Four-time NBA All-Star Michael Ray Richardson, who was banned from the league for drug use, died Tuesday in Lawton, Oklahoma, at the age of 70 shortly after getting diagnosed with prostate cancer, his attorney and friend John Zelbst told Andscape.
«The basketball world and anyone Michael came in contact with lost a great sportsman,» Zelbst said. «He lived life to the fullest. He overcame the most incredible odds to accomplish what he did in life. He serves as an example on how to redeem yourself and make something of yourself. I think he is the greatest NBA player that has never been inducted into the Hall of Fame. Incredible player — player, person and family man.»
The Denver native starred at the University of Montana before being selected by the New York Knicks with the fourth overall pick in the 1978 NBA draft. «Sugar,» as he was nicknamed, had an eight-year NBA career with the Knicks, Golden State Warriors and New Jersey Nets, earning four All-Star selections while leading the NBA in steals three times. The 1985 NBA Comeback Player of the Year also averaged a career-high 20.1 points, 8.2 assists, 5.6 rebounds and a league-best 3.0 steals per game for the Nets during the 1984-85 season.
«He had it all as a player, with no weaknesses in his game,» former Detroit Pistons guard Isiah Thomas, a Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer, told Andscape in June. «He is the player who gave me the most problems playing against him. He was taller, just as fast and could shoot from 3 and midrange. His post-up game was elite. Offensively, he had it all.»
«Back when he played in the NBA, the best guards were Magic [Johnson] and then Sugar,» former NBA guard Quinn Buckner said.
Richardson, however, was banned from the NBA in 1986 for
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