Remembering Reggie Lewis – 20 Years Later

Reggie Lewis guarding Drazen Petrovic — two NBA stars lost too early.

Anyone who was a fan of the NBA in the early-1990s remembers all too well the immense talent and heart-breaking loss of Boston Celtics star Reggie Lewis. The quietly spoken, 6’7″ Lewis emerged from the shadow of Celtics superstars Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish to become the indisputable leader of the storied franchise.

Then tragedy struck.

20 years ago this week, Lewis collapsed and died of heart failure, whilst training at Brandeis University. It is hard to believe that two decades have already passed since Lewis’ rising star was stopped so abruptly and cruelly.

Comcast Sportsnet tonight is premiering a one-hour special documentary entitled Remember Reggie. This will no doubt be a touching tribute to the life and career of Lewis.

Many will speak not only of Lewis’ mild-mannered personality as one of the true “good guys”, but also of his amazing abilities on the court as one of the true rising stars of the game. You will hear much mention of the 1991 game where he blocked Michael Jordan four times. You will hear about how he rose to prominence on the Celtics as Bird was on the tail end of his career.

However the statistical line which sums it up for me is this from Jackie MacMullan’s fine piece at ESPNBoston.com (read it in full):

By the time he died, he was one of six players who, from 1988-93, posted at least 7,500 points, 1,500 rebounds, 1,000 assists and 500 steals. The other five – Charles Barkley,Clyde Drexler, Michael Jordan, Karl Malone and Chris Mullin – are all Hall of Famers.

We definitely lost one of the great ones. How good could he have become? We will never know. However, in losing both Lewis and Drazen Petrovic within less than two months of each other, the game of basketball was truly the lesser.

To paraphrase the lamentations of Lewis’ childhood friend Muggsy Bogues, we don’t know how long we’ve got on this planet, so let’s all appreciate it.