These tragic NBA moments have left a significant impact on basketball history!
Making a career as an NBA player is each young basketball player’s primary fantasy and goal. Your name in the NBA draft is one of the best things to experience as a player.
But even if a player has the best success in his career, everything can suddenly come to an abrupt halt. After all, we all know that there are many things that happen in life that we can’t control.
Researchers and physicians blame disorders like Marfans disease, Sudden Cardiac Death, and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy as the biggest reason behind NBA players who died on the court.
No one, not even the best athletes around the world, can win a battle against death, right? On that note, let’s take a look at 8 tragic NBA moments that shocked the basketball world when players died on the court.
Conrad McRae (January 11th, 1971- July 10th, 2000)
Conrad McRae was a center who had blackouts during many games. Doctors even encouraged him to quit the game. But more than anything else in the world, he wished for an NBA career.
On July 10th, 2000, he passed away from a heart attack while playing ball for Orlando Magic as a free agent. He was only 29 years old. All the Summer League team players were running side-line sprints when McRae, who was also practicing, suddenly collapsed.
He was instantly rushed to the Irvine Regional Hospital and Medical Centre, where many efforts to revive him were in vain, and he was declared dead an hour later.
The medical documents obtained from this tragic NBA moment made it apparent that he had a long history of irregular heartbeat, a condition called idiopathic hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. It meant that he had an enlarged heart, and it likely caused his sudden demise.
Reggie Lewis (November 21st, 1965-July 27th, 1993)
In 1993, Reggie Lewis took the Celtics in the playoffs against the team Charlotte Hornets. On April 29th, during the first game, he met with a tragic NBA moment when he displayed a heart issue that was previously undiscovered.
He passed out on the court and, after regaining consciousness, showed dismaying dizziness and signs of confusion. Even though he shortly returned to the game later, he was pulled out pretty fast when he floundered to keep up with other players.
So, he missed the rest of the playoff. His team lost 1-3 in that playoff series. On July 27th, he restarted his training.
At Northeastern, his previous university, he performed many jump shots and passed out again. Sadly, he went into cardiac arrest and couldn’t survive the heart attack.
Pistol Pete Maravich (June 22nd 1947-January 5th 1988)
What Pete Maravich and Kobe Bryant had in common was that both were game-changers, groomed by demanding fathers, were very special while very young, performed at incredible levels, and earned a space on the wall in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Interestingly, their final resting places are only 20 miles apart. Nevertheless, the difference in the public reaction to these two tragic NBA moments was big enough to fit their combined scoring averages.
So what happened to Pete? Even though NBA legend Pistol Pete had entered retirement, he was still actively playing basketball with his friends.
In 1988, the five-time NBA All-Star unfortunately met his untimely death after suffering a heart attack during a three-on-three pickup game at the Pasadena First Church of the Nazarene gym.
Zeke Upshaw (May 27th, 1991-March 26th, 2018)
Zeke Upshaw, a swingman for Grand Rapids Drive of the NBA G League, took his last breath on March 26th, 2018, at 11:16 am. He collapsed on the court during the final seconds of a game.
This tragic NBA moment led to him being immediately put on a stretcher and taken to Spectrum Hospital. He was 26 years old and passed away two days after he collapsed on the court.
So what exactly happened to him? On Saturday night, Zeke was on defense during the game and was coming out of a timeout. He was seen tripping over himself while chasing a Long Island Nets player across the court.
There’s even a video of the collapse of Zeke, which shows him face down and motionless after passing out on the court, and it’s terrifying. A referee stopped the game instantly, and the team’s medical personnel leaped to action.
Not all died on the court, though. Continue reading to see the tragic NBA moments that happened when players were still active:
Malik Sealy (February 1st, 1970 to May 20th, 2000)
New York native Malik Sealy graduated from St. John’s University. After his college basketball career, he played eight NBA seasons, his last two being with the Minnesota Timberwolves. The 6.6 foot-tall forward was the Indiana Pacers’ first-round draft pick back in 1992.
After playing 3 seasons with the Pacers, he did two years with the LA Clippers before a one-year stint with the Pistons in Detroit. On May 20th, 2000, Sealy was driving home from friend and teammate Kevin Garnett’s 24th birthday.
It was around 4 in the morning when a tragic NBA moment happened. A Dodge pickup struck his Range Rover head-on. Sealy passed away in a Minneapolis suburb, letting his name be alongside deceased NBA players who shared the same fate.
Sealy, who passed away at 30 years old, is survived by his his son, Malik Remington and wife, Lisa.
Len Bias (November 18th, 1963 – June 19th, 1986)
Many years have passed since Len Bias’s death, a rising young player who was already drafted with the 2nd pick overall by the Celtics in the 1986 Draft. The Boston Celtics thought Bias was their future, and they often compared him to Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson.
That wasn’t a wrong prediction, though, since Bias was an All-American at Maryland. The 6 foot 8 inch, 195-pound forward averaged 23.2 points and 6.8 rebounds per game during his college career.
Two days after being drafted, Bias celebrated hard… A bit too hard, apparently, leading to a tragic NBA moment. He went to the campus around 10 pm on June 18th and became a party animal with some very dangerous narcotics.
Rumors have it that Bias and his friends David Gregg, Terry Long, and Brian Lee Terrible loaded up on cocaine from 3:30 am to 6:15 am Bias passed away from a drug overdose that same day.
Jason Collier (September 8th, 1977 to October 15th, 2005)
Jason Collier started his basketball career at Georgia Tech and went on to play professionally for the Atlanta Hawks for two years after being three years with the Rockets in Houston.
The Milwaukee Bucks chose him in the 2000 NBA Draft and traded him to the Rockets soon after. He was a starter for 44 games for Atlanta in 2004-05, but his most promising year was 2003, in which he averaged 11.3 PPG and 5.6 RPG.
The center was a second-team all-conference choice for the Yellow Jackets in the 98-99 and 99-00 seasons. While in college, he gathered a scoring average of 17.1 points and 8.3 rebounds throughout 55 games.
But sadly, in 2005, Jason Collier passed away from a sudden heart rhythm disturbance due to an abnormally enlarged heart. A tragic NBA moment ensued when he died after having trouble breathing at home.
Eddie Griffin (May 30th, 1982 to August 17th, 2007)
Eddie Griffin started out his basketball career with the Houston Rockets in 2001. The power forward had turned to alcohol after leaving college, and that ended up costing him several suspensions by the NBA.
For instance, Griffin was suspended for five games for violating the anti-drug program. More severe penalties included Griffin being waived in March for violating that same regulation.
In 2007, he ignored a railroad warning and, in a tragic NBA moment, drove his car past a barrier and crashed into a moving train. His car caught on fire and shortly after exploded.
The fire burned his body so severely he couldn’t be recognized. Police managed to identify him via dental identification. He’s survived by his daughter Amaree.
What do you think about these tragic NBA moments? Please feel free to share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.
And if you found this story interesting, we recommend you also read: 10 Unsolved Hollywood Deaths That Still Give Us Chills
