Alec Kessler, former Miami Heat player, dies at 40

[spurscenter]

seriously, check your self.

he was too young



Alec Kessler, former Miami Heat player, dies at 40
October 14, 2007

Alec Kessler, left, shakes hands with NBA commissioner David Stern at the NBA draft in New York on June 27, 1990. Kessler, a University of Georgia basketball star who played four seasons for the Miami Heat before becoming an orthopedic surgeon, died after collapsing during a pickup game. He was 40. He appeared to have had a heart attack Saturday, Oct. 13, 2007, in Pensacola, Fla., and was pronounced dead a short time later at Gulf Breeze Hospital, the university said Sunday.

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) -- Alec Kessler, a Georgia basketball star who played four seasons for the Miami Heat before becoming an orthopedic surgeon, died after collapsing during a pickup game. He was 40.

He appeared to have had a heart attack Saturday in Pensacola, Fla., and was pronounced dead a short time later at Gulf Breeze Hospital, the university said Sunday.

Kessler, 6-foot-11, was the captain of Georgia's 1990 Southeastern Conference championship team and became a first-round NBA draft pick.

When Kessler enrolled at Georgia in 1985, he was a little-known recruit with few offers from Division I schools. After a redshirt season, he spent one year as a backup before blossoming for the Bulldogs.

During his senior season, Georgia won its only SEC basketball le. In his last college game, Kessler became the Bulldogs' career scoring leader with 1,788 points, a mark surpassed the following year by Litterial Green.

Kessler was drafted No. 12 overall by the Houston Rockets, who promptly traded him to Miami. During his time with the Heat, he averaged 5.2 points and 3.6 rebounds. After leaving the NBA he began a career in medicine.

"The thing I remember with Alec was he was so absorbed with his future," Heat trainer Ron Culp told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. "He always sat in the back of the airplane and the entire plane would be darkened except for Alec, and he would always be reading his medical books."

"It didn't matter if he had played that night," Culp added. "And he would always be coming in the training room and questioning the training staff and medical staff and our doctors."

Kessler was an orthopedic surgeon in Pensacola. He graduated from Georgia with a microbiology degree and from the Emory School of Medicine in 1999.

Kessler, whose brother Chad played at Georgia from 1984-87, is survived by his wife, Rhea, and sons Nicholas and Christopher.

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This starting lineup upfront is huge as Zidek is a seven-footer, Mackey is 6’10 and Kessler is 6’11.

It’s pretty scary to think if one of these guys were to be labled as a ‘pure scorer’ no doubt it would be Kessler.

Since coming into the league Gilbert Arenas has seen his scoring average increase each season. Kessler did the same thing just going the opposite way.

During his rookie campaign, Kessler was part of the Heat’s rotation and poured in a career high 6.2 points per game. From there his scoring average dipped: 5.3, 3.9. 2.2.

His final season was in 1994, and to think Miami had Kessler, Rony Seikaly, Matt Geiger, Manute Bol, Harold Miner AND Bimbo Coles that year.

Absolutely my favorite six-pack of NBA players ever, no team at any time could be as legendary as the ’94 Heat.

[1Parker1]

Wow he became an orthopedic surgeon after playing in the NBA? Impressive.

RIP

[lefty]

That's very sad.

RIP

[boutons_]

Heart disease is scary stuff. Here's a professional athlete and doctor with no restrictions, financial or otherwise, to the best health care, at his fingertips, but dies of unknown/undetected heart disease. What a waste.

I wonder if he was like so many other ex-NBA big men, over-weight in the high 200's or over 300 pounds.