Darryl Dawkins

Darryl Dawkins
Darryl Dawkins (born January 11, 1957 in Orlando, Florida) is a retired American professional basketball player, most noted for his days with the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Nets, although he also played briefly for the Detroit Pistons and Utah Jazz late in his career. He was nicknamed "Chocolate Thunder" for his powerful dunks, which notably led to the NBA adopting breakaway rims due to him shattering the backboard on two occasions in 1979.
Dawkins averaged double figures in scoring nine times in his 14 years in the NBA, often ranking among the league leaders in field-goal percentage. He also played in the NBA Finals three times as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers in the late 1970s and early 1980s. On the flip side, Dawkins set an NBA record for fouls in a season (386 in 1983-84), and he never quite lived up to the expectations that had been heaped upon him when he was drafted out of high school.
"Many of us will judge him solely on what he could have been," said Dave Wohl, who played against and coached Dawkins, in Sports Illustrated. "Too many will be blinded by the flashes of brilliance that never materialized into consistent greatness. There were times when he teased us with a hint of how he could dominate a game. And we went home in awe and yet sad because we knew of no spell to make it happen more frequently. But few players could make us feel that way even once."

Hoping to follow in Malone’s footsteps, the 18-year-old Dawkins renounced his college eligibility and applied for the 1975 NBA Draft as a hardship candidate. The Philadelphia 76ers made him the fifth overall pick, behind David Thompson, David Meyers, Marvin Webster, and Alvan Adams. According to the New York Daily News, when Dawkins made his debut with the 76ers, New York Knicks guard Walt Frazier took one look and said, "I bet his teachers called him ‘Mr. Darryl.’"
With his size, speed, and touch, Dawkins was expected to take over the league. But he handled the expectations in typical fashion. "When I walked into the league, they wanted me to be Wilt Chamberlain right away—without one minute of college ball," he told the Daily News. "I can’t be Wilt Chamberlain. Wilt is much taller than me."
A raw talent who needed time to develop, Dawkins languished on the Sixers’ bench for his first two seasons. As a rookie in 1975-76 he played in only 37 games, averaging 2.4 points in 4.5 minutes per game. The next year he played a limited role during the regular season but began to emerge during the playoffs. The Sixers advanced all the way to the NBA Finals that year, and Dawkins was called upon to help battle Portland’s Bill Walton. The Trail Blazers won the series in six games, but Dawkins earned respect among the Philadelphia coaching staff with 7.3 points and 5.4 rebounds per contest in the postseason.

In the 1977-78 season Dawkins finally found a regular role, coming off the bench for nearly 25 minutes per game. Now a robust 20 years old, he averaged 11.7 points and 7.9 rebounds and ranked second in the league in field-goal percentage at .575. With a club that included Julius Erving, George McGinnis, Lloyd Free, and Doug Collins, the Sixers made another solid postseason run, advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals before losing to the Washington Bullets in six games.
Prior to the 1978–79 season Philadelphia traded McGinnis to the Denver Nuggets for Bobby Jones and Ralph Simpson. The move was made in part to clear space for Dawkins on the Sixers’ front line, which also included 6-foot-11 Caldwell Jones. Over the next three seasons Dawkins and Caldwell Jones split time at the center and power forward positions, and Dawkins had the most productive stretch of his career. In 1979–80 he averaged 14.7 points and a career-high 8.7 rebounds, helping the Sixers back to the NBA Finals, which they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in six games.
In a game against the Kansas City Kings in November 1979, Dawkins threw down such a massive dunk that the backboard shattered, sending the Kings' Bill Robinzine ducking. Three weeks later he did it again. A few days after that the NBA ruled that breaking a backboard was an offense that would result in a fine and suspension.
Dawkins named the first backboard-breaking dunk "The Chocolate-Thunder-Flying, Robinzine-Crying, Teeth-Shaking, Glass-Breaking, Rump-Roasting, Bun-Toasting, Wham-Bam, Glass-Breaker-I-Am-Jam." [1]
He named other dunks as well: the Rim Wrecker, the Go-Rilla, the Look Out Below, the In-Your-Face Disgrace, the Cover Your Head, the Yo-Mama, and the Spine-Chiller Supreme. The 76ers also kept a separate column on the stat sheet for Dawkins’s self-created nicknames: "Sir Slam", "Dr. Dunkenstein", and "Chocolate Thunder."
Also, he claimed to be an alien from the planet Lovetron where he spent the off-season practicing "interplanetary funkmanship" and where his girlfriend Juicy Lucy still lived.

At age 25, Dawkins joined a Nets club that included Albert King, Buck Williams, and Otis Birdsong. He had two productive seasons in a Nets uniform before injuries destroyed the rest of his career. In the 1982-83 season Dawkins averaged 12.0 points and shot .599 from the floor, ranking third in the league in field-goal percentage behind Gilmore and Steve Johnson. The next season he poured in a career-high 16.8 points per game on .593 field-goal shooting and grabbed 6.7 rebounds per contest. Dawkins also set a dubious NBA record that year when he committed 386 personal fouls for the season.
The 1983-84 campaign was Dawkins’s last full season. Injuries limited him to only 39 games in 1984-85, and then a back injury in the 1985-86 campaign all but ended his career. At the time, Dawkins was averaging 15.3 points and shooting .644 from the floor, but the injury sidelined him for 31 of the Nets’ final 32 games and led to abortive playing attempts over the next three seasons. With New Jersey, then the Utah Jazz, then the Detroit Pistons, Dawkins kept trying to come back, but his back wouldn’t let him. He played only 26 games from 1986-87 through 1988-89, finally retiring at the end of the 1988-89 season at age 32. He attempted a comeback in 1994 attending Denver Nuggets training camp and again in 1995 with the Boston Celtics. Dawkins also spent several seasons after 1989, playing in the Italian league for Torino, Olimpia Milano and Telemarket Forli.
Dawkins has the record for most personal fouls committed in a season, with 386 in 1984, which is seven more than his 379 fouls the previous year, which ranks second all time.[3] He committed one more personal foul during his career than Michael Jordan, despite playing nearly 350 fewer games.

Following his NBA career, Dawkins had a brief stint with the Harlem Globetrotters, followed by a season spent with the Sioux Falls Skyforce of the Continental Basketball Association in 1995-1996. During this season, the Skyforce games versus the Florida Beach Dogs were covered by ESPN as Florida featured former NBA center Manute Bol, and ESPN could not resist the novelty of Darryl Dawkins versus Manute Bol. In 2005, along with other former pro basketball players, Dawkins auditioned for an NBA analyst position with ESPN as part of the network's reality series Dream Job.
He was the head coach of the American Basketball Association's Newark Express. He was also the player/coach of the short-lived Winnipeg Cyclone.
He was the head coach of the Allentown, Pennsylvania-based Pennsylvania ValleyDawgs of the United States Basketball League until they folded.
On August 20, 2009, Lehigh Carbon Community College (located in Schnecksville, PA) announced that Dawkins would be the head coach of their men's basketball team for the upcoming 2009-2010 season.

Grant Hill part 2

Grant Hill part 2
Much like Scottie Pippen with the Bulls, Hill assumed the role of a "point forward" in Detroit, running the Pistons offense. As a result, between the 1995–96 and 1998–99 NBA seasons, Hill was the league leader in assists per game among non-guards all four seasons. In the lockout-shortened 1999 season, as he led his team in points, rebounds and assists for the third time, Grant Hill joined Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor as the only players in NBA history to lead their teams in scoring, rebounding and assists more than once. Hill and Chamberlain are the only two players in league history to lead their teams in points, rebounds and assists per game three times. Hill was selected to play in the 1998 FIBA World Championship, but in the end no NBA players played in this tournament due to the lockout.
Hill's 1999–2000 season showed that he could be one of NBA's truly dominant scorers. He averaged 25.8 points while shooting 49% from the field, the season's third highest scoring average, behind MVP Shaquille O'Neal and Allen Iverson. He maintained solid overall numbers, averaging 6.6 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game. However, despite Hill's individual accomplishments in Detroit, the Pistons never made it far in the playoffs, either losing in the first round (1996, 1997 and 1999), or missing the playoffs entirely in the 1994–95 and 1997–98 seasons. The 2000 playoffs would be no different. On April 15, 2000, 7 days before the start of the playoffs, Hill sprained his left ankle in a game against the Philadelphia 76ers. He continued to play until the first round playoff series against the Miami Heat, in which his injured ankle got worse and Hill was forced to leave halfway through game 2. Eventually, the Heat swept the Pistons 3–0. Hill was initially selected for the 2000 Olympics U.S. team, but could not play due to his ankle injury, which would prove to be a major liability for many years to come.
After the first six seasons of his career, before his ankle injury, Hill had a total of 9,393 points, 3,417 rebounds and 2,720 assists. Oscar Robertson, Larry Bird, and LeBron James are the only three players in league history to eclipse these numbers after their first six seasons.

As an unrestricted free agent, Hill had planned to sign with the Orlando Magic. However, on August 3, 2000, a sign and trade deal allowed Hill to receive a slightly more lucrative contract while Detroit received at least some compensation for losing him. The Pistons traded Hill to Orlando for Chucky Atkins and Ben Wallace. The Magic hoped he would team up with budding superstar Tracy McGrady, who had been signed away from the Toronto Raptors at that time, to return Orlando among the NBA elite. But Hill had been hampered by ankle injuries ever since his arrival in Orlando, playing in only four games in his first season with the Magic, 14 games in his second and 29 in his third. He was forced to sit out his entire fourth year with Orlando (2003–04). Meanwhile, the Pistons, who had defeated the Magic in the 2003 Playoffs but ended up losing to the New Jersey Nets in Eastern Conference Finals, won the championship the following year in 2004.
In March 2003, Hill underwent a major surgical procedure in which doctors re-fractured his ankle and realigned it with his leg bone. Five days after the surgery was performed, Hill developed a 104.5 °F (40.3 °C) fever and convulsions. He was rushed to a hospital. Doctors removed the splint around his ankle and discovered that Hill had contracted a potentially fatal methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection. He was hospitalized for a week and had to take intravenous antibiotics for six months.
The 2004–05 season saw a return to the old Grant Hill, who was so popular earlier in his career. Hill, though hampered by a bruised left shin that caused him to miss several games, started and played 67 games for the Magic, well over the combined amount of games he played for the Magic the previous four seasons. He was named the Eastern Conference player of the week for the week between November 15–21, 2004. Over the season, Hill averaged 19.7 points per game on a .509 field goal percentage. Fans voted him an All-Star starter again, and he led the Eastern Conference All-Star Team to a victory over the West. In addition, at the conclusion of the season, Hill was awarded the Joe Dumars Trophy presented to the NBA Sportsmanship Award Winner.
During the 2005–06 season, Hill was once again injured frequently as nagging groin injuries kept him sidelined for much of the first half of the season, limiting him to 21 games. He got a sports hernia that was caused by an uneven pressure on Hill's feet while he was running, due to concerns that he could re-aggravate the injury on his left ankle if it got too much pressure. Hill underwent surgery for the hernia and has since stated that he would consider retirement if he has to get another surgery.

In the 2006–07 season, Hill returned from injuries despite numerous rumors surrounding his retirement. Hill received ankle rotation therapy from specialists in Vancouver, BC during the off-season and has stated that he has regained much motion in his left ankle. Hill returned to the Magic lineup, starting at the shooting guard position. Despite having problems with injuries on his left knee and a tendon in his left ankle, Hill managed to play 65 games, two short of the highest number of games he played over a single season as a member of the Magic. He finished the season with averages of 14.4 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game. This season would see Hill return to the playoffs for the first time since 2000, his first playoff appearance with the Magic. The 8th seed Magic would meet Hill's old team, the Detroit Pistons, in the first round. The Pistons' vast playoff experience would prevail over the inexperienced Magic, who had not seen significant post-season action for some years, and despite having some close games, the series would end with a 4–0 Pistons sweep, leaving Hill undecided on whether to return for the 2007–08 season with the Magic, sign with another team, or retire.

Hill became an unrestricted free agent on July 1, 2007. On July 5, Hill's agent, Lon Babby, said Hill intended to sign with the Phoenix Suns on July 11 (the first day free agents can officially sign contracts).[5] Hill earned $1.83 million for 2007–08 with a $1.97 million player option for the next year. Hill was named captain along with Steve Nash. Hill was given permission by Suns Ring of Honor member Alvan Adams to wear his familiar No. 33 with the Suns. Hill adapted well to the Suns' up-tempo style, averaging double figures in points as a key role player for Phoenix in the early months of the 2007–08 season. He played in the team's first 34 games before an emergency appendectomy on January 9, 2008, sidelined him for two weeks. Despite being bothered by multiple injuries throughout the season, Hill had his first 70-game season since leaving Detroit, averaging 13.1 ppg, 5.0 rpg and 2.9 apg in the process.
Playing for the Phoenix Suns in the 2008–2009 season, Hill appeared in all 82 games for the first time in his career and averaged 12.0 ppg, 4.90 rpg, and 2.3 apg, scoring 27 points and 10 rebounds in the Suns' season finale.
On July 10, 2009, the Associated Press reported that Hill decided to re-sign with the Phoenix Suns for a 2-year deal, despite an offer from the New York Knicks for the full mid-level exception and the Boston Celtics offering Hill the bi-annual exception.[6] The first year of the contract is believed to be worth around $3 million with the second year at Hill's option.
In 2010, the Phoenix Suns advanced to the Western Conference Semifinals, marking Hill's first playoff series victory, and making him the first NBA player in history to win his first playoff series after 15 years in the league. After sweeping the San Antonio Spurs 4-0, the Suns then moved to the Western Conference Finals to face the Los Angeles Lakers but lost in the sixth game.
On June 8, Hill exercised his option for the 2010–11 season.[7] The Suns underwent two major roster changes in 2010–11. During the pre-season, teammate Amar'e Stoudemire left for New York while Hedo Türkoğlu, Josh Childress and Hakim Warrick joined the Suns. Not long after the season began, Hedo Türkoğlu, Jason Richardson and Earl Clark were traded to the Orlando Magic for Vince Carter, Marcin Gortat and Mickaël Piétrus. Hill became one of six all-time NBA players to average 13 or more points at 38 years of age. On January 15, 2011, Hill passed the 16,000 career points milestone in a win over the Portland Trail Blazers.
On December 9, 2011, Hill decided to stay with the Phoenix Suns for a one year, $6.5 million contract.

Grant Hill part 1

Grant Hill part 1
Grant Henry Hill (born October 5, 1972) is an American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Suns of the NBA. As a collegian with Duke University and early in his professional career with the Detroit Pistons, Hill was widely considered to be one of the best all-around players in the game, often leading his team in points, rebounds and assists. His time in the league has been hampered by career-threatening injuries, notably during the prime of his career. At age 39, Hill is the second-oldest player in the NBA, one day younger than the oldest player, Kurt Thomas.
Grant Hill was born in Dallas, Texas. His father, Calvin Hill, graduated from Yale University with a degree in history, later attended Southern Methodist University and was a three-time All-Pro running back for the National Football League's Dallas Cowboys, winning the Offensive Rookie of the Year Award in 1969. His mother, Janet, is a Wellesley College graduate. After his father's NFL career ended, the family settled in Reston, Virginia, where Grant became a high-school superstar at South Lakes High School and he was selected for the 1990 McDonald's All-American Team.
When the time came to choose a college, Hill's mother states in the Fox Sports documentary Beyond the Glory that she wanted him to attend Georgetown University, while his father preferred the University of North Carolina. Hill chose a neutral path and decided to attend Duke University. Hill played four years with the Duke Blue Devils, winning national titles in 1991 and 1992. Duke became the first Division I program to win consecutive titles since UCLA in 1973. Despite losing two of the biggest contributors on the Blue Devils, Christian Laettner (in 1992) and Bobby Hurley (who both went on to play in the NBA), Hill led Duke to the championship game once again in 1994, but ended up losing to the Arkansas Razorbacks.

Hill won the Henry Iba Corinthian Award as the nation's top defensive player in 1993, and in 1994 he was the ACC Player of the Year. During his collegiate career, Hill became the first player in ACC history to collect more than 1,900 points, 700 rebounds, 400 assists, 200 steals and 100 blocked shots. As a result of his successful college career, he became the 8th player in Duke history to have his jersey number (33) retired. After his freshman season at Duke, Hill played on the bronze medal-winning U.S. team at the 1991 Pan American Games, held in Havana, Cuba.
Hill is also widely known for his role in a desperation play in an NCAA tournament regional final against Kentucky in 1992, which is considered by many to be one of the greatest college basketball games of all time. With Duke down 103–102 in overtime and only 2.1 seconds remaining after Kentucky's Sean Woods hit a floater, an unguarded Hill heaved the in-bounds pass 75 feet across the court into the hands of Laettner, who dribbled once and spun before pulling up to make the game-winning jumper from just outside the free-throw line as time expired.
As of March 28, 2010, he was tied for sixth-most career double-figure scoring games at Duke with Mike Gminski, behind Jon Scheyer.

Grant Hill was drafted by the Detroit Pistons with the third pick in the NBA Draft after graduating from Duke in 1994. He entered the league to high expectations, where many expected him to be the future face of the league in a time when Michael Jordan was retired. In his first season, he averaged 19.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 1.77 steals per game, and became the first Pistons rookie since Isiah Thomas in 1981–82 to score 1000 points. Hill ended up sharing NBA Rookie of the Year Award honors with Jason Kidd of the Dallas Mavericks, becoming the first Piston since Dave Bing in 1966–67 to win the award. Hill also won the Sporting News Rookie Of the Year award. He was named to the all-NBA First Team in 1997, and all-NBA Second Teams in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000. Hill also regularly played in the NBA All-Star Game, where he made history by being the first rookie ever to lead an NBA All-Star fan balloting in (1994–95) with 1,289,585 votes,[3] narrowly defeating Shaquille O'Neal. In fact, Hill became the first rookie in all major sports to get the most votes for an All-Star game.
In his second season (1995–96), he once again led the All-Star fan balloting, this time edging Michael Jordan (Jordan's first All-Star game after returning since retiring in 1993). During the 1995–96 season, Hill showcased his all-round abilities by leading the NBA in triple-doubles (10). He also won a gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta as a member of the U.S. men's basketball team, where he had the team's fifth highest scoring average (9.7) and led the team in steals (18). Hill's 1996–97 season was his finest yet, with averages of 21.4 points, 9.0 rebounds, 7.3 assists and 1.8 steals per game. He became the first player since Larry Bird in 1989–90 to average 20 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists in a season, an accomplishment that has not been duplicated since. Once again, Hill led the league in triple-doubles, where his 13 triple-doubles represented 35 percent of the league's triple-double total that season. He was the league's Player of the Month for January and was also awarded NBA's IBM Award, given to the player with the biggest statistical contributions to his team. He finished third in MVP voting, behind Karl Malone and Michael Jordan.

Nenad Krstić

Nenad Krstić
Nenad Krstić (Serbian Cyrillic: Ненад Крстић; born July 25, 1983 in Kraljevo, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia) is a Serbian professional basketball player for CSKA Moscow. Krstić is officially listed at 7'0" (2.13 m) tall.
His first professional club was KK Partizan where he played for three years, making his debut in the 2001–02 season. In the 2003–04 season, his last with Partizan, he averaged 13.4 points per game in the Euroleague. With Partizan, he also won three national championships in a row, and one national cup in his first season.

He was drafted 24th overall in the 2002 NBA Draft by the New Jersey Nets. But he then went on to play the next two seasons with Partizan Belgrade.[1]
During the 2004–05 NBA season, Krstić logged an impressive rookie campaign for the New Jersey Nets, averaging 10.0 points, 5.3 rebounds and 0.84 blocked shots per game.[2] He was honored as part of the All-Rookie NBA second team.[3]
In his debut in the playoffs against the Miami Heat, Krstić averaged 18.3 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 1.0 assists per game;[2] an exceptional performance for a rookie in the playoffs. This followed a greater trend where Krstić had consistently improved at a great pace as his rookie season progressed. He has a wide skill set for a big man, including refined post moves and a fantastic shooting touch from eighteen feet.
Throughout the 2005–06 season, Krstić's play had continued to rapidly improve. Three quarters of the way through the season, he averaged 13.4 points and 6.1 rebounds, and had become an integral part of the Nets offense. In the first round of the 2006 NBA playoffs against Indiana he averaged 18 points per game along with 7.1 rebounds.

In 2006–07 despite the rough Nets start, Nenad Krstić was averaging career highs in points (16.6), rebounds (6.8), and assists (1.8)[2] before falling to the ground after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee versus the L.A. Lakers at Continental Airlines Arena on December 22, 2006.[4] His surgery was successful.[5] Krstić was out for the rest of the 2006–07 NBA season, but returned ahead of schedule to start the 2007–08 NBA season.[6]
His 2007–08 season was a disappointment, as his injury disrupted his play and confidence on the court and he was largely a liability. Krstić later stated in his blog that he felt he let the team down, and vowed to return to his old form at the start of the 08–09 season.
During the 2008 summer off-season, Krstić entered negotiations with the Russian Super League team Triumph Lyubertsy and eventually signed a 2 year contract (with the NBA an opt-out option) worth €6 million euros net income with them on July 29, 2008.[7][8] He averaged 10.4 points and 5.1 rebounds per game in seven games in the Russian Super League[9][10] and 13.3 points and 7.3 rebounds per game in 6 games in the EuroChallenge.
On December 19, 2008, two NBA league sources told ESPN.com that the Oklahoma City Thunder had agreed in principle to sign Krstić to a three-year offer sheet.[12] On December 22, Krstić officially signed the offer sheet. The New Jersey Nets had seven days to match the offer, or Krstić would be free to join the Thunder.[13] The Nets declined to match, and the Thunder waived Steven Hill to make room for Krstić.[14]
He played for the first time in a Thunder uniform on January 7, 2009, versus the Minnesota Timberwolves, scoring six points and blocking 2 shots in 16 minutes.

On February 24, 2011, Krstić was traded along with Jeff Green and a 2012 first round pick to the Boston Celtics for Kendrick Perkins and Nate Robinson. In his first game as a Celtic, he recorded 9 points and 6 rebounds in a win against the Los Angeles Clippers on February 26.
On June 22, 2011 he signed a two-year contract with CSKA Moscow in Russia.
Krstić played with the Serbia and Montenegro national basketball team at the 2004 Summer Olympics and Eurobasket 2005.
As captain of Serbian national basketball team he played at the Eurobasket 2009, where he won the silver medal and 2010 FIBA World Championship, where he won the fourth place.