photo: jamd.com
Johnny Earl Dawkins came from a family of ballers. Running on the D.C. playgrounds with his father and three uncles, the young boy learned the essence of the outdoor game before ever stepping inside the cushy confines of the gym.
“They didn’t cut me any slack,” Dawkins told Darren Sabedra of the San Jose Mercury News about playing on Dodge City’s asphalt. “But it hepled me because I understood how to play the game at a faster pace. I had to play just to survive.”
It was during those asphalt runs that he developed into the mercurial, quicksilver marksman that would go on to become one of the greatest guards the college game has ever seen.
He was playing against grown men at the age of ten, holding his own during the intense, physical and confrontational combat.
photo: sportingnews.com
His father drove a city bus during the 4am to noon shift so he could hoop in the afternoons. Every weekend, Johnny Sr. took his son, who the family had nicknamed “Pooh”, to the playgrounds. When Johnny was not at the park with his father, he’d spend all day pounding the rock and getting up some jumpers on his own.
After finishing two summer league games in one day, played in the district’s oppressive heat and humidity, Dawkins would often end up back at the playground.
“I’d be driving the kids back home at night and Johnny would say, ‘Don’t take me home, just drop me off at Sligo,’” Paul DeStefano, Dawkins summer league and high school coach, told Jake Curtis of the San Francisco Chronicle. “So I’d drop him at Sligo Park around 9, he put his coins in the lights to light up the courts, and he’d shoot until I don’t know when.”
photo: jamd.com
As a frail, diminutive freshman at Mackin HS in D.C., he lit up one school for 30 – In the first half! By the time he was an upperclassman, his game was coveted by every big time college program. Although barely over 6-foot and very thin, Dawkins was a blur on the court, a silky smooth lefty who dropped buckets in abundance. He could shoot from long range, possessed an insane handle with great floor vision and had world class speed and stamina. He could also jump out of the gym.
His choice to attend Duke surprised many at the time because the program was a cellar dwellar.
“Johnny was our first legitimate, big-time recruit,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski told the Chronicle’s Curtis. “He could take the tough shots and win the tough games that we had not been winning.”
The summer of ‘82, before his freshman year in college, Jay Bilas was in D.C. with his parents. Coach K suggested that he stop by Dawkins’ home so the two future teammates could get to know one another, and maybe run a little pick-up ball, in advance of arriving at Duke.
photo: jamd.com
Bilas knew that Dawkins was the heralded recruit, but in the days before the internet, big AAU summer tournaments and the Nike and Adidas camps, most recruits did not know each other.
“So I called Johnny, and he told me how to get to his house,” Bilas says in Dick Weiss’ book True Blue. “I drove over there and knocked on the door. Johnny answered the door. I didn’t know it was him. I said ‘Hi, I’m looking for Johnny Dawkins.’ Johnny was so slight, that when he answered the door, I asked to speak to his older brother. I figured that couldn’t be him. He looked like a stiff wind could blow him over. He said, ‘I’m Johnny’. And I said ‘We’re screwed. He’s the savior? He’s the #1 player?’”
Dawkins took Bilas to the playground, where he was the only white player on the court. And it only took a few minutes for him to change his thought process.
“He was awesome, oh my god!,” said Bilas. “Not only was he greater than this team of guys we had – we had won 8 or 10 straight games, then we lost one – but Johnny was able to someway, somehow, argue with this group of asskickers that, ‘No that basket didn’t count. Here’s why’. I was just standing off to the side. So we ended up replaying it and won. He had street smarts and I had never seen anybody play like him.”
photo: jamd.com
During his first pick-up game at Cameron Indoor Stadium, he made believers of everyone else.
“He wasn’t as big in person as he was on paper,” former college teammate Mark Alarie told the San Jose Mercury News’ Sabedra.
But when the 165-pound Dawkins rammed a gravity defying 360 degree slam in somebody’s grill, everyone took notice.
“That was the first time I had ever seen that,” Alarie said. “I thought, ‘OK, now I believe that’s him.”
During his college days, the ACC was packin’ heat. N.C. State, with Thurl Bailey, Lorenzo Charles, Sidney Lowe and Derek Whittenburg took the ‘83 NCAA title. They’d later have Nate McMillan and Chris Washburn. Ralph Sampson was the man at Virginia. Carolina had Jordan, Perkins and Worthy. Bruce Dalrymple, Mark Price and John Salley were doing their thing at Georgia Tech.
photo: dukemagazine.duke.edu
After seeing Dawkins, as a freshman, blaze a mile run in 4:36 with no training and in hi-tops, Duke’s track coach suggested that he could be a world class miler if he put his mind to it.
As a freshman, Dawkins (who averaged 18 points, 5 assists and 4 boards) and Duke lost 17 games in ‘82-’83. In ‘83-’84, they finished 3rd in the ACC while he put up 19 points, 4 boards and 4 assists. His junior year, with Tommy Amaker in his second year running the point, Duke climbed to #2 in the polls during the regular season and won at North Carolina for the first time since 1966.
By his senior year, in ‘85-’86, Georgia Tech, UNC and Duke were all ranked in the top 5. The Blue Devils won the ACC regular season title and the tournament championship. Dawkins opened the NCAA tourney with 28 against Mississippi Valley State and in the East Regional final, dropped another 28 against David Robinson and the Naval Academy.
photo: dukemagazine.duke.edu
In that Navy game, he threw down the best in-game dunk I’ve seen to this day, a spinning, backwards ram over the head of the Navy defender off a fast break. He dropped 24 on Danny Manning and Kansas in the Final Four, leading the Blue Devils to their 37th victory of the season, an NCAA record that has yet to be surpassed.
In the final against Never Nervous Pervis, Billy Thopmson, Milt Wagner and the Louisville Cardinals, Dawkins scored 13 of his team’s first 25 points. He had 22 with fifteen minutes left, but the ‘Ville defense locked him up for the rest of the game. His teammates couldn’t respond and Duke lost 72-69.
Still, Dawkins, a two-time All-American, was named the National Player of the Year.
photo: si.com
He graduated a few weeks later as Duke’s all-time leading scorer (JJ Redick would go on to break his record), embarking on a respectable 9-year NBA career that was compromised, and ultimately shortened, by knee injuries. With the Spurs, the 76′ers and the Pistons, he still put together career averages of 11 points, 6 assists and 3 rebounds while playing on a bad set of wheels.
His toughness, although initially questioned by anyone he saw his skinny frame up close, was never debated. As a rookie with the San Antonio Spurs, ornery veteran Johnny Moore once grabbed the ball Dawkins was shooting around with and flung it into the seats. Dawkins paused, then yanked the ball out of Moore’s hands before sending it sailing on is own trajectory.
“He looked at me and I thought ‘OK, it’s going to be on now, one way or the other’,” Dawkins told the San Francisco Chronicle’s Curtis. “And then he goes, ‘You’re a crazy rookie.’ And he laughed. He took me under his wing after that.”
There are no youtube highlights to let the younger generation know. But trust when I tell you, no guard in the illustrious history of college ball had a better, silky, lefty floor game with the ability to jump into the rafters, throw down jaw dropping slams, break ankles while getting into the lane, run the break and bang the long distance jimmy consistently for four years.
“He did things that just made you shake your head,” said Harvard coach and former Duke teammate Tommy Amaker. “He had that incredible dunk, a backwards dunk off a fast break in the regional finals against Navy, that many people have talked about over the years.”
photo: usatoday.com
After serving as Coach K’s assistant for over ten years, where he mentored the likes of Jay Williams, Chris Duhon and JJ Redick, Dawkins is now in his first year as the head coach at Stanford.
He was THE cornerstone, THE most important player in Duke’s modern history. He took the school from ashy to classy in a few short years, laying the foundation on which Coach K and the Blue Devils built their empire.
Words don’t do the man justice. You really did have to be there to see it for yourself.
photo: sfgate.com
“He was kind of like Allen Iverson before Allen Iverson,” Amaker told the San Jose Mercury News.
But he was no chuckwagon. His buckets were never forced, all coming within the flow of the game. In addition to his prolific, Iverson-esque scoring ability, he could also quarterback a crew like Kenny Anderson and had Air Jordan-like hops. No exaggeration!!!
Without the asphalt of the nation’s capitol, Johnny Dawkins does not become one of the best college guards ever, Coach K probably gets fired and Duke does not ascend to the crescendo of its current status as a modern day, NCAA hoops dynasty.
Believe when I tell you – Johnny Dawkins was a bad, bad man!
THE PLAYGROUND IS NOT THE PROBLEM. IT IS THE SOLUTION!
January 26th, 2009 at 11:30 am
illest says:
outta nowhere with this one. i hated duke (still do) but dawkins was like the only player i only like from duke. phil henderson was nice too but dawkins had that ill lefty game.
January 26th, 2009 at 11:34 am
g says:
yes sir,j dawk was serious business! hate to show my age by acknowledging that i saw him playing college ball,but….lol!
but he gave the college game problems!
remember the Hawk and Dawk show in Philly? man if he couldve stayed healthy? he wouldve been a sicker pro.
January 26th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
ali says:
i gotta keep you on your toes illest. i have to admit that i’m not a duke hater, simply because my indoctrination came with the backcourt of tommy amaker and johnny dawkins. and dawk had the illmatic lefty game that gave the acc, and the rest of the country, fits. i remember him matching up with dudes like kenny smith, mark price and david rivers in college and my eyes were riveted to the tv. he had that slick, slinky ish with the freaky boogie sauce. and the dunk repetoire was bananas!
January 26th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
ali says:
yo g,
don’t be afraid to show that age man. that just means we’ve got more to reference on the hoop tip. what bothered me was that i could not find any j dawk youtube highlights from the duke days, especially that slam against navy. to me, it was better than vince’s olympic dunk on weiss.
and you’re right, had he been healthy, his game was tailor made for pro ball. him and hersey hawkins was a nice combo. and you must have a spy looking through the files because hersey hawkins was a slept on marksman who merits a playground gave us piece.
January 26th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
Valeriani (Ralphy) says:
Ali, another ill write-up. Johnny D was way before my time (or should i say way before I paid any real attention to college hoops). Now I’m on the hunt for some highlights so I can see how crazy his game was. Let me know if you ever find any. Thanks.
January 26th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
ali says:
ralphy,
i scoured the internet, to no avail, for his college highlights. but i’ll keep looking and insert them if i find them. it kills me because i want the younger folks to be able to see it for themselves. seeing is believing! thanks for the comment.
January 27th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Blk Caesar says:
You know I was wondering if a Johnny Dawkins joint was in the works and here it is… Great piece as always Ali.. I could not agree more that he was Duke’s most important recruit as it was the foundation for what was to come for that program. I was only a Duke hater b/c of Laettner but I respected his game.. But I grew to appreciate Duke over the years especially when it became G Hill’s team in 1994. Dawkins would have definitely had an oustanding pro career if it were not for the knee injuries… I am really surprised no one has posted video of that dunk on Navy.. Since we are on Duke.. in your opinion who was the greatest player ever to play at Duke? (not counting what they did in the pros) Just college.
January 27th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Donn says:
JOHNNY DAWKINS!!! i hate to admit this, but when i first started watching college games, i actually liked Duke and the main reason was because of Johnny Dawkins. I still can’t believe that Duke team lost to Louisville. Of course all the Duke love left me when Laetner and assortment of annoying players started going to Duke. But Johnny Dawkins was for real…one of the best guards in college history…thanks for bringing me back.
January 27th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
ali says:
hey donn,
i’m glad i could bring you back there. i was never fond of laettner, but he was a great college player. and i never had any real hatred for duke, i guess that’s because when i got into following them, it was because of that amaker/dawkins backcourt.
January 27th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
ali says:
hey cease,
they could’ve found a better actor to portray you in Notorious. and i thought i was gonna catch folks off guard with this one. you saw the johnny dawkins coming?
in terms of college exploits only, the greatest duke player in my mind was grant hill. 6′8″, could play every position in college except center. jay williams was a bad, bad fella, though not sure if i’d take him over dawkins. and don’t sleep on hurley at the point.
but my goodness, elton brand was a MAN! Carlos Boozer was studnificent and as much as i was upset with Laettner grabbing somebody else’s dream team spot, he had some major college credentials. hmmm, jj redick was a monster as well. i gotta go grant hill.
January 27th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
Blk Caesar says:
Yeah man I was not happy with the actor chosen to play me either.. However, I will say that movie was better than I expected. Of Course I knew Dwakins was coming at some point.. Especially since you were on a BMore/DC area tear at one point with the playground joints.. Not that I know you a little bit.. I had a feeling you had a Dawkins joints on slow simmer waiting to be served. Grant is my choice too man.. What’s funny is that he is actually playing well for PHX this year and every once and a while he shows flashes of that explosiveness he once had. I’ll never sleep on Hurley.. I grew up in Jersey and he was definitely one of the catalyst for Duke’s back-to-backs… He had a lot of heart. But Grant carried that 94 squad to the title game and came real close to beating Arkansas if it wasn’t for that Scotty Thurman shot. Do you remember him and Big Dog going at in that tourney?? Memories man! What’s crazy also is that if Kobe went to college he was going to be a Dukie then we really might have had quite an argument as to who was the best if he laced ‘em up at Cameron Indoor.
January 27th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
ali says:
cease,
we are b-ball brothers from other mothers, as a lot of your thoughts are in sync with mine. did you notice that the lead picture has dawkins, hurley and grant hill all in the same frame?
January 27th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Blk Caesar says:
Ya know I didn’t even peep that…. Extremely well done my man!
January 27th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Donn says:
One of my favorite college games of all time was when Cal-Berkeley led by freshman point guard Jason Kidd beat Bobby Hurley and Grant Hill’s Duke team in the 93 (i think?) ncaa tournament. A very high moment in Bay Area b-ball history…
January 27th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
ali says:
no doubt Donn. i remember that made the cover of sports illustrated and put coach todd bozeman on the map.
January 27th, 2009 at 8:36 pm
ali says:
and yo cease, you gotta stop giving away the secret ingredients. you know i got the big dog on simmer.
January 27th, 2009 at 8:40 pm
Trevor Kapp says:
great story. i’m a huge duke fan and remember when coach k was considering the lakers job a few years ago, it seemed like everyone but dawkins was being considered to replace him at duke- i would’ve been thrilled to have johnny on the sidelines at cameron and don’t think duke would’ve fallen off as much as people say. also, two or three years ago, he refused to shake roy williams’ hand after the duke unc game- another great moment from the best rivalry in sports. glad he’s finally getting his chance at stanford.
January 27th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
ali says:
don’t be surprised to see johnny back at duke when coach k finally calls it a career. he’s been the head coach in waiting for quite some time now. glad you enjoyed the piece trevor.
January 28th, 2009 at 11:14 am
Blk Caesar says:
Can’t wait for the Big Dog piece… That dude was a monster but people forget how nice he was. However, I am still waiting on those Chris Jackson and Derrick Coleman hungry jack biscuits to come out of the oven too…
January 28th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
funaklot says:
Ali,
First, great piece and Duke is not Duke without him. Their legacy of winning starts with JD.
Second, as fast and quick as he was, he was the second fastest player on his Mackin High School team. His backcourt mate – Dominic Pressley, who played at Boston College, was a blur who, also, was a track star. He had a cup of joe in the “L”. When they say “Speed kills” it aptly fit JD and Dominic. Is Mackin still open, Ali?
Third, similar to the way NYC mentors its young. Adrian Branch recounted stories of how Adrian Dantley invited he and Johnny Dawkins, while they were college stars and potential pros, to his house to workout during the summers, conditioning themselves, participating in endless shooting drills and gleaning good nutritional habits for effective on-court play and increased stamina.
Lastly, As always, a good piece and I concur with the prevailing sentiments of feeling robbed of JD’s potential, due to lingering injuries. I hated and still detest Duke, but I dug him nonetheless. You gotta embrace the “funk” when you see it, no matter where its being displayed.
January 28th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
ali says:
yo funk!
where you been man? i was gettin’ ready to put out an A.P.B. on you. glad your back in the mix, as you always add some peripheral info that enhances the discussion. I believe Mackin merged with Archbishop Caroll HS in 1989. as i’m sure you know, archbishop carroll was where big john thompson and lawrence moten marinated.
cease,
the biscuits are bakin’ brother. glad to know you’re eagerly awaiting them. ya’ll cats inspire me to produce!
April 16th, 2009 at 8:04 am
Bobby says:
Unfortunately, I played in a lot of those games (on the losing end) on the playground with Johnny D. The cat was awesome, but what I love is the type of human being he has become. Despite immense talent, his head has never been too big to fit through the door. And you are absolutely correct about his fam, His Uncle Davey had tremendous talent–A 6′4″ 190 lbs version of “Pooh”. Johnny’s speed and leaping ability though could not matched though.
April 28th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
ali says:
thanks bobby. it’s always good to get that firsthand account from folks who were there from the get go. now hook up w/ pooh and get some of those highlights up on you tube. these young cats need to know how he was puttin’ it down.