Condolences go out to the Meminger family and the Marquette family following the passing of Dean Meminger, a member of the Marquette NIT championship team in 1970 and a former New York Knicks.
I had lunch with Dean in June at a Cuban restaurant in Yonkers, NY, and he was happy to take me up on my request to give a phone call to my dad, Bob, also a Marquette alum. We talked a little Warriors history, including how coach Al McGuire used to do scouting like this: He’s watch the other team in warmups, decide who needed to be defended the hardest, and let his game plan evolve from there.
Life is not always “seashells and balloons,” was an expression that McGuire liked to use, and it is something all of us should take to heart as this weekend begins.
Death brings grieving and pain, and if you have never experienced it, it is impossible to describe. You have to go through it to understand it, and you have to emerge from it. You go through stags of grief — anger, sadness, denial, bargaining and acceptance, and you never know which feeling will knock you for a loop on any particular day.
If you are a spiritual person, please say a prayer today for the Meminger family and for everyone else on this Earth who is grieving.
Thoughts and Prayers to the family, friends, and fans of former NBA player Dean Meminger. He was a great guy.
— Mark Jackson (@JacksonMark13) August 24, 2013
More on Meminger’s death from Jamie Schram of the New York Post, which reported that Meminger was wearing his 1973 championship ring when his body was found at a hotel in Harlem: “Dean “The Dream” Meminger, a key player on the last New York Knicks team to win a title, was found dead in Harlem of a possible drug overdose today — with his gold championship ring still on his finger, sources said. A fully-clothed Meminger, 65, was discovered on his bed in the Casablanca Hotel on West 145th Street near Broadway after hotel staff went to talk to him after he didn’t check out as expected, sources said. “There was white stuff oozing out of his nose,” one source said about the troubled ex-Knick. “Looked like he had a seizure after he was using cocaine, but the medical examiner will have the final say.” Meminger was a South Carolina native who grew up in New York, where he starred at Rice High School before earning All-America honors under coach and Queens native Al McGuire at Marquette. The defensive-minded point guard was a Knicks first-round draft pick in 1971 and played a key role in their march to their last championship in 1973, when he played along the legendary Willis Reed, Walt Frazier and Earl “The Pearl” Monroe. But he fell on hard times in recent years, nearly burning himself to death in 2009 in a fire in the Bronx rooming house where he was living while smoking crack. He spent four seasons with the Knicks and two with the Atlanta Hawks, and then bounced around several hoops jobs, including stints as head coach at Manhattanville College and the Albany Patroons of the Continental Basketball Association, where he was replaced by former teammate Phil Jackson. “Everyone at the New York Knicks organization is saddened to hear the news of Dean Meminger’s passing,” the Knicks wrote in a statement. “From the day he was drafted by this franchise in 1971, Dean was a friend and close family member of this team. On April 5, 2013, the 1973 World Championship team was honored at Madison Square Garden on it’s 40th anniversary — there was no one prouder than Dean to be back on the court with his teammates. We send our heartfelt condolences to the entire Meminger family.”
FRIDAY’s TWEET OF THE DAY: Steph Curry wishes his brother, and new teammate, a Happy Birthday.