Which players in your opinion was destined for Greatness before Tragedy?

[LakeShow]

Reading about Eddie Griffins sudden death (god rest his soul) made me think about other players who's career was cut short by a sudden death or addiction to drugs. Here's a few that I thought about. Which players in your opinion was destined for the HOF or greatness before tragedy struck?

Reggie Lewis - Lewis played alongside fellow Celtics greats like Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parish. He became the sixth captain of the Celtics, taking over from Larry Bird. In his first and only year of leading the team, he brought the Celtics to the 1993 playoffs. In the first game of the playoffs against the Charlotte Hornets, his heart ailment (which would later claim his life) caused him to collapse.

Michael Ray Richardson - He would be named an all-star as a Net, being a member of the Eastern Conference all-star team that allegedly froze out Michael Jordan. In the 1984 playoffs, Richardson was spectacular, leading the Nets to a shocking upset of the defending champion Philadelphia 76ers. In the fifth and deciding game, Richardson scored 24 points and had six steals. While the Knicks showed mild improvement after trading Richardson, that improvement was short-lived, ending when King was felled by a devastating knee injury midway through the 1984-85 season. In 1986 NBA commissioner David Stern banned Richardson for life after Richardson violated the league's drug policy three times. Richardson's right to play in the NBA was restored in 1988, but Richardson failed two cocaine tests in 1991, though he disputed the results.[3]

David Thompson - Thompson made the NBA All-Star game four seaons, and reached his peak in 1978 season. On April 9, 1978, the last day of the regular NBA season, Thompson scored 73 points against the Detroit Pistons in an effort to win the NBA scoring title (he barely lost the scoring title to San Antonio's George Gervin, who scored 63 points in a game played later that same day). He also led the Denver Nuggets to the NBA playoffs, but they lost to the eventual Western Conference champion Seattle Supersonics. After the 1978 season, he was granted a record-breaking $4 million for five-years contract. That amount was more than any basketball player ever had previously been paid. However, from that point, injuries and persistent problems with substance abuse would trouble Thompson and to the significant detriment of the remainder of his NBA career, which came to an end after the 1983-84 season.

Shawn Kemp - Kemp's career peaked in 1995-96, when he led the Sonics to a franchise-record 64 wins and their first NBA Finals appearance since 1979. They faced Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, who were coming off an NBA record 72 wins. The Sonics, however, managed to push the heavily-favored Bulls to six games before losing.
Kemp played three seasons with the Cavaliers, where he battled weight problems and often appeared to lack the drive that made him such a force in Seattle. Despite this, he posted career-high numbers for points per game. He was then traded to the Portland Trail Blazers after the 1999-2000 season. The trade reunited Kemp with Bob Whitsitt, who had originally brought Kemp to Seattle. However, Kemp's play began to decline significantly. The last few years of Kemp's professional basketball career were riddled with problems stemming from his weight, as well as cocaine and alcohol abuse. His first season in Portland ended early when he entered drug rehabilitation.

Len Bias - Less than two days after being selected by the defending champion Celtics as the second overall pick in the 1986 NBA Draft, Bias flew in to Maryland from Boston at around 11:00 p.m., and ate crabs with some teammates and a member of the football team. He left at approximately 2 a.m. on the 18th, drove to an off-campus gathering, which he attended briefly before returning to his dorm at 3:00 a.m. Bias, who consumed large quantities of cocaine at some earlier point, was talking with teammate Terry Long when he collapsed sometime between 6:25 and 6:32.[2] According to Bias's sister (who only had a secondhand account of the story)[3], the player was sitting on a couch and leaned back as though he was going to sleep, but instead began to have a seizure. Bias died of a cardiac arrhythmia, related to the cocaine overdose.

Drazen Petrovic - was a Croatian basketball player. A tireless shooter and prolific scorer, Petrović is arguably the most celebrated basketball player ever to emerge from Europe. He is considered the crucial part of the vanguard to the present-day mass influx of European players into the NBA. Dražen Petrović died as a passenger in a car involved in a traffic accident on the rain-drenched Autobahn 9 at Denkendorf, near Ingolstadt, in the German state of Bavaria, at approximately 17:20 on June 7th, 1993, four and a half months before his 29th birthday.

Roy Tarpley - is an American former professional basketball player, who was notable during his career for being banned from the NBA. He starred at the University of Michigan, and in 1986 he was selected by the Dallas Mavericks with the seventh pick of the NBA Draft. Tarpley made the NBA All-Rookie Team in his first season and seemed destined for success until his career was cut short in 1991, when he was expelled from the league for violating the NBA's drug-use policies. He returned to the Mavericks briefly in 1994 but was again banned for drug use. Another problem Tarpley had was that he was very injury prone, missing a lot of games due to nagging injuries. He holds career averages of 12.6 points and 10.0 rebounds per game. He has also played for Aris BC, Olympiacos and Iraklis in Greece. He also won the European Cup in 1993 with Aris BC Salonica.

Dajaun Wagner - He played one year of college basketball at the University of Memphis before being drafted with the sixth overall pick of the 2002 NBA Draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers. Often compared to Allen Iverson for his scoring ability, he had a promising rookie season averaging 13.4 points per game but was hampered by injuries and health problems thereafter. He averaged a career low 4.0 points in only 11 games played during the 2004-05 season, and was hospitalized for ulcerative colitis. The Cavaliers did not exercise their option on his contract for the 2005-06 season and subsequently Wagner was out of the league.

Sharone Wright - is an American professional basketball player currently with the EiffelTowers 's-Hertogenbosch. He was selected 6th overall in the 1994 NBA Draft by the Philadelphia 76ers. Wright played four NBA seasons with the 76ers and Toronto Raptors. His best year as a professional came during his rookie season with the 76ers when he appeared in 79 games and averaged 11.4 points and 6 rebounds per game.

He played collegiately at Clemson University from 1990 until 1994. In addition to his NBA career and his career in Europe, he has played professionally in South Korea. His career in the NBA was cut short by a car accident.


Honorable mention: Hank Gathers, Chris (birdman) Andersen, Jason Collier, Malik Sealy, Stanley Roberts, Demar Johnson

[duncan228]

They're all bad, but if I have to pick one I pick the one I was nearest to.

Len Bias. I was raised in New England, the Celtics were the "home" team.
It was a horrible tragedy.

[Findog]

I never saw Bias play, those of you who did, what kind of impact do you think he would have had as a pro?

[duncan228]

I never saw Bias play, those of you who did, what kind of impact do you think he would have had as a pro?

I only saw clips of him, but the hope in Boston was off the charts.

I don't remember any media saying anything but how incredible he was and what an immediate impact he was going to have.

[LakeShow]

I never saw Bias play, those of you who did, what kind of impact do you think he would have had as a pro?

The Celtics would have been Champs for a few years with Bias. He and Bird would have been a great combination.

[duncan228]

The Celtics would have been Champs for a few years with Bias. He and Bird would have been a great combination.

Don't know about Championships, but with Bird's back starting to decline by '87-'88 Bias would have been a vital part of that team.

[mavs>spurs2]

Don't forget about Grant Hill

[LakeShow]

Don't forget about Grant Hill

You're right. Forgot about him. I also couldn't remember the guard who was in a motorcycle accident not too long ago.

[LakeShow]

Don't know about Championships, but with Bird's back starting to decline by '87-'88 Bias would have been a vital part of that team.

True, all i remember was hating the fact that the Celtics were able to draft him.

[mardigan]

Don't forget about Grant Hill
Or Penny

[E20]

Don't forget about Ralph Sampson. If Ralph and Hakeem stayed together, the Bulls probably would have a tough time doing those 3-peats.

[monosylab1k]

I also couldn't remember the guard who was in a motorcycle accident not too long ago.
Jay Williams, that guy was gonna be bad ass.

[LakeShow]

You guys are all right. If i look at injuries I would also chose,

Antonio Mcdyess
Chris Webber
Jayson Williams

[LakeShow]

Jay Williams, that guy was gonna be bad ass.

Yeah thats him.

[mardigan]

You guys are all right. If i look at injuries I would also chose,

Antonio Mcdyess
Chris Webber
Jayson Williams
Man, Dyess was a freak before he destroyed his kness, no telling how good he would have been

[Findog]

Man, Dyess was a freak before he destroyed his kness, no telling how good he would have been

Hint: Amare able to play some D.

[sa_kid20]

ralph sampson

[Otaku]

Earl "The Goat" Manigault should be there also.

[Spurminator]

Bobby Hurley
Vin Baker
Brad Daugherty

[Medvedenko]

Yeah Bobby Hurley...my favourite player on those Duke teams....

What about Richard Dumas.....

[samikeyp]

I never saw Bias play, those of you who did, what kind of impact do you think he would have had as a pro?

Big. He would have won at least one title with Bird. If the Celtics would have still acquired Reggie Lewis two years later...damn. Bias, Lewis, Bird, McHale, Parish. Wow.

[LakeShow]

Man, Dyess was a freak before he destroyed his kness, no telling how good he would have been

McDyess would have dominated the league had he not got injured.

[mavs>spurs2]

McDyess was like Amare with a better outside shot, footwork, low post game, defense, and maybe even more athletic. I once heard that he could grab a quarter off the top of the backboard before he got injured.

[LakeShow]

McDyess was like Amare with a better outside shot, footwork, low post game, defense, and maybe even more athletic. I once heard that he could grab a quarter off the top of the backboard before he got injured.

That's a perfect description of his game. He was for real. I Hated to see him get injured.

[atxrocker]

grant hill gets my vote

[MrChug]

Any of the deaths far supercede the injuries of course, but the young guys who never even got a chance to show their skill are pretty damn tragic:

Bobby Hurley
Jay Williams
Len Bias
Demarr Johnson
Hank Gathers

...somehow I really can't classify someone who can't control drug use as a tragedy, or at least I can't feel too bad for them.

[Darrin]

This is the first player of my generation that I'll mourn. Substance abuse is too common in professional sports.

Let's not forget Isaiah Rider.

[LakeShow]

This is the first player of my generation that I'll mourn. Substance abuse is too common in professional sports.

Let's not forget Isaiah Rider.

:lol Isaiah Rider, can't forget him. Eddie Jones was his bitch!

Fondest Isaiah moment: While on the freeway he decided to pull over to the side to roll up some marijuana. He takes out his weed box, full of bud and starts rolling it up, music blasting. Like he was at home! The Highway patrol pulls behind him, Isaiah focused on the bud not paying attention and the officer catches him in the act. He was arrested naturally. :dizzy Unbelievable!

[SRJ]

I can't believe there hasn't been a mention of Maurice Stokes yet.

[BacktoBasics]

Hank Gather deserves more run. That guy was unbelievably talented.

[BacktoBasics]

Also Bobby Phills

[JamStone]

Michael Ray and Drazen Petrovic were the first two that came to mind when I read the title, and the ones listed in here are all great. Reggie Lewis is a great example too. Grant Hill and Penny were supposed to carry the torch from Michael, so those were good examples.

I don't know if guys like Dajuan Wagner and DerMarr Johnson were necessarily destined for greatness. I think Wagner was limited and rode the hype of his 100 point performance in high school and the Iverson comparisons. But, I don't believe he was every going to be a superstar type. And, DerMarr Johnson was a high lottery pick in one of the worst NBA drafts ever, imo. He left college too early after his freshman year. He was never really that good. The neck injury from the car crash occurred after his first or second season where he proved he wasn't a very good draft pick. I don't think he was ever destined for greatness.

I'd say Derrick Coleman's drug problems probably prevented him from becoming an even better player than he was.

I think Pete Maravich's depression also played a role in him not having the type of career where he could have been more than just a flashy offensive player. But, because he still had a hall of fame type of career, I don't know if he necessarily fits on this list. I just think he could have been even better than he was. He also cut his career short, playing only 10 years. If he didn't have so many emotional problems with his father and his mother that caused so many personal emotional problems, I think he could have been a top 10 type caliber player. While he was still great, his life appeared destined for destruction.

[JamStone]

Though tragic his death, don't think Bobby Phils was ever destined for greatness.

[MajorMike]

What about Richard Dumas.....

Good one. Dumas was going to be a star. Couldn't kick the ganji. Kicked out of OSU after being an All American. Drafted by the Suns a year later. Suspended again before he got to play. Played the next year and averaged 16 points 5 boards as a rookie playing along side Barkley, KJ, Majerle and Ainge.


One of the more intriguing stories to come out of the Phoenix Suns’ 1992-93 season was that of rookie forward Richard Dumas. Originally drafted in the second round of the 1991 draft, Dumas was suspended for the 1991-92 season for violating the league’s substance abuse policy, but returned and became a major contributor to the Suns’ 1993 playoff drive.

Unfortunately, the success of his rookie season did not continue as Dumas check himself into rehab the following summer. He would return to the Suns for a brief stint late in the 1994-95 season and then go on to play for the 76ers for one year, before playing overseas and in some minor leagues back in the U.S

[JamStone]

Curious if some might think Ron Artest fits in this topic ... though not a tragedy from drugs or injury, his suspension from the brawl and other off-the-court issues interfered directly at a time where he was becoming the best two way player in the game.

[monosylab1k]

Oliver Miller could have been pretty damn good if he wasn't such a fat fuck.

[BacktoBasics]

I thought Dumas had a coke problem not dope? Dude was a stud nontheless. I agree Phils wasn't going to be a superstar but he was well on his way to a very consistant solid NBA career, he did a lot on the court.

[Hemotivo]

Drazen

[ShoogarBear]

Good list, Lakeshow1.

My picks for biggest losses are Bias and Roy Tarpley.

I had a former roommate who played against Bias in college. He essentially had no weaknesses, and had the potential to end up being the Michael Jordan of forwards.

Tarpley was the best rebounder in the league and a lock first-team All-NBA and eventual HoFer if he had stayed clean.

Michael Ray, David Thompson, and Shawn Kemp all at least got to be seen at their best, but had their longevities cut short.

[florige]

Though tragic his death, don't think Bobby Phils was ever destined for greatness.


When did he die? What happened?

[JamStone]

When did he die? What happened?

2000, car crash into oncoming traffic while street racing with then teammate David Wesley.

[florige]

2000, car crash into oncoming traffic while street racing with then teammate David Wesley.


ooooooookay, now i remember, thanks! I forgot all about that.

[LakeShow]

I can't believe there hasn't been a mention of Maurice Stokes yet.

To be honest, i didnt know who he was until i looked it up.

On March 12, 1958 in the last game of the 1957-58 NBA season, in Minneapolis, Stokes drove to the basket, drew contact and fell to the floor, hit his head, and was knocked unconscious. He was revived with smelling salts and returned to the game. Three days later, after a 12-point, 15-rebound performance, Stokes became ill on the team's flight back to Cincinnati. "I feel like I'm going to die," he told a teammate. Stokes fell into a coma and was left permanently paralyzed. In the end, he was diagnosed with "post-traumatic encephalopathy, a brain injury that damaged his motor control center."

[MrChug]

Bobby Phills WAS still a great kid coming into his own as a team leader with the Hornets a rugged defender and a nice shooter from just a journeyman. I was pretty sad myself. I think he was in All-Star discussions around 99-2000 if I'm not mistaken. Sad loss.

[jaespur21]

Drazen Petrovic and G hill. two of my favorites as a kid

i still have drazen petrovic basketball card

[FromWayDowntown]

I'd go with Maurice Stokes and Len Bias. Stokes was good enought that he was enshrined in the Hall of Fame for about 7 years of play (4 in college and 3 in the NBA).

As for Bias, Bob Ryan wrote a column about him in 2003, when Bias would have turned 40. Undoubtedly, some of the sentiments are a bit exaggerated -- premature deaths sometimes exaggerate an athlete's skills and achievements -- but the sentiments about Bias as a player are awfully telling, I think:

What might have been
40. That's how old Len Bias would have turned today.
By Bob Ryan, Globe Staff, 11/18/2003

B. November 18, 1963 D. June 19, 1986

It's true. Len Bias would have turned 40 today. "Wow!" says Danny Ainge.

Yeah, wow. It is more than 17 years since Len Bias's brief association with the Celtics, and he remains the greatest "what-if?" in team history. At least we saw Reggie Lewis play. Bias never played a game for the Celtics. He was a member of the organization for fewer than 48 hours, dying of a cocaine overdose in the wee small hours of June 19, hours after returning to Washington following a day in Boston as the Celtics' first pick in the 1986 draft. His death still reverberates in the team offices. Without any doubt, he would have directly affected the fortunes of the team well into the '90s, with predictable impact on the current situation.

Michael Wilbon of the Washington Post and ESPN covered Bias during his first two years at Maryland, and he goes even further. "His death changed the history of the NBA," Wilbon says. "Because then there are no Bad Boy Pistons, and who knows when the Bulls would have won? Bird and McHale would never have had to play all those minutes. The Celtics would have kept winning."

So Len Bias was that good?

"This is my 24th year at Duke," says coach Mike Krzyzewski, "and in that time there have been two opposing players who have really stood out: Michael Jordan and Len Bias. Len was an amazing athlete with great competitiveness. My feeling is that he would have been one of the top players in the NBA. He created things. People associate the term `playmaking' with point guards. But I consider a playmaker as someone who can do things others can't, the way Jordan did. Bias was like that. He could invent ways to score, and there was nothing you could do about it. No matter how you defended him, he could make a play."

"He was a can't-miss, big-time player who was going to the perfect team," says Celtics general manager Chris Wallace, then at the peak of his glory as editor of Blue Ribbon Magazine, the college basketball bible. "It was almost too good to be true."

Forget the "almost," says Indiana Pacers CEO Donnie Walsh, whose team used the fourth pick in the '86 draft to select Chuck Person. "The Celtics had just won a championship. They had Bird, McHale, Parish, and Walton. And now they were getting Len Bias? I remember thinking, `This is unfair.' "

A dynamite deal That "unfair" circumstance had come about because on Oct. 16, 1984, general manager Jan Volk had orchestrated a deal that sent guard Gerald Henderson to the Seattle SuperSonics for their '86 first-round draft pick. The idea was twofold: 1) Open up more playing time for Danny Ainge; and 2) Hope that the Sonics would deteriorate and ultimately provide the Celtics with a prime pick.

The Sonics could not have cooperated much better. They won 31 games in the 1985-86 season and finished second in the lottery. The Celtics, winners of 67 regular-season games and their 16th NBA title, would have the No. 2 pick in the draft.

The consensus two best players available were North Carolina center/forward Brad Daugherty, a 7-foot finesse player with a baby-fattish body, and Maryland's two-time ACC Player of the Year Bias, a 6-8, 225-pound forward with a Greek statue body.

Red Auerbach admits he only had eyes for Bias. "Oh, yeah, I definitely wanted him," Auerbach says. "Absolutely. Because he was a ballplayer. He could handle the ball, he could shoot it, and he was just what we needed."

"Remember that in 1986 Michael Jordan was not yet `Michael Jordan,' " says Volk. "And in scouting reports, it is customary to make player comparisons. Our basic report characterized Bias as a `Michael Jordan type who was bigger, with a better jump shot, but who didn't go to the basket as well.' "

Philadelphia had the first pick, but the 76ers were strangely ambivalent. "We never could get comfortable with that draft," says Pat Williams, who was then in his final days as the 76ers GM. "We thought Daugherty was soft. And Jack McMahon, our chief scout, didn't want Bias. I remember him saying, `There's just something about him I don't like.' And Jack just passed. Jack wasn't infallible, but he was pretty good, and I didn't usually question him on personnel matters."

The 76ers wound up trading the pick to Cleveland in exchange for Roy Hinson as part of a complete makeover that also included trading Moses Malone and other considerations for Jeff Ruland and Cliff Robinson. None of it worked out, because of injury. "It was the draft night from Hell," says Williams.

Was McMahon prescient? Was he on to something about Bias's nocturnal habits? We'll never know. He died in the late '80s without ever specifying his reservations about Bias.

Few others had doubts about Bias. Daugherty sure didn't. "The one thing I always think about is how he elevated when he shot his jump shot," says the long-time Cavaliers center, now an ESPN college basketball analyst. "He elevated higher than anyone I've ever seen to get off that shot. Most people, Michael Jordan included, might shoot on the way up, but not Lenny. Every jump shot was released at the peak of his jump. He had a great mid-range game. He was deadly from 8 to 15 feet.

"I remember a game at our place when Joe Wolf started out on him, and he couldn't do anything. Then Coach [Dean] Smith tried [7-foot] Warren Martin. Next he asked me if I wanted to try. He just took me outside. I was 4 inches taller, and I couldn't get near that jumper."

"He was a physical specimen," says Johnny Dawkins, the Duke assistant who was a high school and college contemporary of Bias. "He had a very soft jumper, and he got up so high, no one could affect it. He would have been a terrific player in the NBA."

A couple of guys down at Storrs, Conn., remember Bias very well. On Jan. 21, 1985, George Blaney put a Holy Cross team on the floor against Maryland. "He had a presence about him, and a capacity for taking over," says Blaney, now an assistant at UConn. "He sort of disregarded good defense."

Thirteen months earlier, Jim Calhoun's Northeastern team had likewise played Maryland. "We were real good, but he took over the game," Calhoun says. "He was bigger, stronger, and quicker than anyone we had. He was one of those rare guys you looked at and said, `You know, he is going to be special.' "

Ainge had played with Bias in Marshfield during the summer of 1985, and he knew.

"He was perfect for us," says the Celtics' basketball chief. "I was never so excited. With Kevin, Robert, and Larry, he would give us the perfect rotation. I looked at it as a great fit for him and the franchise."

Larry Bird was similarly smitten, declaring that he was so fired up by the pick that he was going to come back early to work with the kid.

To people in D.C. (Bias was from nearby Landover, Md.), the idea of Bias joining the Celtics was downright sinful. "Out of all the guys I saw at that time," says ESPN's John Saunders, then a sportscaster at WMAR in Baltimore, "Michael Jordan was the gold standard. But I thought Bias had a chance to be in that category. I know I definitely never saw anyone improve as much as he did during his years at Maryland."

"I saw great players from both the ACC and Big East every night," says Wilbon. "Jordan. Ewing. Mullin. Sampson. Later on, David Robinson. But Bias was the most awesome collegiate player of that bunch. That jumper was so pure. I mean, Michael Jordan, at that time, would have killed for that jumper. And Bias was 2 1/2 inches taller."

Bias was not only a great prospect but also the perfect prospect for the team he was joining. He could have played behind both Bird and Kevin McHale, and Auerbach believes that partnership would have been maintained for many years.

"He would have enabled them to cut back on their minutes and would have extended their careers," says Dawkins. "Losing him set the Celtics back for at least a decade."

One "celebration party" changed all that. Bias chose to commemorate his new life by partying with cocaine, and it cost him his life.

Everyone has a story.

The Globe's John Powers was in Washington to do a story with Bias the next morning. He tried the house at 9:30 to confirm an 11 o'clock appointment, but the line was steadily busy. At 10, Powers's wife, Elaine, called. What was the name of the player you're there to interview? "Len Bias," he told her. "Did he call?"

"No," she answered. "He's dead. It was just on the radio."

Daugherty was at Raleigh-Durham Airport, preparing to board a flight to Boston, where he would be signing a joint Reebok deal with his friend, Bias. He refused to believe it when the first two people he encountered told him Bias was dead and didn't believe it until he called their mutual agent, Lee Fentress.

"I remember his exact words," Daugherty says. "He said, `It's God-awful. He's gone.' I never got on that plane."

Auerbach got a call from Bias's coach at Maryland, Lefty Driesell, at 4 in the morning. Volk got a call from a Channel 4 assignment editor at 6:15 in the morning. Ainge heard it when he stopped for gas en route to a morning round of golf.

No one ever will know just who Len Bias really was. Some say he led a masterful double life. Daugherty swears Bias wouldn't even join him for a beer, let alone shove cocaine up his nose. Driesell's words during a pre-draft radio interview are still eerie:

"Leonard's only vice is ice cream," Lefty insisted.

Others say he had both good and bad acquaintances and that he knew both nice girls and naughty girls. But the one thing everyone agrees on is that he sure could play basketball.

Assuming the binge that killed him was an aberration, he is the ghost that haunts the Celtics to this day. If he was just another junkie, well, what difference did it make? But if he was just a happy kid who made one horrible, fatal judgment, then the Celtics were deprived of the perfect bridge player to get them out of the '80s and into the '90s. At the least, give them the '87 title, and say that the 1988 Finals with LA would have been an epic.

"You put an athlete like him in with a Larry Bird," says Krzyzewski, "and he would have made use of all his abilities. Bird wouldn't have seen him as a threat; he would have seen him as a treasure."

Bias's death did more than disrupt the Celtics, says Coach K. It affected all those who love the game of basketball.

"It hurt our sport," Krzyzewski says. "Above and beyond the loss of life, we never got to see one of those truly great ones become great."

But Len Bias never got to see 23, let alone 40.

[Mister Sinister]

Darryl Kile?

[daslicer]

Bobby Phills WAS still a great kid coming into his own as a team leader with the Hornets a rugged defender and a nice shooter from just a journeyman. I was pretty sad myself. I think he was in All-Star discussions around 99-2000 if I'm not mistaken. Sad loss.

To me Bobby Phills death will always be a tragedy considering this guy was well on his way to becoming an all-star calibur player. In here we all rave about how great a defender Bowen is but believe it or not Bobby Phills was even a better a defender then Bowen. Thats how great defensively he was. I would watch games down here in Charlotte in which he would just shut out the teams top perimeter player just hold the guy below double digits or even scorless. He was truly amazing to watch on defense. Jordan even once said in the '98 playoffs that Phills was the toughest defender he had ever gone up against in his career. I remember the last game I saw of him was against the Lakers a few days before his death in which he held Kobe to 6-8 points. On top of that Phills had a good offensive game. To me his death will always be a tragedy because I just think he would have made a difference on a title contending team. He definitely had spurs material written on him I even remember AJ once tried to get him to sign with the spurs back in '97.

[TheSanityAnnex]

Bobby Hurley...........although he did not die, his car crash fucked him up good and he was never the same.

[LakeShow]

I'd go with Maurice Stokes and Len Bias. Stokes was good enought that he was enshrined in the Hall of Fame for about 7 years of play (4 in college and 3 in the NBA).

As for Bias, Bob Ryan wrote a column about him in 2003, when Bias would have turned 40. Undoubtedly, some of the sentiments are a bit exaggerated -- premature deaths sometimes exaggerate an athlete's skills and achievements -- but the sentiments about Bias as a player are awfully telling, I think:

What might have been
40. That's how old Len Bias would have turned today.
By Bob Ryan, Globe Staff, 11/18/2003

B. November 18, 1963 D. June 19, 1986

It's true. Len Bias would have turned 40 today. "Wow!" says Danny Ainge.

Yeah, wow. It is more than 17 years since Len Bias's brief association with the Celtics, and he remains the greatest "what-if?" in team history. At least we saw Reggie Lewis play. Bias never played a game for the Celtics. He was a member of the organization for fewer than 48 hours, dying of a cocaine overdose in the wee small hours of June 19, hours after returning to Washington following a day in Boston as the Celtics' first pick in the 1986 draft. His death still reverberates in the team offices. Without any doubt, he would have directly affected the fortunes of the team well into the '90s, with predictable impact on the current situation.

Michael Wilbon of the Washington Post and ESPN covered Bias during his first two years at Maryland, and he goes even further. "His death changed the history of the NBA," Wilbon says. "Because then there are no Bad Boy Pistons, and who knows when the Bulls would have won? Bird and McHale would never have had to play all those minutes. The Celtics would have kept winning."

So Len Bias was that good?

"This is my 24th year at Duke," says coach Mike Krzyzewski, "and in that time there have been two opposing players who have really stood out: Michael Jordan and Len Bias. Len was an amazing athlete with great competitiveness. My feeling is that he would have been one of the top players in the NBA. He created things. People associate the term `playmaking' with point guards. But I consider a playmaker as someone who can do things others can't, the way Jordan did. Bias was like that. He could invent ways to score, and there was nothing you could do about it. No matter how you defended him, he could make a play."

"He was a can't-miss, big-time player who was going to the perfect team," says Celtics general manager Chris Wallace, then at the peak of his glory as editor of Blue Ribbon Magazine, the college basketball bible. "It was almost too good to be true."

Forget the "almost," says Indiana Pacers CEO Donnie Walsh, whose team used the fourth pick in the '86 draft to select Chuck Person. "The Celtics had just won a championship. They had Bird, McHale, Parish, and Walton. And now they were getting Len Bias? I remember thinking, `This is unfair.' "

A dynamite deal That "unfair" circumstance had come about because on Oct. 16, 1984, general manager Jan Volk had orchestrated a deal that sent guard Gerald Henderson to the Seattle SuperSonics for their '86 first-round draft pick. The idea was twofold: 1) Open up more playing time for Danny Ainge; and 2) Hope that the Sonics would deteriorate and ultimately provide the Celtics with a prime pick.

The Sonics could not have cooperated much better. They won 31 games in the 1985-86 season and finished second in the lottery. The Celtics, winners of 67 regular-season games and their 16th NBA title, would have the No. 2 pick in the draft.

The consensus two best players available were North Carolina center/forward Brad Daugherty, a 7-foot finesse player with a baby-fattish body, and Maryland's two-time ACC Player of the Year Bias, a 6-8, 225-pound forward with a Greek statue body.

Red Auerbach admits he only had eyes for Bias. "Oh, yeah, I definitely wanted him," Auerbach says. "Absolutely. Because he was a ballplayer. He could handle the ball, he could shoot it, and he was just what we needed."

"Remember that in 1986 Michael Jordan was not yet `Michael Jordan,' " says Volk. "And in scouting reports, it is customary to make player comparisons. Our basic report characterized Bias as a `Michael Jordan type who was bigger, with a better jump shot, but who didn't go to the basket as well.' "

Philadelphia had the first pick, but the 76ers were strangely ambivalent. "We never could get comfortable with that draft," says Pat Williams, who was then in his final days as the 76ers GM. "We thought Daugherty was soft. And Jack McMahon, our chief scout, didn't want Bias. I remember him saying, `There's just something about him I don't like.' And Jack just passed. Jack wasn't infallible, but he was pretty good, and I didn't usually question him on personnel matters."

The 76ers wound up trading the pick to Cleveland in exchange for Roy Hinson as part of a complete makeover that also included trading Moses Malone and other considerations for Jeff Ruland and Cliff Robinson. None of it worked out, because of injury. "It was the draft night from Hell," says Williams.

Was McMahon prescient? Was he on to something about Bias's nocturnal habits? We'll never know. He died in the late '80s without ever specifying his reservations about Bias.

Few others had doubts about Bias. Daugherty sure didn't. "The one thing I always think about is how he elevated when he shot his jump shot," says the long-time Cavaliers center, now an ESPN college basketball analyst. "He elevated higher than anyone I've ever seen to get off that shot. Most people, Michael Jordan included, might shoot on the way up, but not Lenny. Every jump shot was released at the peak of his jump. He had a great mid-range game. He was deadly from 8 to 15 feet.

"I remember a game at our place when Joe Wolf started out on him, and he couldn't do anything. Then Coach [Dean] Smith tried [7-foot] Warren Martin. Next he asked me if I wanted to try. He just took me outside. I was 4 inches taller, and I couldn't get near that jumper."

"He was a physical specimen," says Johnny Dawkins, the Duke assistant who was a high school and college contemporary of Bias. "He had a very soft jumper, and he got up so high, no one could affect it. He would have been a terrific player in the NBA."

A couple of guys down at Storrs, Conn., remember Bias very well. On Jan. 21, 1985, George Blaney put a Holy Cross team on the floor against Maryland. "He had a presence about him, and a capacity for taking over," says Blaney, now an assistant at UConn. "He sort of disregarded good defense."

Thirteen months earlier, Jim Calhoun's Northeastern team had likewise played Maryland. "We were real good, but he took over the game," Calhoun says. "He was bigger, stronger, and quicker than anyone we had. He was one of those rare guys you looked at and said, `You know, he is going to be special.' "

Ainge had played with Bias in Marshfield during the summer of 1985, and he knew.

"He was perfect for us," says the Celtics' basketball chief. "I was never so excited. With Kevin, Robert, and Larry, he would give us the perfect rotation. I looked at it as a great fit for him and the franchise."

Larry Bird was similarly smitten, declaring that he was so fired up by the pick that he was going to come back early to work with the kid.

To people in D.C. (Bias was from nearby Landover, Md.), the idea of Bias joining the Celtics was downright sinful. "Out of all the guys I saw at that time," says ESPN's John Saunders, then a sportscaster at WMAR in Baltimore, "Michael Jordan was the gold standard. But I thought Bias had a chance to be in that category. I know I definitely never saw anyone improve as much as he did during his years at Maryland."

"I saw great players from both the ACC and Big East every night," says Wilbon. "Jordan. Ewing. Mullin. Sampson. Later on, David Robinson. But Bias was the most awesome collegiate player of that bunch. That jumper was so pure. I mean, Michael Jordan, at that time, would have killed for that jumper. And Bias was 2 1/2 inches taller."

Bias was not only a great prospect but also the perfect prospect for the team he was joining. He could have played behind both Bird and Kevin McHale, and Auerbach believes that partnership would have been maintained for many years.

"He would have enabled them to cut back on their minutes and would have extended their careers," says Dawkins. "Losing him set the Celtics back for at least a decade."

One "celebration party" changed all that. Bias chose to commemorate his new life by partying with cocaine, and it cost him his life.

Everyone has a story.

The Globe's John Powers was in Washington to do a story with Bias the next morning. He tried the house at 9:30 to confirm an 11 o'clock appointment, but the line was steadily busy. At 10, Powers's wife, Elaine, called. What was the name of the player you're there to interview? "Len Bias," he told her. "Did he call?"

"No," she answered. "He's dead. It was just on the radio."

Daugherty was at Raleigh-Durham Airport, preparing to board a flight to Boston, where he would be signing a joint Reebok deal with his friend, Bias. He refused to believe it when the first two people he encountered told him Bias was dead and didn't believe it until he called their mutual agent, Lee Fentress.

"I remember his exact words," Daugherty says. "He said, `It's God-awful. He's gone.' I never got on that plane."

Auerbach got a call from Bias's coach at Maryland, Lefty Driesell, at 4 in the morning. Volk got a call from a Channel 4 assignment editor at 6:15 in the morning. Ainge heard it when he stopped for gas en route to a morning round of golf.

No one ever will know just who Len Bias really was. Some say he led a masterful double life. Daugherty swears Bias wouldn't even join him for a beer, let alone shove cocaine up his nose. Driesell's words during a pre-draft radio interview are still eerie:

"Leonard's only vice is ice cream," Lefty insisted.

Others say he had both good and bad acquaintances and that he knew both nice girls and naughty girls. But the one thing everyone agrees on is that he sure could play basketball.

Assuming the binge that killed him was an aberration, he is the ghost that haunts the Celtics to this day. If he was just another junkie, well, what difference did it make? But if he was just a happy kid who made one horrible, fatal judgment, then the Celtics were deprived of the perfect bridge player to get them out of the '80s and into the '90s. At the least, give them the '87 title, and say that the 1988 Finals with LA would have been an epic.

"You put an athlete like him in with a Larry Bird," says Krzyzewski, "and he would have made use of all his abilities. Bird wouldn't have seen him as a threat; he would have seen him as a treasure."

Bias's death did more than disrupt the Celtics, says Coach K. It affected all those who love the game of basketball.

"It hurt our sport," Krzyzewski says. "Above and beyond the loss of life, we never got to see one of those truly great ones become great."

But Len Bias never got to see 23, let alone 40.

Nice!

[dallaskd]

Shaun Livingston?

[jbspurs]

Billy Ray Bates Portland Trail Blazers

[mavs>spurs2]

People are forgetting about Malik Sealy, although I can't remember exactly how he died.

[ShoogarBear]

While it is sad when a player dies young or has a career-ending injury, that in and of itself doesn't mean he was destined for greatness.

Bobby Hurley?

[JamStone]

To me Bobby Phills death will always be a tragedy considering this guy was well on his way to becoming an all-star calibur player. In here we all rave about how great a defender Bowen is but believe it or not Bobby Phills was even a better a defender then Bowen. Thats how great defensively he was. I would watch games down here in Charlotte in which he would just shut out the teams top perimeter player just hold the guy below double digits or even scorless. He was truly amazing to watch on defense. Jordan even once said in the '98 playoffs that Phills was the toughest defender he had ever gone up against in his career. I remember the last game I saw of him was against the Lakers a few days before his death in which he held Kobe to 6-8 points. On top of that Phills had a good offensive game. To me his death will always be a tragedy because I just think he would have made a difference on a title contending team. He definitely had spurs material written on him I even remember AJ once tried to get him to sign with the spurs back in '97.

Bobby Phills was already 30 years old when he died. While a terrific defender and a good team leader, he was still nowhere close to being an all-star, nevermind even being in the conversation for "greatness."

Oh, and I looked up that game you talked about him shutting down Kobe. Kobe went 5 for 19 for 13 points. It's funny how as bad as that is for Kobe, a 13 point game for Kobe goes down as a memory of 6 or 8 point game. But, I guess for Kobe, it might as well have been 6-8 points.

[JMarkJohns]

If we're talking straight up basketball injury, then Kevin Johnson, pre-surgery numbers of 22 ppg, 11 apg, on 51% from the field in an era of great PGs, he was rated second or third best several times in his first five seasons.

Then he had knee surgery in three of the next four years, and while he had some very good numbers when healthy afterwards, he never came close to the dominance he had pre-injury. People forget, or never really knew, but in 92-93 when the Suns made the Finals, that was the first year of KJs injury. Had he been healthy like the year prior, who the hell knows.

That's the tragedy in this case.

BTW, KJs playoff numbers were better than his regular season numbers.

As for a real tragedy, then Bias is a great choice, Reggie Lewis is another good choice, while Drazen Petrovic and Bobby Hurly are others...

Hate to beat the Suns drum, but another, who's "greatness" is up for debate, but who was a fantastic player was Tom Gugliotta. When Randy Livingston kamakazi'd into his knee and just blew it the fuck out, it effectively ended the big man's career.

From 1995 to 1998, Googs averaged 18 ppg and 9 rpg. He was rewarded with a roster spot on the Olympic qualifying team in the summer of 1999, where hsi play was shortlived due to an inadvertant elbow from teammate, Jason Kidd, breaking his nose and being unable to compete for the remainder of the tournament. In December of 1999, Tom suffered a seizure after taking a vitamin suppliment. Later that year his knee was was introduced to Livingstons upperbody, starting a vicious cycle of rehab and failed comeback attempts because Googs ultimately suffered repeat stress fractures in his feet from all the rehab. During this sad process, his mother died from cancer and his wife divorced him.

Pretty shitty couple of years.

[ShoogarBear]

I'm not sure that "injury" = "tragedy".

If it does, then my pick is easy:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/images/top30spurs/MYSA021107.T30S.salis09.jpg

[LakeShow]

I probably should know who that is, but the name escapes me. Who is that Shoog?

[Condemned 2 HelLA]

Shaun Livingston?

Damn Clipper curse!!
:pctoss

[FromWayDowntown]

I probably should know who that is, but the name escapes me. Who is that Shoog?

James Silas. Unless Shoog thinks Gus Williams' career was cut short by injury.

[LakeShow]

James Silas. Unless Shoog thinks Gus Williams' career was cut short by injury.

Oh ok, I looked up James Silas and I couldn't find what injuries he substained to ruin his career. I did know Gus Williams but he didn't have a career changing injury, that I know of. I remember him sitting out a year because of his contract.

[RonMexico]

I'd put Kobe Bryant on that list - his ego and rape charges have cemented his status as 2nd fiddle to Shaq and left him with a 3-ring total... all before he was 25.

Grant Hill could be included, as well.

Wilt Chamberlain could have slept with at least a 1,000 more women if he didn't die so young.

[MrChug]

...Let's not forget Isaiah Rider.

Yes...LETS.

[RonMexico]

Harold Miner was Baby Jordan... I guess you could say he ruined his career by having no tangible basketball skills beyond dunking.

[ShoogarBear]

Oh ok, I looked up James Silas and I couldn't find what injuries he substained to ruin his career.Silas had two major injuries. The first was during the 1976 ABA playoffs after an All-ABA 1st year, when he broke his ankle in the first game of the series against the Nets, a series the Spurs would lose in 7 games.

He recovered from in time for the 1977 preseason (the first post-merger year), then injured his knee during an exhibition game and was out for most of the next 1.5 years. When he got back he was still pretty darn good, but never the same.

[ambchang]

I always loved Laphonzo Ellis's game, I am not sure he was destined for greatness, but he would definitely have been an all-star if his body held up. He was like a smallish, in his prime Shawn Kemp.

[Fillmoe]

drazen and len bias come to mind