Born in Brooklyn on July 17, 1942, Hawkins’ hoops career can’t be reduced to only include his NBA glory years as the star 6-foot-8 forward for the expansion Phoenix Suns or as Basketball Hall of Fame inductee 25 years ago. Hawkins’ most memorable exploits may have played out on the blacktops of Harlem and against competition in defunct professional basketball leagues.

Why?

Because a large chunk of Hawkins’ NBA career was stolen from him after he was wrongfully banned for his loose association with Jack Molina, the notorious leader of a widespread point shaving scandal. Hawkins was never directly implicated. That didn’t prevent him from being convicted in the court of public opinion. The University of Iowa expelled him before his freshman season and the NBA blackballed him for years before commissioner Walter Kennedy officially banned teams from signing him.

For the next eight years after his college expulsion, Hawkins endured a Homer’s Odyssey-like journey through the amateur basketball universe, touring with the Harlem Globetrotters, getting the best of NBA superstars during summer Rucker tournaments and in the American Basketball League.

“I try and conceive what it would have been like for me, at that age, to have my college years taken away, to be scorned as a crook, to be forced to go out and face life. I couldn’t have. … but he did.” Paul Silas, a former teammate of Hawkins, once pondered.

It wasn’t until Hawkins climbed aboard the burgeoning ABA that the momentum to vindicate Connie’s name was put in motion.

Hawkins signed with the Pittsburgh Pipers for his debut season and didn’t waste time leaving his mark, becoming the first MVP in the league’s history. During his only two seasons in the ABA, Hawkins averaged 28 points and 12.6 rebounds.

In 1969, LIFE Magazine writer David Wolf uncovered evidence that Hawkins was never involved in the gambling scandal. At that same time, Hawkins’ $6 million antitrust suit was a thorn in the league’s side. The league settled for $1.3 million (before inflation) and the NBA lifted its ban on Hawkins.

“I knew I was innocent,” Hawkins told the New York Times prior to his Hall of Fame induction, “and I never lost my confidence.”