Post by mexicanjunior on May 12, 2011 10:55:53 GMT -6
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1386183/Former-NBA-player-Robert-Traylor-dead-apartment-aged-34.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
Knew the name, he was a great player at Michigan and best known here for being traded on draft day for Dirk...IN!
Former NBA player Robert Traylor, who played seven seasons in the league and earned the nickname 'Tractor' due to his size, has been found dead in his apartment in Isla Verde, Puerto Rico.
According to local police the 34-year-old, whose body was found yesterday afternoon, died of a heart attack.
Most recently he had been playing for the Puerto Rican team the Bayamon Cowboys, and had last been seen on court on April 26.
One of Traylor's teammates, Orlando 'Guayacan' Santiago, told the Huffington Post that the player had recently complained of breathing difficulties.
Manager, Jose Carlos Perez added that Traylor - who was 6ft 8in tall and weighed around 300lbs for most of his professional career - had been out of the team due to injury.
He was a leader of the team,' Perez said. 'He was very, very friendly. He got along very well with everyone. The fans loved him, idolised him.'
Perez told local press that Traylor had been on the phone to his wife in Chicago when the connection was suddenly cut off. She called team officials who then checked on him.
Traylor began his basketball career playing for the University of Michigan in 1995, where he famously shattered a back board with the force of one of his slam dunk shots during a game against fellow university side Ball State.
He led the team to the National Invitation Tournament title in 1997 and was named the tournament's most valuable player.
The Dallas Mavericks selected Traylor in the 1998 NBA Draft and traded him to the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for players Dirk Nowitzki and Pat Garrity.
He also played for the Cleveland Cavaliers and New Orleans Hornets, and had been playing for a team in Veracruz, Mexico, before moving to the Puerto Rican squad in March.
Traylor, who had two sons, underwent surgery for an enlarged aorta in 2006 but since then continued his career, and had played in teams in Italy and Turkey,
Away from the basketball court, Traylor was one of the players who was implicated in a scandal involving the basketball booster Ed Martin.
Martin pleaded guilty to money laundering in 2002 and told the authorities that he had lent a combined $616,000 to Traylor and other former Michigan players Chris Webber, Maurice Taylor and Louis Bullock.
Traylor eventually received three years probation.
Knew the name, he was a great player at Michigan and best known here for being traded on draft day for Dirk...IN!
