Lake Fong, Post-Gazette Former NBA player Darryl Dawkins shows passing skills to the campers yesterday at the NBA Cares Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA summer camp at the Petersen Events Center. The basketball camp is free for boys and girls ages 9-13 in non-NBA cities.

Long before there was the Big Diesel, there was Thundering Chocolate roaming the courts of the NBA.

Before the much-publicized love affair went sour with the Los Angeles Lakers, there was the Planet Lovetron.

Before Shaquille O'Neal, there was Darryl Dawkins.

"If I hadn't existed, there wouldn't be a Shaq today," Dawkins said with a smile yesterday as he took a breather from showing children some of his stuff at the NBA Cares Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA summer camp at Petersen Events Center.

"The NBA wasn't ready for big guys like me, a good-looking guy who was a wall and ran over people. I brought bulk when all the guys were beanpoles. They were ready for Shaq."

Dawkins, at 6 feet 11 and in the neighborhood of 300 pounds, remains an imposing figure and was a favorite for about 250 boys and girls between the ages of 8 and 14 who attended the free daylong clinic that made its first stop on a 10-city tour of cities that don't have an NBA team.

Dawkins, who in 1975 became the first player to jump from high school to the NBA, enjoyed 14 raucous seasons in the league with 8,733 points, 4,443 rebounds and 1,023 blocks. He coached the Newark (N.J.) team last year in the ABA and is interested in returning for a second season.

The NBA no longer allows players to make the jump from high school to the NBA.

"If you can play in the league, you should be allowed to play in the league," Dawkins said. "I could play."

As a fresh-faced 18-year-old out of Maynard Evans High School in Orlando, Fla., Dawkins found himself on the star-studded Philadelphia 76ers, whose roster included bigger-than-life personalities Julius "Dr. J" Erving, Lloyd "World B" Free, George "Big Mac" McGinnis and Joe "Jellybean" Bryant.

"I always had a great imagination and I had to do something to get noticed," said Dawkins, who is best-known for his backboard shattering dunks, which he often gave nicknames like "In Your Face Disgrace."

"I figured I better be from somewhere that got people's attention, so I said I was an alien from Planet Lovetron and was just visiting Earth."

He was asked why he thinks Shaq doesn't give his dunks a name, Dawkins answered with a wide grin, "Because I had already mastered naming dunks. There weren't any good names left."

Although Shaq and Dawkins are similar in many ways on the court, they certainly don't look the same at the free-throw line. Dawkins made 70 percent of his free throws; Shaq's percentages dipped into the low 20s during Miami's run to the NBA championship this spring.

Why can't Shaq shoot free throws?

"Shaq's hands are bigger than mine," Dawkins said. "To me, a basketball felt like a grape. It must feel like a BB to him. It's not easy to throw a BB through a basket."

Dawkins was joined yesterday by a number of former NBA and WNBA standouts, who spend the day demonstrating the proper shooting, dribbling, passing and rebounding techniques.

Sidney Moncrief, a five-time NBA All-Star with the Milwaukee Bucks, showed he hasn't lost his shooting touch at the age of 49 by effortlessly making shots from 25 feet to the delighted squeals of the campers.

"It's all about having fun, first and foremost," said Theresa Edwards, a five-time Olympian and former star in the ABL and WNBA.

"See the little guy over there, third in line, with the big smile. That's the reward right there."

Edwards, the eldest and only girl in a family of five children, was a self-taught basketball player because clinics such as these didn't exists 30 years when she was growing up.

"Just give me a ball and I'd bounce it off a tree all day. I was happy," she said. "We have to encourage these kids today to stay off the couch and get out and play something. And keep playing."

She laughed.

"It's a fun challenge here to challenge a kid who thinks he knows it all. You can always learn something."