Reggie Lewis

This article is about the professional basketball player. For American football cornerback, see Reggie Lewis (cornerback). For American football defensive lineman, see Reggie Lewis (defensive lineman). For other uses, see Reggie Lewis (disambiguation).

Reggie Lewis

No. 35
Small forward
Personal information
Born	(1965-11-21)November 21, 1965 Baltimore, Maryland
Nationality	American
Died	July 27, 1993(1993-07-27) (aged 27) Waltham, Massachusetts
Listed height	6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)
Listed weight	195 lb (88 kg)
Career information
High school	Paul Laurence Dunbar (Baltimore, Maryland)
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
NBA All-Star (1992) 3× America East Conference Player of the Year (1985–1987) Became the only player in Boston Celtics franchise history to have 100 rebounds, 100 assists, 100 steals, and 100 blocks in a single season. #35 retired by the Boston Celtics #35 retired by Northeastern University
Career NBA statistics
Points	7,902 (17.6 ppg)
Rebounds	1,938 (4.3 rpg)
Assists	1,153 (2.6 apg)
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.

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. 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, making him one of only two Celtics to have a retired number without winning a championship. 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 7 points and grabbing 4 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. 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.

Following Lewis' death, it was alleged that Lewis had used cocaine, and that drug use may have been a contributing factor in his death. While a doctor who performed the autopsy on Lewis testified that the scarring on his heart was inconsistent with cocaine use, two other physicians who conducted a post-mortem examination of Lewis' heart "found scarring that they described as 'consistent with a cocaine cardiomyopathy' -- a cocaine-damaged heart." Multiple physicians have expressed skepticism regarding the listed cause of death--"adenovirus 2 -- a common virus that causes the common cold." The Wall Street Journal reported that physicians "suspected that cocaine killed Boston Celtics star Reggie Lewis...but they were thwarted by actions by his family and a 'dismissive' policy toward drugs by the NBA." The Boston Celtics responded by expressing sadness about the "vicious attack on Reggie Lewis and his family," and threatened "to file a $100 million lawsuit against the reporter, the Wall Street Journal and its parent company, Dow Jones and Co. Inc."

After Lewis' 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, the Boston Indoor Games, home basketball games for Roxbury Community College, and Northeastern University track and field events.

On March 22, 1995 the Boston Celtics retired Lewis' jersey. Lewis had worn the number 35 for his entire career. During the ceremony, former teammate Dee Brown made a speech while two other former teammates, Sherman Douglas and Xavier McDaniel, held up Lewis' framed jersey.

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