Jordan was about to win his fifth consecutive scoring title and his first NBA championship. On March 31, 1991, the Bulls strutted into the Boston Garden with a 53-17 record (they would go on to win 61 games). "I'm glad Reggie was my teammate, because he was one of them."
There were a few guys in the league I hated to guard because you didn't know what they were thinking.
Was he going left or right? Would he shake you with that explosive first step and attack the rim, or would he suddenly pull up after one devastating dribble and hoist his trademark praying mantis jumper? On a night when Bird had his own shooting issues (he missed 21 of his 36 shots), Lewis scored 25 and utilized his lethal first step to keep Chicago's defenders guessing. Lewis blocked Jordan four times in that game and harassed him into a 12-for-36 shooting performance. "He was on his way to being one of the best 2-guards in the league," said Brian Shaw, his friend and former teammate.įor further evidence of what might have been, you need look no further than March 31, 1991, when Reggie Lewis did something I never thought possible: He completely and utterly flummoxed the great Michael Jordan. Reggie Lewis began his career in the shadow of Larry Bird but eventually established himself as an All-Star and Celtics captain. He left having scored 17 points in 13 minutes. He tried to return to action that night, but the Celtics medical staff pulled him again when he suffered dizziness and shortness of breath. When he finally stood up and headed for the bench, he looked perplexed - and frightened. He slashed to the hole, ripped away offensive rebounds and seized the game by its throat.īut as he was running down the left side of the parquet, he inexplicably stumbled, then fell. In the final game of his life, in the 1993 playoffs against the Charlotte Hornets and his childhood friend Muggsy Bogues, Lewis was electric in the opening minutes. He spent a lot of time improving his game.
REGGY GEAR HOW TO
"When Reggie first came into the league," Bird told me, "he really didn't know how to play the game. Reggie Lewis and his wife, Donna, were all smiles in May 1993 when his return to basketball was announced, but he died just two months later. He was evolving into a superstar before our eyes. In Game 4, he topped that with 42 points, six assists and five steals. In Game 3, with Bird unable to play because of back woes, he torched the Cavs for 36 points and seven assists. Reggie played in the shadows of Larry Bird, Robert Parish and Kevin McHale in his early Celtics years, but by his fifth NBA season, he was a dominant player, carrying Boston in the 1992 Eastern Conference semifinals against Cleveland. (In an ironic twist, Rolando's son, Jeremy Lamb, would later play for Calhoun at UConn). Reggie went 15-of-17 from the floor and was within seconds of a Sweet 16 berth before Rolando Lamb shattered Northeastern's dreams with a turnaround 17-foot leaner off an inbounds play as time expired.
There was the 1984 NCAA tournament game against VCU, when he was close to unstoppable. I had the privilege of watching Reggie accomplish some astounding things on the basketball court. The other five - Charles Barkley, Clyde Drexler, Michael Jordan, Karl Malone and Chris Mullin - are all Hall of Famers. "Just waiting my turn."īy 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. "I'm fine," he answered, in his sweet, lazy Baltimore drawl. Midway through his first season in the NBA, I asked him how he was holding up. After breaking the Northeastern scoring record, he was drafted 22nd by the Boston Celtics but played only 8.3 minutes a game in his 1987-88, his rookie season. He initially went unrecruited by most Division I programs - except by dogged Northeastern coach Jim Calhoun, who saw something special in the slender, shy wing player. The Baltimore native was cut from his public high school team, rescued by famed Dunbar coach Bob Wade, but then asked to be a high school sixth man. Reggie had no choice but to learn to wait on greatness. His considerable skills were matched by a silent, patient resolve that served him well. His shocking death triggered unprecedented spasms of grief throughout Boston, where he left an indelible imprint on the inner-city kids he mentored, kids whose dreams were not unlike his own. When Reggie Lewis collapsed and died on July 27, 1993, at the age of 27, he was already a husband, a father, a community leader, an NBA All-Star and a Celtics captain. Twenty years later, we still ponder what might have been.
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