Darryl Dawkins on suiting up for Philippine team, LeBron vs Jordan

MANILA, Philippines – From 1975-1982, Darryl Dawkins was playing for the Philadelphia 76ers and was at the prime of his NBA career.

After spending most of the first few years of his tenure with the 76ers on the bench, Dawkins earned a more consistent role as one of the team’s frontcourt contributors in the following seasons, even helping Philadelphia make the NBA Finals in 1978 and 1980 in the process.

During that same stretch, the Philippine men’s national basketball team was piling up loss after loss on the other side of the world. 

They quickly bowed out in the 1977 Asian Championships and in the 1978 FIBA World Championship, which their country hosted, the team lost all seven matches in the semifinal round by blowout in front of their home crowd.

Unlike now, recruiting players from abroad to serve as naturalized players in FIBA competition during those days wasn’t common. No Philippine player at that time was close to the talent Gilas had in the 2014 FIBA World Cup with Andray Blatche leading the way.

But had the Philippines taken the opportunity to recruit him to become a naturalized player in the 70s, or even later for that matter, Dawkins would have gladly accepted.

“They paid me? And cooked for me?” said Dawkins, talking about the additional perks of playing for the national team.

“And a car?” he asked. 

“Absolutely!”

Dawkins was recently in town as a representative for the NBA, which held a press conference on Friday, October 17, for the announcement of its multi-year contract extension with Solar Entertainment and ABS-CBN for broadcasting rights of NBA games in the Philippines.

During a group discussion with the media, Dawkins said he would have gladly accepted an offer to play for the Philippine team decades ago had it presented itself.

“No doubt about it. I don’t know anybody who would say no,” he said.

“I love an adventure. [When] I went to Italy I knew nothing but spaghetti. Now I speak Italian, cook Italian, and I only eat pizza in Italy.”

Dawkins, nicknamed “Chocolate Thunder,” averaged 12 ppg and 6 rpg throughout his NBA career which lasted 14 years with four teams (Philadelphia, New Jersey, Utah, Detroit).

In the next chapter of his playing career from 1989-1994, Dawkins played for three different squads in Italy.

“You know what, playing in Italy, we had some American guys who married Italian girls who wanted to be recognized as an Italian,” said Dawkins, who’s well known for breaking the backboard twice – in Kansas City and in San Antonio.

“I have no problem with it,” he later said about NBA players like Blatche who become naturalized in order to play for other countries outside the United States in international competition. 

“But I’m sure there are still some people that do.”

LeBron vs. Jordan

Like many former and current NBA players who have visited the Philippines before him, Dawkins was asked whom he thinks is the best basketball player in the National Basketball Association today.

He didn’t give a direct answer, but did name his personal choice.

“Everybody would say LeBron James. The other people would say Kobe Bryant. A lot of people would say Tim Duncan,” said Chocolate Thunder.

“I like [Russell] Westbrook, personally, because I think he reminds me of Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan. With Westbrook being explosive and just going crazy, it gives Durant a chance to do all the things he does.”

Westbrook averaged 21.8 PPG, 6.9 APG, and 5.7 RPG last season for the Oklahoma City Thunder. His numbers are expected to increase in the beginning of the upcoming 2014-2015 NBA season with Durant scheduled to miss 6 to 8 weeks with a Jones Fracture.

“That’s a hard question,” he said, going back to the original query. “So if you ask me my choice, I do like Westbrook, but it’s still going to come down to Kobe, it’s still going to come down to LeBron James.”

James is regarded by many pundits and critics as the best basketball player in the world today, while some have put him in the same sentence with the greatest to ever play in the NBA such as Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird to name a few.

LeBron vs. Jordan has been an interesting debate raging for years now, with different sides giving varying answers to the question of who is better among the two. As of now, Jordan has more regular season MVPs than LeBron, 5-4, more NBA championships, 6-2, and more NBA Finals MVPs, 6-2.

(INFOGRAPHIC: LeBron vs Jordan)

Dawkins didn’t shy away from giving his two cents on the topic.

“There is no way I could ever go against Michael Jordan. Never,” he said without hesitation.

“I think the game would be close, but Michael Jordan has the ability to raise his competition, raise his level, against the better guys. I’m not putting LeBron down. Love LeBron. Think his game is fantastic. But I would have to take Michael Jordan.”

– Rappler.com