On Tuesday, global Hall of Famers showed up in Dallas, Texas, to pay their respects and honor the late Carroll Dawson. Dawson hailed from East Texas. Specifically, Alba, Texas, a small town whose population is 473 residents, as of the 2020 United States census.
Dawson attended Paris Junior College in Paris, Texas, and Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He earned the nickname “Big Orange” in his college basketball career. He also earned All-Southwest Conference honors after averaging 16.4 points per game.
After a college basketball career as a center and an Army draft as a tank commander, Dawson embarked on a 24-year college and professional basketball coaching career. He served as Baylor’s head coach from 1973 to 1977 and a Houston Rockets assistant coach from 1980 to 1997. He was a two-time NBA champion in his assistant coaching tenure with the Rockets in 1994 and 1995, respectively.
Carroll Dawson’s Early Life
Carroll Dawson’s early life wasn’t always smooth sailing. Dawson was born on May 3, 1938, and died on September 9, 2024. He lived a long life of 86 years. He was born and raised in Alba, Texas, a tiny town in East Texas. He embarked on a college basketball career at Paris Junior College and Baylor and then a coaching career.
Aside from college and professional basketball and the Army, Carroll Dawson worked as a scout for the Dallas Cowboys and a salesman for Converse sneakers. Dawson’s big break came in 1979 when he became the head coach of the Houston Rockets, a 17-year tenure that ended in a move to the Rockets’ front office due to progressively worse vision due to a lightning strike during a golf outing in 1989.
Dawson Was Also Known As ‘CD’
The late Carroll Dawson was also known as CD. Dawson was a universally loved basketball player and coach in Texas, the United States, and the world. Dawson’s playing and coaching career touched plenty of people, whether they knew him personally or not.
Carroll Dawson became a household name in Texas but also made the state his lifelong home. There were more hall of famers at the Wilshire Baptist Church than anywhere else in the world outside of Springfield, Massachusetts. For example, Houston Rockets legend Yao Ming. Ming played in Houston, Texas, from 2002 to 2011 after being selected with the first overall pick of the 2002 NBA Draft.
Dawson’s Dallas Mavericks Connection
The late Carroll Dawson was a key part of the Houston Rockets history, but Dawson also had a connection with the Dallas Mavericks. His funeral service drew a Mavericks connection, which included Texas Legends Vice President Del Harris, who worked for the Mavericks for two decades. Harris also helped lead the Rockets to the 1981 NBA Finals when Dawson served as his assistant.
Harris recalled a Rockets preseason game in Nebraska to Mavs.com, “We’re there and looking around and CD says: you know how to turn a girl from a six into a 10? I thought he was going to say something about having more to drink, but he said: Move her from Houston to Omaha.”
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