On November 13, 1979 Philadelphia 76ers center Darryl Dawkins leaps over Kansas City Kings forward Bill Robinzine and slam-dunks the basketball, shattering the fiberglass backboard. The result, according to people who were at the game, was a sound like a bomb going off in the middle of the court. Shards of glass were everywhere: They nicked Robinzine all over his legs and arms and gotten stuck in Dr. J’s Afro. "It wasn’t really a safe thing to do," Dawkins chuckled later, "but it was a Darryl Dawkins thing to do."
When the 6’10", 260-pound Dawkins joined the 76ers in 1975, he became the first NBA player to be drafted right out of high school. He gave himself the nickname "Chocolate Thunder" and set about making himself the most entertaining player in the league.
His slam-dunks were enormous crowd pleasers, and he named them all: 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--his favorite--the Get-Out-of-the-Waying, Backboard-Swaying, Game-Delaying, If-You-Ain’t-Grooving-You-Best-Get-Moving Dunk. His Kansas City glass-breaker had a name befitting its magnitude: Dawkins called it the Chocolate-Thunder-Flying, Robinzine-Crying, Teeth-Shaking, Glass-Breaking, Rump-Roasting, Bun-Toasting, Wham-Bam Glass-Breaker-I-Am Jam.
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