Jason Collier dead

[Big John]

 

ESPN.com news services

 

 

ATLANTA -- Atlanta Hawks center Jason Collier died Saturday morning, possibly of cardiac arrest, the team said. He was 28.

 

Hawks spokesman Arthur Triche said no other details immediately were available and did not say where Collier was when he died.

 

Collier experienced chest pains at his home Friday and his wife performed CPR and called 911, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

 

Hawks players were notified of Collier's death at 9:30 a.m. Saturday morning before a scheduled workout was canceled, according to the paper.

 

"Jason and his family are first and foremost in our prayers during this difficult time," Hawks general manager Billy Knight said in a statement. ""Jason was a devoted family man who deeply loved his wife Katie, daughter Elezan (Ella), his parents and siblings. He was also a tremendous friend to the Hawks employees who spent time with him, and a hard-working and dedicated teammate to many NBA players over his five seasons in the league. We will truly miss Jason's personality and his spirit, and he will be in the thoughts and minds of our team and organization forever."

 

The 7-foot, 260-pound Collier, a five-year NBA player, spent his first three seasons with Houston before joining Atlanta in 2003. He averaged 5.6 points and 2.9 rebounds in his career.

 

Collier played for Georgia Tech and was drafted by Milwaukee in the first round, with the 15th pick overall, in the 2000 NBA draft. Milwaukee traded his rights to Houston.

 

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

 

 

Tim Legler on Jason Collier's death

The death of Jason Collier is a great tragedy for his family, the Atlanta Hawks and the NBA family. My deepest sympathies are with the Collier family. I remember when I played for the Washington Wizards during the 1996-'97 season and the team took a cruise together in early August. On the way back our assistant coach Derek Smith died of a heart attack next to me on the ship. Derek was a former NBA player who played 10 years and was an exceptional NBA athlete. After his death the doctors diagnosed he had an enlarged heart and was lucky to have played those ten years.

His death will cast a pall over the team for the rest of the season. This is already a young team and Collier was a popular player who had worked his butt off to get to the NBA. Even though coach Smith died in August and we had almost six weeks to our first game it was still extremely difficult to play and not think of the tragedy.

 

Losing coach Smith was unbelievably hard to deal with because he was such a great man and friend. He left a wife and two young children who were on the cruise ship at the time of his death. I'll never forget having breakfast with his children the morning after his death. It was one of the most heartbreaking moments of my life.

 

On the team the people feeling the loss the most will be Collier's closest friends. Everyday they are going to have to look over at his locker and the memories are going to start hitting them. It takes a long while for players to get over the passing of a teammate because teammates are like brothers. These are guys who are around you everyday and who see you at your best and worst. They hear your bad jokes, make fun of you and most of the time have your back. The loss of Collier is going to damage these kids for a long while because they've lost their brother.

 

Tim Legler, NBA Insider.

 

 

 

[seminoles]

i saw that on a break on college football. it is sad for someone so young to die.

Edited October 15, 2005 by seminoles

[Puddy]