass-Breaking, Rump-Roasting, Bun-Toasting, Wham-Bam Glass-Breaker-I-Am Jam.
“It wasn’t really a safe thing to do,” Dawkins later said of breaking the backboard, “but it was a Darryl Dawkins thing to do.”
Dawkins’ dunks drew a lot of excited attention to the league, though the NBA couldn’t run the risk of further destruction and soon installed breakaway rims at every arena. For a dunker, that’s maybe the greatest legacy possible.