WHAT’S going on, the late Grammy Award-winning Marvin Gaye would probably be wondering from his grave?
There’s just one death too many in the National Basketball Association family in recent days.
In a span of 11 days between February 18 and March 11, there have been four deaths by former NBA players, including three who, like King of Pop Michael Jackson, had ‘gone too soon.”
The four who crossed the Great Beyond during the period were Jerome Kersey, black pioneer Earl Francis Lloyd, Anthony George Douglas Mason and Christian Ansgar Welp.
Kersey, who earned an NBA championship with the San Antonio Spurs in the lockout-shortened 1999 season, died on Feb. 18. Lloyd, the first African-American ever to see action in the NBA, passed away on Feb. 26. Mason, an NBA Sixth Man awardee with the New York Knicks in 1995, died on Feb. 28. Welp, a native of Germany, breathed his last on March 1.
At the time of their demise, Lloyd was 86; Kersey 52; Mason, 48; and Welp, 51.
Kersey and Mason originally were drafted in the NBA by the Portland Trail Blazers.
Kersey was a second-round NBA draft selection in 1984 out of Longwood College in Farmville, Virginia (an NCAA Division II school at the time). The 6-foot-7 forward suited up for the Trail Blazers (1984-95), Golden State Warriors (1995-96), Los Angeles Lakers (1996-97), Seattle SuperSonics (1997-98), San Antonio Spurs (1998-2000) and Milwaukee Bucks (2000-01) in 17 NBA seasons with career averages of 10.3 points and 5.5 rebounds in 1,153 regular appearances.
Kersey reached the NBA Finals on three occasions – twice with the Trail Blazers (losing to Detroit in 1990 and Chicago in 1992) and once with the Spurs in 1999 when San Antonio beat New York for its first of five league titles so far.
It was a sudden death for Kersey. The Lake Oswego Fire Department responded to a call from Kersey’s home in Tualatin, Oregon shortly after 5 p.m. of February 18 and he was taken to the nearby Legacy Meridian Park Medical Center where he died.
Just days before his death, Kersey had undergone minor knee surgery. On the day of his death, he left the Trail Blazers’ Rose Quarter office because he did not feel well. Medical examiners linked his death to a blood clot that traveled to his lungs, causing a pulmonary thromboembolism. It could not be immediately ascertained if the surgery caused the clot that traveled to his lung.
Mason was a third-round NBA draft pick in 1988 out of Tennessee State. The 6-foot-7 forward saw action with the New Jersey Nets (1989-90), Denver Nuggets (1990-91), New York Knicks (1991-96), Charlotte Hornets (1996-98,1999-2000), Miami Heat (2000-01) and Milwaukee Bucks (2001-03) in 13 NBA seasons and posted career norms of 10.9 points and 8.3 boards in 882 regular contests. He made it to the NBA Finals in 1994 where his Patrick Ewing-led Knicks unit lost to the Hakeem Olajuwon-powered Houston Rockets in seven games.
The Miami-born Mason suffered a massive heart attack in early February 2015 and was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. He later succumbed to the condition, passing away on February 28 in Manhattan, New York City.
Lloyd became the first black to play in the NBA on October 31, 1950 when he wore the Washington Capitols uniform against the Rochester Royals (the predecessors of the Sacramento Kings). A 6-foot-5 forward known for his defense, Lloyd scored six points and pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds in a losing effort as Rochester secured a 78-70 home decision.
Aside from Lloyd, a product of West Virginia State College with the nickname “The Big Cat,” three other African Americans played in the same 1950-51 campaign – Charles (Chuck) Cooper, Nathaniel (Sweetwater) Clifton and Henry (Hank) DeZonie.
The rub of the league schedule made Lloyd the first black NBAer – just 24 hours ahead of Cooper’s debut with the Boston Celtics.
Lloyd and teammate Jim Tucker were the first African Americans to earn an NBA championship when their Syracuse Nationals (the forerunners of the Philadelphia 76ers) whipped the Fort Wayne (now Detroit) Pistons in the seven-game finals in 1955 (the first time the 24-second shot clock rule was implemented).
Lloyd was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003 as a player.
Welp, a 7-footer, was the first-round draft choice of the Philadelphia 76ers in 1987 out of the University of Washington. He played just three seasons in the NBA – the first two (1987-89) with the 76ers and the last in 1989-90 while splitting time with the San Antonio Spurs and Golden State Warriors.
Welp later continued his pro career in his native country, Germany; Greece and Italy before calling it quits in 1999.
Following his retirement, Welp lived in Seattle, Washington. He died of heart failure last March 1.