1) Len Bias, 1986

It’s a name that can still simply be spoken and elicit a guttural response, and possibly tears in the eyes of grown men. We’ve long since passed the 10th, 20th and 30th anniversaries of Bias’ death. Surely the 40th in 2026 will provoke a new round of awed tributes, caterwauling, and continued controversy. There’s some basic sociological edits regarding our reaction to the death of someone famous. If they’re old we overstate their accomplishments and if they’re young we overstate their potential. We also don’t speak ill of the deceased, at least not for a while. When Bias passed away at the age of 22, his capacity for greatness had to be instantly exalted as limitless. Polite societal regulation was followed. So why was his name also immediately dragged through the mud? The stigma of drug use, especially a drug like crack cocaine with its “Black” connotations, was heightened to a fever pitch in 1986. The War on Drugs was declared in America in 1971, but it was Bias’ overdose 15 years later that pushed it into the public consciousness in a way that was impossible to ignore and caused untold amounts of damage to millions of Americans caught up in its wake. It’s therefore difficult to separate Bias the symbol from Bias the man, but Bias the player truly was an incredible basketball talent. He dominated the ACC in his junior and senior seasons at Maryland, and people at the time (not just in retrospect) were comparing him to Michael Jordan in terms of stature. We’ll never know, of course, just how good Bias would have been with the Celtics but we’re all too aware of the legacy his death still carries, both good and bad.

2) Bobby Phills, 2000

One un-drafted, the other a second round pick, both CBA retreads that clawed their way up to the NBA, Phills and David Wesley became fast friends when they teamed up on the Hornets in ’97-’98. Each had found their ideal niche at age 30. Phills was a solid all-around defender and long range shooter, while Wesley was a play maker on offense and a constant steal threat with his quick hands on defense. The Hornets were certified Eastern Conference title contenders at the midway point of the ’99-’00 season but a six game losing streak concerned coach Paul Silas, who called an impromptu shoot-around for the morning of January 12th. Phills and Wesley decided to grab breakfast afterwards together, a traditional post-shoot-around activity for them. It’s still unclear what happened next. Police claim the pair were racing in their cars, which Wesley continually has denied. Either way, they were both speeding when Phills lost control of his vehicle, swerving into oncoming traffic and crashing into another car. The other driver and several bystanders suffered only minor injuries but Phills was killed almost instantly. He left behind a wife and two young kids, and an educational awareness foundation that his father took over and still manages. Dismayed and grief-stricken, his Hornets teammates recovered well enough to make the playoffs but bowed out in the first round. Wesley escaped charges of street racing but was found guilty of reckless driving. He was never quite the same player but did last seven more seasons, most of them with the Hornets. Charlotte retired Phills’ #13 jersey just a month after the accident.

3) Terry Furlow, 1980

Considering the bacchanalia that surrounded the NBA in the late ’70s and early ’80s, it surprising there aren’t more cases like Furlow’s, whose death sounds like something out of a VH1 “Behind the Music” or a cautionary after-school special. A native of Flint, Michigan and a hometown star at Michigan State, Furlow was a first round pick of the 76ers in 1976. Initially stuck on the depth chart behind Julius Erving, he eventually found more playing time in later stops with the Cavaliers, Hawks, and Jazz, averaging a career high 13.9 points per game in his final season, ’79-’80. With his Jazz team missing the postseason, Furlow traveled to Cleveland in late May for a former teammate’s birthday party. It was there that he crashed his car on the interstate, colliding with a steel pole and dying instantly at age 25. Traces of cocaine and Valium were found in his bloodstream, a revelation that shocked friends and family and served as another black eye for the NBA. In that same year, Bernard King was arrested for drunken domestic violence, Spencer Haywood was kicked off the Lakers for repeatedly showing up to practice hungover, Eddie Johnson was arrested for driving under the influence of cocaine, and former All-Star Marvin Barnes was discovered to be drug addicted and homeless on the streets of San Diego. Furlow’s tragic death didn’t do much to stem the drug use and alcoholism running rampant through the league but he was fondly remembered by family, friends, teammates, and coaches, who still often visit his Flint grave as a pilgramige.

4) Reggie Lewis, 1993
5) Jason Collier, 2005

Shock waves reverberated throughout the sports world in March of 1990 when Loyola Marymount All-American Hank Gathers fainted on the court and soon after died due to complications from a rare heart disorder. His family successfully sued the university and the team’s doctor but little to nothing was done by the NCAA or NBA in terms of regulations and research to prevent future similar incidents. Three years later there was Lewis, a 27-year-old breakout star with the Celtics, passing out during a playoff game. He was diagnosed as cardiomyopathic, meaning that strenuous exertion could prove fatal and his basketball career should be over. But Lewis was able to seek a second, more benign opinion, granting him license to continue his career. Just a few months later he was dead, collapsing on the court during an off-season workout and unable to be revived. Things proved even more problematic when autopsy results showed controversial evidence that Lewis may have caused the heart irregularity himself through cocaine use (this was never fully proven or dismissed. The doctors that alleged evidence of cocaine abuse were immediately threatened with lawsuits by Lewis’ family and the Celtics and dropped their investigation). Though Lewis’ death did increase awareness of heart conditions inn young athletes, the issue remained prevalent for years. Case in point is Collier, a center for the Hawks who passed away in the 2005 offseason, with autopsy results showing an abnormally enlarged heart that should have been diagnosed in previous physicals. Eventually, the NBA and most major pro sports added checking for abnormal heart conditions as a key component of player physicals, one that has saved many lives.

6) Eddie Griffin, 2007

It was all too apparent in retrospect that Griffin never wanted to be a basketball star. Even more sadly, he never really seemed to desire being alive at all. Just after being named Parade Magazine’s prep player of the year, Griffin was involved in an altercation at his Philadelphia high school and expelled. Then, at Seton Hall, he punched a teammate during practice, allegedly for not passing enough, and left school after just one season for the NBA Draft. Despite his obvious temperamental issues, Griffin was so undeniably talented that the Nets drafted him #7 overall in 2001 and then traded him to the Rockets for a package of three other first round picks. He was named 2nd-Team All-Rookie and put up decent stats in his first two seasons in Houston but off-court problems quickly compiled. In just those two years, Griffin was arrested for marijuana possession, for an alleged assault, and for firing a warning shot with his gun at his girlfriend. He also had a habit of missing practices and team flights and when the Rockets waived him during the ’03-’04 season, he checked into the Betty Ford Clinic. He signed with the Nets upon emerging from rehab but was cut before ever playing in New Jersey after an incident in which he drunkenly crashed a wedding reception and accosted the newlyweds. Timberwolves general manager Kevin McHale opted to take on Griffin as a reclamation project, signing him to the team and assigning Kevin Garnett to mentor him. But this only lasted so long, as Griffin was waived again in 2007 following a drunk driving incident.  This may have been the final straw that sent his life into a terminus spiral. In August of 2007, he was three times over the legal alcohol limit when he crashed his vehicle into the side of a moving train. It’s unclear whether it was an elaborate suicide (no note was left) or simply a drunken accident, but either way it was a convergent finish to a tragic life and career.

7) Wendell Ladner, 1975
8) Nick Vanos, 1987

To this day, no major pro sports team in America has been involved in a fatal plane crash while traveling to or from a game (there have been multiple incidents with NCAA teams, most notably Marshall football in 1970). However, active pro athletes passing away in a plane crash has been an occasional occurrence, with the most notable case being Roberto Clemente. Ladner was recovering from a leg injury in the 1975 offseason when he visited his parents in Mississippi. His flight back home to New York was the infamous Eastern Airlines Flight 66, which was the deadliest commercial air crash in U.S. history at the time, killing 112 passengers and crew (there were 11 survivors), including Ladner. His body was quickly identified by authorities because on his finger was an ABA championship ring, earned in ’73-’74 with the New York Nets. A stout enforcer at both forward positions, Ladner had just finished his fifth season in the ABA, making two All-Star appearances and also playing in the 1973 Finals with the Kentucky Colonels. Twelve years later, an even more deadly commercial flight claimed the life of an NBA player. Vanos, a 7’1″ center, was about to enter training camp for his third season with the Suns when he visited his fiancee’s parents in Detroit. The flight home to Phoenix crashed immediately upon takeoff, killing 156 crew members and passengers and leaving a sole survivor (a four-year-old girl, who went public with her story as part of a 2013 documentary). Vanos’ #32 jersey was soon after the first ever retired by his alma mater, Santa Clara, which he left as the school’s all-time leading shot blocker. A memorial to the crash victims was erected at the impact site, and a pair of college scholarships for Phoenix students were established by the Suns in Vanos’ name.

9) Malik Sealy, 2000

When Kevin Garnett was traded to the Nets in 2013, he got to wear the jersey #2 for the first time in his career. It was chosen in homage of his former teammate and best friend Sealy, who was donning the #2 jersey for the Timberwolves during the ’99-’00 season when he was killed in a car accident. The incident was especially harrowing for Garnett as it occurred following a birthday party for him in downtown Minneapolis. While driving home, Sealy was struck head-on by a drunken driver, killing him instantly (he was not wearing a seatbelt). Named after Malik Shabazz, a.k.a. Malcolm X, for whom his father was a bodyguard, Sealy was a star at his prep school in the Bronx and then at St. John’s before getting drafted #14 overall by the Pacers in 1992. He played eight seasons in the NBA and was also a renaissance man, additionally pursuing interests in acting (he starred in the film “Eddie”), music production (he founded the New York based Baseline Studios, where numerous classic hip-hop albums were recorded, including Jay-Z’s “The Blueprint”), and the fashion industry (he designed and marketed his own line of ties). Garnett’s sartorial tribute to Sealy had to wait so long because the Timberwolves immediately retired his #2 jersey (Garnett additionally couldn’t wear #2 in Boston because it’s retired for Red Auerbach). Sealy’s memory is also honored by the Malik Sealy All-Stars AAU Program, a mentoring group established and maintained by his widow, Lisa. He is buried in Ferncliff Cemetery in New York, alongside his namesake and idol, Malcolm X.

10) Ricky Berry, 1989

In the summer of 1989, Berry seemed to have it all. He was young (24 years old), talented, bright, and making big money, having just finished his rookie season as a first round pick of the Kings. He came from a good home, with a father who was his coach at San Jose State, was a loving father himself to his three-year-old son, displayed no signs of depression, and mostly abstained from alcohol, let alone drugs. Then, one night he had a fight with his wife, who spent the night with a friend to cool off. When she returned to their idyllic home the next morning, she found Berry dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. A suicide note was left and though it has never been made public, it’s been reported that Berry cited his struggling marriage as the impetus of his decision. Already a seemingly star-crossed franchise at that point, the Kings fell into even further disarray after losing a player in Berry who was a terrific shooter and ball handler with the potential for an All-Star level career. Soon after his death, his #34 jersey became the first ever to be retired by San Jose State.

11) Drazen Petrovic, 1993

It’s quite possible that Petrovic wasn’t even aware of the NBA growing up in Yugoslavia in the ’70s, let alone the possibility of starting a career in it. But he did just that in 1989, joining the Trail Blazers three years after the team drafted him. His transition to the NBA from the EuroLeague was slow but steady and by ’91-’92, Petrovic was a star player, averaging 20.6 points per game for a Nets team making its first playoff appearance in six years. Meanwhile, his native country was crumbling, dissolving amongst a civil war in 1991, leaving Petrovic as a citizen of Croatia. He represented Croatia at the 1992 Olympics and led the team to a silver medal, scoring a game high 24 points in the gold medal match against the U.S. Dream Team. In the summer of 1993 he was in Berlin, suiting up for his national team in a series of qualifying matches for the FIBA European Championships, when he opted to catch a ride back to Croatia with his girlfriend. Petrovic was sleeping in the passenger seat when their car was struck on the Autobahn by a truck that had lost control and was killed instantly in the collision (his girlfriend and another passenger in the vehicle both survived with injuries). Tributes poured in from all over the world, including from his former Yugoslav teammate and estranged friend Vlade Divac, as was captured in the documentary “Once Brothers.” As much as Petrovic’s upbringing prevented him from being heavily influenced by the NBA, his own career continues to hold a legacy over international players, especially those from the former Yugoslav republics.