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| No. 35 | |
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| Small forward | |
| Personal information | |
| Date of birth | November 21, 1965 |
| Place of birth | Baltimore, Maryland |
| Nationality | American |
| Date of death | July 27, 1993 (aged 27) |
| Place of death | Waltham, Massachusetts |
| High school | Paul Laurence Dunbar (Baltimore, Maryland) |
| Listed height | 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) |
| Listed weight | 195 lb (88 kg) |
| Career information | |
| College | Northeastern (1983–1987) |
| NBA Draft | 1987 / Round: 1 / Pick: 22nd overall |
| Selected by the Boston Celtics | |
| Pro career | 1987–1993 |
| Career history | |
| 1987–1993 | Boston Celtics |
| Career highlights and awards | |
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| Career NBA statistics | |
| Points | 7,902 (17.6 ppg) |
| Rebounds | 1,938 (4.3 rpg) |
| Assists | 1,153 (2.6 apg) |
| Stats at NBA.com | |
| Stats at Basketball-Reference.com | |
Reggie Lewis (November 21, 1965 - July 27, 1993) was an American professional basketball player for the NBA's Boston Celtics from 1987 to 1993.
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Contents
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Biography
Early life
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Lewis attended high school at Dunbar High School, where he played basketball alongside NBA players Muggsy Bogues, David Wingate, and Reggie Williams. The 1981-82 Dunbar Poets finished the season at 29-0 during Lewis' junior season and finished 31-0 during his senior season, and were ranked first in the nation by USA Today.[1] Lewis attended Northeastern University in Boston. His uniform number was retired and hangs in tribute in Matthews Arena (the home of Northeastern University's men's basketball team and the Celtics' original home arena in 1946).
Boston Celtics
He averaged 20.8 points per game in each of his last two seasons with the Celtics, and finished with a career average of 17.6 points per contest.
His #35 jersey was retired by the Celtics as a memorial to him — one of only two Celtics to have a retired number but not a championship in the 62-year history of the franchise. The other was Ed Macauley, who did win a championship with the St. Louis Hawks in 1958 and is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
He was selected to play in his first and only NBA All-Star Game held in Orlando, Florida, 1992. He played 15 minutes, scoring seven points and grabbing four rebounds.
Death and legacy
Lewis suffered sudden cardiac death on the basketball court at an off-season practice on July 27, 1993 at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He was only 27 years old. Lewis had shown symptoms of heart problems in the preceding months (including collapsing during the opening game of their first-round playoff series with the Charlotte Hornets), and the cause of his death was subsequently attributed to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a structural heart defect that is considered the most common cause of death in young athletes.[2][3] James Crowley, a Brandeis University police officer who happened upon the gym on a routine patrol, and another Brandeis University police officer attempted to revive Lewis by using mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but they were unsuccessful.[4] Following Lewis' death, it was alleged that Lewis had used cocaine, and that drug use may have been a contributing factor in his death.[5][6][7] However, a doctor who performed an autopsy on Lewis testified that the scarring on his heart was inconsistent with cocaine use.[8]
After his death the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center was opened in Roxbury, Massachusetts. The center was funded partially by Lewis and routinely hosts major indoor track and field competitions, including the Boston Indoor Games, as well as home basketball games for Roxbury Community College and Northeastern University track and field. On December 28th, 1994 the Boston Celtics retired his jersey. He had worn the number 35 for his whole career. During the ceremony, former teammate Dee Brown made a speech while two other former teammates, Sherman Douglas and Xavier McDaniel, held up his framed jersey.
References
- ^ "Dunbar High: Brick House". SLAM Online. 2007-09-21. http://slamonline.com/online/high-school/2007/09/dunbar-high-brick-house/. Retrieved 2008-12-09.
- ^ "Did Reggie Lewis Have to Die?". Time. 1993-08-09. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,979014,00.html. Retrieved 2010-05-22.
- ^ Halley, Jim (2008-05-22). "Young athletes urged to get screened for heart trouble". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/preps/2008-05-22-lewis-screening_N.htm. Retrieved 2010-05-22.
- ^ Robbins, Liz (2009-07-23). "Officer Defends Arrest of Harvard Professor". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/us/24cambridge.html?pagewanted=all. Retrieved 2010-06-03.
- ^ "Report: Doctors Suspected That Cocaine Killed Celtics' Lewis". The Seattle Times. 1995-03-09. http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19950309&slug=2109213.
- ^ http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=3514
- ^ http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1999-02-07/sports/9902070005_1_lewis-cocaine-mudge
- ^ No signs of drug use, 1999-05-17.
External links
- nba.com/historical/playerfile
- http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=3514
- Remembering Reggie... on Celtics.com
- Reggie Lewis Statistics
- Deadly Silence: How the Inner Circles, Of Medicine and Sports, Failed a Stricken Star
- Reggie Lewis' doctor defends self
- Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center
- Photos
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