Wake Forest University yesterday reported that one of their alumni, former NBA player Rodney Rogers, died on Friday at the age of 54.
According to a statement from the National Basketball Players Association, his death was due to natural causes linked to the spinal-cord injury he sustained in a 2008 ATV accident that had left him paralyzed.
Rogers was the ninth overall pick in the 1993 NBA Draft, selected by the Denver Nuggets following a standout college career at Wake Forest. He went on to play 12 seasons in the NBA, appearing in 866 regular-season games and averaging 10.9 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game.
Rodney Rogers, The Zion Williamson Of His Time
A versatile forward, whose athleticism of his youth evolved into becoming a big man who could stretch the floor before the wider adoption advent of such player types, Rogersâs NBA journey took him through seven teams. He began with the Nuggets, then was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers after two seasons, along with the draft rights to Brent Barry, in exchange for Antonio McDyess and the rights to Randy Woods at the time of the 1995 Draft.
After joining the Phoenix Suns as a free agent in the summer of 1999, Rogers would be dealt to the Boston Celtics as a part of the 2002 Joe Johnson deal, before concluding his career with short stints with the then-New Jersey Nets, Charlotte Hornets and Philadelphia 76ers. Rogers last played in the NBA in the 2004-05 season, when he was traded along with Jamal Mashburn from the Hornets to the Sixers in exchange for Glenn Robinson, and averaged 6.0 points and 3.7 rebounds with the Sixers in his final 28 games. He never played professional basketball again.
During his time in Phoenix, Rogers played two and a half of his most productive seasons. He won the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award in the 1999â2000 season, averaging 13.8 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 2.1 assists while playing all 82 games, and Rogers further played in 82 postseason games across the duration his career, posting averages of 7.9 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game. As an individual highlight, Rogers also famously once scored nine points in eight seconds, leading the Nuggets to an improbable last-minute comeback victory over the Suns.
Retirement And Accident
Upon retirement, Rogers began working as a heavy machinery operator in his home city of Durham, New Carolina, purely because he liked doing it, and got promoted to supervisor within short order. He was also doing some voluntary coaching for a girl’s team, and established a computer laboratory in a public housing complex. A particularly endearing line from his agent, James “Butch” Williams, said that Rogers took the job just because “he loves big trucks.”
Unfortunately, Rogersâ life took a tragic turn in November 2008 when he was paralyzed from the shoulders down following a dirt-bike accident and leaving him wheelchair-bound for the remainder of life. Among the many tributes that have pored in for Rogers, his former Wake Forest teammate and former NBA player in his own right, Rusty LaRue, called Rogers “as great a human being as he was an athlete”.
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