[3] Hawkins soon became a fixture at Rucker Park, a legendary outdoor court where he battled against some of the best players in the world, such as Wilt Chamberlain.

Hawkins was All-City first team as a junior as Boys went undefeated and won New York's Public Schools Athletic League (PSAL) title in 1959.

[7] During Hawkins' freshman year at Iowa, he was a victim of the hysteria surrounding a point-shaving scandal that had started in New York City.

Hawkins had borrowed $200 ($2,000 in current dollar terms) from Molinas for school expenses, which his brother Fred repaid before the scandal broke in 1961.

Despite the fact that Hawkins could not have been involved in point-shaving (as a freshman, due to NCAA rules of the time, he was ineligible to participate in varsity-level athletics), he was kept from seeking legal counsel while being questioned by New York City detectives who were investigating the scandal.

[2] On January 15, 1962, to kick off the second half of the ABL's inaugural season, he scored a league-record 54 points in a 110-108 loss to the Cleveland Pipers.

[23][29] The NBA had refused to allow any team to hire Hawkins, who at the time the Litmans started working with him, was still playing for the Harlem Globetrotters.

[23][29] In the light of several major media pieces, most notably a Life magazine article written by David Wolf, establishing the dubious nature of the evidence connecting Hawkins to gambling, the NBA concluded it was unlikely to successfully defend the lawsuit.

Seeking to avoid a defeat in court which might jeopardize its ability to bar players who had actually participated in gambling, the NBA elected to settle after the 1968–69 season and admit Hawkins to the league.

[30] Although the Pipers made a cursory effort to re-sign him, playing in the NBA had been a longtime ambition for Hawkins and he quickly signed with the Suns.

[21] In the final game of his rookie season against Elvin Hayes and the San Diego Rockets, Hawkins had 44 points, 20 rebounds, 8 assists, 5 blocks and 5 steals.

In the 1970 NBA playoffs they were knocked out by the Los Angeles Lakers in a seven-game Western Conference Semifinals series in which Hawkins carried the Suns against a team that had future Hall of Famers Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor and Jerry West.

[32][33] In Game 2 of the series, on March 29, 1970, Hawkins led the Suns to a 114–101 victory while scoring 34 points, grabbing 20 rebounds, and recording 7 assists.

[21] Averaging 11.3 points nine games into the 1973–74 season and having been replaced in the starting lineup by Mike Bantom, Hawkins was traded from the Suns to the Lakers for Keith Erickson and a 1974 second-round selection (31st overall–Fred Saunders) on October 30.

[43] One of Hawkins' nephews is Jim McCoy Jr., who scored a school-record 2,374 career points for the UMass Minutemen basketball team from 1988 to 1992.

[46] Hawkins moved to Phoenix, Arizona, and worked in community relations for the Suns until his death from cancer on October 6, 2017, at the age of 75.