NBA: 30 best careers from players who skipped college

30 best careers from players who skipped college – 15. Darryl Dawkins

The story of players going from high school to the NBA is one with a number of false starts of one or two players at the forefront of a wave that took years to materialize. In 1975, that included Darryl Dawkins, who was drafted fifth overall by the Philadelphia 76ers. He joined the 76ers that year, earning the distinction of “the first player to immediately go from high school to the NBA.”

Pat Williams, the general manager of a floundering Philadelphia team, saw the success of Moses Malone and thought to jumpstart his rebuild by reaching directly into the ranks of high school players. Dawkins, a towering 6’10” with an NBA body already at 17, looked like he could step right from grade school into the professional league.

Dawkins made the move to earn income right away for his family, and he certainly did that, signing a seven-year, $1 million contract upon entering the league. He had a slow start, no surprise given his youth and a league not prepared to employ teenagers. Eventually, he got going, becoming a key starter on the 76ers and later the New Jersey Nets.

While he was certainly a productive and useful player, no description of Dawkins can pass over his colorful nature. He dressed in bold colors and dunked the ball even more boldly, shattering backboards and exciting fans. He was known to name his dunks himself. While most of his peers viewed the game as a professional workplace, Dawkins viewed it as his playground.

If one were writing a script about the false start of players skipping college in the 1970s, the climax would come in 1983, when Dawkins and the Nets took on Malone and his old team, the 76ers. Dawkins took on the role of guarding Malone in the pivotal Game 5, helping the Sixers come back to take the game and the series.

Dawkins’ career was decently long and decently successful. He never made an All-Star Game, and his best statistical distinction is leading the league in personal fouls in three different seasons. Yet he was an efficient offensive player who battled on defense and filled a role for a 14-year career. Given the context of when he made the leap into the NBA right out of high school, that is an impressive accomplishment.