Former NBA player Brandon Hunter, who had stints with the Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic before embarking on a long professional career overseas, died in Florida on Tuesday, officials said.
He was 42.
The Magic and Hunter’s alma mater, Ohio University, both announced his passing on Tuesday.
“We are saddened to hear about the loss of Ohio basketball legend Brandon Hunter,” according to a school statement. “Our thoughts are with Brandon’s family at this time.”
The cause of Hunter’s death was not immediately disclosed.
Hunter collapsed and died in Orlando on Tuesday morning, his former college coach Tim O’Shea said.
Even though his NBA career was limited to just 36 games for Boston in 2003-04 and 31 appearances for Orlando in 2004-05, Hunter leveraged his overall basketball experience into a successful career as an agent, helping place players on overseas teams, according to his former coach.
“For me it was incredibly rewarding to see how he matured as a person,” O’Shea told NBC News on Wednesday.
“He invested money wisely, he had real estate and some rental properties. He came from a very tough childhood so it was amazing to see how athletics can be a vehicle to change somebody’s life and he was a great example of that.”
After his time in Boston and Orlando, Hunter also played for teams in Greece, Italy, Israel and France.
The 6-foot-7 Hunter was a fierce rebounder and led all of Division I college basketball with 12.6 boards per game in 2002-03. He’s Ohio’s career leader in rebounds, collecting 1,103 boards during his four years in Athens.
Polly DeFrank contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
