Street Rags to NBA Riches by Way of Hard Luck and Pride

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	• Foul! : The Connie Hawkins Story David Wolf Warner Paperback Library, 1972 - 511 pages average customer review:based on 14 reviews
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Street Rags to NBA Riches by Way of Hard Luck and Pride

This book is the account of the life of basketball legend Connie Hawkins. You've likely never heard of him. He played in the bush leagues of the ABA, before joining the NBA with the Phoenix Suns in 1969.

In breathless paragraphs, the book explains that he was an ESPN highlight reel. He was the Michael Jordan, and Dr. J, of the pre-television NBA. He played with the greats of the NBA: Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, Billy Cunningham. His exploits were passed around by word of mouth. If he was in his high school years today, we'd be watching him on SportsCenter.

But the story that resonates is the story of lost innocence. While in college, Connie was accused of helping bettors 'fix games' by shaving points. David Wolf, the author, was perfectly frank about Connie's intellectual abilities: Connie wasn't smart enough to know what shaving points meant.

In the heat of questioning by the authorities, Connie confessed to things he didn't do. As a young black man of limited education, he was intimidated and scared. His "confessions" condemned him. Connie was expelled from college. The NBA shunned him and those other players involved with the betting scandal.

The Hawk's only talent was for basketball. So he submerged himself into the minor leagues. He played for the Globetrotters. He played for the ABA, where he lead his team to a championship. But this was the basketball netherworld. Throughout these lean years, he saw the life he could have had if he was allowed into the big show. The pride he had in his game made him yearn to be in the NBA, where he could play his best against the best.

David Wolf's description of how a group of lawyers befriended Connie, and rallied around his cause is thoroughly captivating and inspiring. People were drawn to his innocence, his demeanor, his innate goodness. This group pushed the NBA to a lawsuit. Connie was innocent, they contended, and the NBA was illegally blacklisting him. In 1969, the NBA settled, and allowed a grateful Hawk to join the league at the roughed up age of 27.

He brought his dominating style to the NBA, but his prime years were behind him. Flashes of his brilliance could been in his NBA years, but the knowledgeable spectators were left wondering "What if?" Yet the book emphasizes Connie's own peace with what happened. You cheer for him. You applaud his attitude. And at the end of the book, you wish, probably for the hundredth time, that you could have seen him play.

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A legend who never had his true chance

"The Hawk" found his niche too late in the NBA, but he gave his heart and soul to the game for the right to be a player. He was unjustly set up in a basketball sting that was looking to catch anything or anyone to show how hard the system (supposedly) worked to prevent corruption--but it took the best years from an innocent man's career. The manipulation of an athlete by college recruiters, especially for a promising black man, is just as timely now as from the Hawkins' days at Iowa in the early 60s! Connie and the others who were just tossed aside deserved a better legacy, and the "dream of playing in the NBA" still clouds the minds of young men who could learn something from the story of Hawk: get your education and make it worth your time and effort, 'cause you won't play forever. God bless you, Connie, for the fist-sized diamond in your chest, called "heart." Yours shines bright.

Any schoolyard player who thinks he has the tools and the skills to handle college ball should sit down first and read this before signing a commitment; it would be justice to understand the pitfalls. The same goes for any college player who thinks he's going to be the next big name in the NBA. I spent $20 just to find this book; Connie paid too great a price for you to let it go by. This story is timely for every young African-American who dreams of the name "superstar" and for a hero's valiant testimony.

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On the short list of great sports books

David Wolf tells the story of the bittersweet life of basketball great Connie Hawkins to great effect in this fine book that is a biography and more.

More because "Foul" recounts in detail the circumstances that led to Hawkins' longstanding ban from the NBA for his at best highly tenuous link to corruption in college sports. In telling the story, Wolf paints a damning picture of big-time sports, a picture that is, if anything, truer than ever today.

Wolf sets up the story by giving us a glimpse into Hawkins' poverty-stricken childhood in Bedford-Stuyvesant, where he led an unhappy existence that was relieved only when he discovered he had nearly unparalleled basketball skills. He quickly became a playground legend and developed the trademark swooping moves that many of us who got to see him play remember and that made his nickname so apt: Hawk.

Unfortunately, Hawkins did not receive one important thing along the way: an education. One of the most highly recruited players of the time, he was ready to play the college game on the court, but woefully unprepared to play it in the classroom. He was chronically broke, painfully shy, and extremely naive, a combination which made him particularly vulnerable to the unscrupulous character whose actions ultimately led to his ban from the NBA.

"Foul" also tells a detailed and fascinating story of the fledgling American Basketball Association, which was where Hawkins was forced to play and also where he began cementing his legend in the basketball world. It's instructive to read about the low pay and inferior playing conditions Hawkins endured, all the time knowing, of course, that he could easily compete with the best the NBA had to offer.

Finally, the book delivers a detailed account of the legal fight undertaken to remove the ban. This was achieved by his committed -- and of course poorly paid -- attorneys over the determined opposition of, among others, current NBA commissioner David Stern, who hardly expresses remorse in his interviews with the author.

The final sadness of Hawkins' story, of course, is that while he had an above-average NBA career, his best years were taken from him, and most basketball fans were deprived of seeing him when he was one of the best players in the game.

Connie Hawkins remains in my mind after reading this book, not only because of his compelling story, but because of his resilience and humanity. All in all, "Foul" is a sports classic because it fascinates on so many levels.

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The Hawk Soars!

Before there was Michael Jordan, before there was Julius Erving, there was Connie Hawkins. I recently found this for a second time in my mother's basement. I had to re-read it the past few evenings it because I remember enjoying the book very much the first time when I was in high school. I got to see Connie Hawkins twice in person in my life. The first time was 1968 in Denver's Auditorium Arena when he played for the Pittsburgh Pipers in the ABA's inaugural year and the second was his last year in the NBA when he played against the Denver Nuggets when he was with the Atlanta Hawks. The former was more rememberable than the ladder as the Hawk still had great knees while in the ABA and the ability to jump and hang like no one before him.

As a high school and school yard legend in Brooklyn, NY, Hawkins was victimized as a naive teenager by an over-zealous NYC district attorney who wanted to put a well known gambler, Jack Molinas, in prison for trying to fix college basketball games in the late 1950's and early 1960's. Under grueling and exhaustive questioning (without a lawyer), Hawkins tolerated only so much and told the DA what he thought he wanted to hear. That questioning brought to an end his scholarship during his freshman year at the University of Iowa. Although the truth of the matter is Hawkins was not fixing games, but did casually knew Molinas and did receive a loan from him (which his brother promptly repaid).

With Hawkins reputation smeared, his talents were repressed in playing with the Harlem Globetrotters and subsequently with the one year of the American Basketball League (ABL where he was the MVP in 1962) and then in the American Basketball Association (ABA, where he was also the MVP in 1968 and where I first saw the Hawk soar).

Enter the Litwins, a husband & wife attorney team who got to know Hawkins personally and who filed suit against the NBA to let Hawkins play for the Phoenix Suns. It took years of discovery and testimony, but the NBA finally gave way once they realized that Hawkins never dealt with fixing basketball games.

The Hawk's time in the NBA still showcased his talents for a time, but time wounds all heels (& knees). As an author, Wolf got to know Hawkins during his time in the ABA and in the NBA and subsequently wrote his autobiography after Hawkins first season with the Suns in 1969-70.

The Hawk has been vindicated. He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. I only wished I had seen more of Hawkins when he was at his prime. He endured much, suffered much, learned much and is a true basketball legend. If you find this book, read it. If you're a kid, realize that it is your education that is more likely to get you places as an adult than beating the odds of becoming a professional athlete. Ultimately there is no doubt, the Hawk was one of the greatest players ever.

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FLAGRANT...2 shots and the ball...

I'll never forget the fall of 1969. I was 13. We, in the hood, were preparing for another season of both school ball and the NBA. I anxiously awaited the opportunity to see my hero, Lew Alcindor, do work for the Milwaukee Bucks. I knew he was the future of league. However, the real intrigue surrounded the fact that...'the Hawk' was coming!! We all knew of this shadowy figure with street-ball developed skills, who was going to legitimize our approach to the game. He was going to swoop down on the league and slam on every-freakin'-body, and do it smoothly, sweetly and without a bit of malice. We couldn't wait.

The Phoenix Suns had lost Big Lew in the draft the previous spring and seemed to get restitution with Connie...and how, he took the league by storm and along with Paul Silas, Dick Van Arsdale, and Gail Goodrich, came within one game of knocking off Los Angeles, (Wilt, Jerry, Elgin, etc.) in the first round of the playoffs. The Suns were up 3-1 and I still believe there were some unseen forces that refused to allow this man to be what he was...one of the best ever. Goodness he was so smooth. As the golf ball commercial says, 'as smooth as a pocketful of pudding'.

I found it interesting that when the NBA had it's fifty year anniversary and named its 50 best that Connie wasn't one of them. NBC had a special and when Bob Costas was interviewing Dave DeBusschere, Dave commented that he thought Connie was one who had been overlooked...it got very quiet on the set and Bob changed the subject, it was a very awkward moment, but I wasn't surprized.

I agree that all young people that aspire to athletics at the collegiate or professional level; male or female, white or black, rich or poor, urban or rural, need to read this book, because it says more about the system, than it does about Connie, he was just the sacrificial lamb...

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