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Hawkins dazzled crowds from playgrounds to arenas with his highflying acrobatic moves.

Cornelius "Connie" Hawkins (born July 17, 1942, in Brooklyn, New York) is a Hall of Fame member, former National Basketball Association (NBA) and American Basketball Association (ABA) player, and New York City playground legend, born in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. Hawkins was known as one of the first players capable of swooping, soaring flights to the hoop, followed by acrobatic, one-handed, throw-down dunks.

Hawkins initially toured the world with the Harlem Globetrotters. Then at age 19, played for the Pittsburgh Rens of the American Basketball League (ABL) and was named the league's Most Valuable Player. Hawkins joined the Pittsburgh Pipers in the inaugural 1967-68 season of the American Basketball Association, leading the team to a 54-24 regular-season record and the ABA championship. That year, Hawkins led the ABA in scoring and won both the ABA's regular-season and playoff MVP awards.

With Hawkins' star power secured in the ABA, Hawkins then played seven additional seasons in the NBA for the Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Lakers and Atlanta Hawks. He played in four NBA All-Star Games and was named to the All-NBA First Team in the 1969-70 season. His No. 42 jersey was retired by the Suns.

Connie Hawkins was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992. He currently works in community relations with the Suns.

Hawkins' career was hampered when as a freshman at the University of Iowa, he was an innocent victim of the hysteria surrounding an infamous NCAA basketball Point shaving scandal, with its origins in New York City. While some of the conspirators and characters involved were known to or knew Hawkins, none, including the New York attorney at the center of the scandal, Jack Molinas, had ever sought to involve Hawkins in the conspiracy. At the time, college freshmen were not allowed to participate in varsity athletics, thus Hawkins could — at worst — have been only a prospect in future point-shaving efforts by the gamblers.

Hawkins' name surfaced in an interview conducted with an individual who was involved in the scandal. Hawkins was kept from seeking legal counsel while being grilled repeatedly by New York City Police Department detectives who were investigating the scandal. Hawkins' story to the detectives, while at times difficult to follow, never contained any admission of wrongdoing. Though Hawkins was not arrested or charged, he was for a time prohibited from continuing his college career or joining an NBA team. The prohibition was later lifted due to lack of evidence implicating Hawkins.

David Wolf,. Foul! The Connie Hawkins Story. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. ISBN 0-03-086021-0. 

Connie Hawkins (Boys High, New York City) Hawkins didn't play much at Boys High until his junior year, but two great years of spectacular ball were enough to land him on this list. Hawkins was All-City first team as a junior as Boys went undefeated and won New York's ultra-competitive PSAL (Public School Athletic League) title in 1959. His senior year he averaged 25.5 ppg., including one game in which he scored 60, and Boys again went undefeated and won the 1960 PSAL title.

Hawkins dunked for the first time when he was 11, and was the original flash. "Connie Hawkins was the best I've ever seen in the PSAL," said a former PSAL commissioner who'd witnessed 50 years of New York high school hoops. Added Sixers coach Larry Brown, "He was Julius before Julius. He was Elgin before Elgin. He was Michael before Michael. He was simply the greatest individual player I have ever seen." He is 6-8 and his playing weight was 215 pounds

• Basketball Hall of Fame profile
• http://espn.go.com/page2/s/list/highschool.html