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Game state source: whynba · Retrieved Oct 9, 5:36 pm EDTNBA legend. Inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Biography, honors and career statistics below.
Connie Hawkins
Career at a glance
Connie Hawkins played 11 professional regular seasons (2 in the ABA, 9 in the NBA) between 1961 and 1976, appearing in 710 games and averaging 19.9 points, 9.4 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game. He played for 6 teams: Pittsburgh (ABL) (1961–63, 94 games), Pittsburgh (ABA) (1967–68, 70 games), Minnesota (ABA) (1968–69, 47 games), Phoenix (1969–74, 311 games), L.A. Lakers (1973–75, 114 games), Atlanta (1975–76, 74 games). His best scoring season was 1968–69 with Minnesota (ABA): 30.2 points per game over 47 games.
He rebounded best in 1967–68 at 13.5 per game. The season table marks him as the league leader in scoring twice. Championship season: 1967–68 (Pittsburgh (ABA)).
In the playoffs he appeared in 5 postseason runs (34 games, 25.5 points per game). Multiplying each season’s games by its scoring average gives roughly 14,100 regular-season points (an estimate from per-game figures, not an official total).
whynba analysis of the season-by-season statistics below (Wikipedia revision, CC BY-SA 4.0). Totals are estimates from per-game averages.
About Connie Hawkins
Cornelius Lance "Connie" Hawkins (July 17, 1942 – October 6, 2017) was an American professional basketball player. Hawkins was a legendary high school basketball player in New York City at Boys High School in Brooklyn and at Rucker Park. As the result of unjust actions taken against him as a teenager, Hawkins never played college basketball and only entered the National Basketball Association (NBA) when he was 27 years old, after years of litigation against the NBA. He had a winding and varied professional playing career in three different leagues and with the Harlem Globetrotters, during which Hawkins excelled at every level; and he was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992.
Nicknamed "the Hawk", his career initially suffered due to his false implication in a point-shaving scandal that saw him expelled from the Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball team as a freshman and blackballed by the NBA. Hawkins found refuge with the Pittsburgh Rens of the American Basketball League (ABL), where he was selected the 1961–62 league Most Valuable Player (MVP). The ABL folded in the middle of the following season, and Hawkins then played four years for the famed exhibition team the Harlem Globetrotters before getting to play in the American Basketball Association (ABA) with the Pittsburgh Pipers in 1967. He won the ABA's first MVP award by averaging 26.8 points per game and led the team to the ABA championship.
While still with the Globetrotters in 1966, an antitrustlawsuit was filed on Hawkins' behalf against the National Basketball Association (NBA) on the basis that all of its teams joined together in prohibiting him from playing professionally in the NBA. After a stellar second ABA season (1968–69) with the Minnesota Pipers (when he was named an All-Star for the second time and was second in the league's MVP voting), the lawsuit proved successful in both stirring public opinion in Hawkins' favor and in causing the NBA to fear it would lose the suit to its much wider disadvantage. Hawkins and the NBA reached a settlement agreement under which Hawkins was allowed to play in the NBA, and received a cash payment from the NBA.
- Born
- July 17, 1942 Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
- Listed height
- 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)
- Listed weight
- 210 lb (95 kg)
- Position
- Power forward / center
- High school
- Boys (Brooklyn, New York)
- NBA draft
- 1964: undrafted
- Playing career
- 1961–1976
Career highlights and awards
- ABA champion (1968)
- ABA Playoffs MVP (1968)
- ABA Most Valuable Player (1968)
- 4× NBA All-Star (1970–1973)
- 2× ABA All-Star (1968, 1969)
- All-NBA First Team (1970)
- 2× All-ABA First Team (1968, 1969)
- ABA All-Time Team
- No. 42 retired by Phoenix Suns
- ABL MVP (1962)
- All-ABL First Team (1962)
- Mr. Basketball USA (1960)
- First-team Parade All-American (1960)
Career statistics
| Year | Team | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1961–62 | Pittsburgh (ABL) | 78 | – | 42.9 | .509 | .167 | .790 | 13.3 | 2.3 | – | – | 27.5* |
| 1962–63 | Pittsburgh (ABL) | 16 | – | 41.8 | .491 | – | .770 | 12.8 | 2.6 | – | – | 27.9 |
| 1967–68† | Pittsburgh (ABA) | 70 | – | 44.9* | .519 | .222 | .764 | 13.5 | 4.6 | – | – | 26.8* |
| 1968–69 | Minnesota (ABA) | 47 | – | 39.4 | .511 | .136 | .767 | 11.4 | 3.9 | – | – | 30.2 |
| 1969–70 | Phoenix | 81 | – | 40.9 | .490 | – | .779 | 10.4 | 4.8 | – | – | 24.6 |
| 1970–71 | Phoenix | 71 | – | 37.5 | .434 | – | .816 | 9.1 | 4.5 | – | – | 20.9 |
| 1971–72 | Phoenix | 76 | – | 36.8 | .459 | – | .807 | 8.3 | 3.9 | – | – | 21.0 |
| 1972–73 | Phoenix | 75 | – | 36.9 | .479 | – | .797 | 8.5 | 4.1 | – | – | 16.1 |
| 1973–74 | Phoenix | 8 | – | 27.9 | .486 | – | .667 | 7.2 | 5.2 | 1.4 | 1.0 | 11.3 |
| 1973–74 | L.A. Lakers | 71 | – | 35.7 | .502 | – | .772 | 7.4 | 5.3 | 1.5 | 1.4 | 12.8 |
| 1974–75 | L.A. Lakers | 43 | – | 23.9 | .429 | – | .687 | 4.6 | 2.8 | 1.2 | .5 | 8.0 |
| 1975–76 | Atlanta | 74 | – | 25.8 | .447 | – | .712 | 6.0 | 2.9 | 1.1 | .6 | 8.2 |
| Career | 710 | – | 37.0 | .484 | .162 | .780 | 9.4 | 3.9 | .3 | .2 | 19.9 |
| Year | Team | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1962 | Pittsburgh (ABL) | 1 | – | 53.0 | .609 | – | .929 | 17.0 | 4.0 | – | – | 41.0 |
| 1968† | Pittsburgh (ABA) | 14 | – | 44.0 | .594 | – | .729 | 12.3 | 4.6 | – | – | 29.9 |
| 1969 | Minnesota (ABA) | 7 | – | 45.7 | .378 | .500 | .645 | 12.3 | 3.9 | – | – | 24.9 |
| 1970 | Phoenix | 7 | – | 46.9 | .413 | – | .818 | 13.9 | 5.9 | – | – | 25.4 |
| 1974 | L.A. Lakers | 5 | – | 34.4 | .350 | – | .800 | 8.0 | 3.2 | 1.4 | .2 | 10.8 |
| Career | 34 | – | 43.8 | .473 | .500 | .743 | 12.1 | 4.5 | 1.4 | .2 | 25.5 |
Per-game averages. † won an ABA or NBA championship · * led the league · ‡ league record (as marked).
Profile observation date unavailable.
- Height
- 6′ 8″
- Weight
- 210 lb
- Position
- Power forward / center
- Jersey
- Not listed
- Country
- USA
- School / last affiliation
- Not listed
- Draft year
- Undrafted (1964 class)
- Draft pick
- Undrafted / not listed
Height, Weight, Position, Country, Draft year: blank in the NBA.com profile, filled from the Wikipedia infobox credited in the About section above.
Roster observations
These dates show when our saved NBA directory observations listed this player with a team. They are not signing, trade or contract dates, and this is not a complete career history.
No roster observations are stored for this player. Historical profile details above do not establish a current team assignment.
Profile source
Biographical fields reflect the saved official profile at the check time shown above. Team assignments use the dated directory evidence in Roster observations. Offseason rosters and jersey numbers can change.
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