She’s active with the Reggie Lewis Center. He really didn’t. She has no regrets for their actions after he collapsed on the floor during an April 29, 1993 playoff game. Reggie Lewis’s unmarked grave is between these two headstones at Forest Hills Cemetery. It still lingers with me, his passing.”. Mudge, 73, who recently retired from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, told the Globe, “It was a very complicated case. Volk said he is unsure what the Celtics could have done differently but the pain and heartbreak remains present.

In 1993, Dr. Gilbert Mudge and Celtics player Reggie Lewis held a news conference to discuss his diagnosis. And he was a very good defensive player. He worked hard to earn that position. “You know what that’s about, my children, you think about it, I was pregnant with my daughter and my son was 11 [months] and there’s been a lot from the time they were born and defending his honor and a whole lot of different things, but they really never got a chance to be a part of anything for him,” his wife, Donna Harris Lewis, now 53, said in an exclusive interview with the Globe. Reggie was the 6th Captain to follow Larry Bird. 12 to LaMarcus Aldridge. Information about your device and internet connection, including your IP address, Browsing and search activity while using Verizon Media websites and apps. You can’t for many, many years say a person has a normal athlete’s heart and all of a sudden, something happens. But on the night of May 2, Lewis, Harris Lewis and his agent arranged for the Celtics player to be discharged from New England Baptist and moved to Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Looking disoriented and confused, Lewis was helped off the floor and given a series of tests by team trainers. “It’s still weighs heavily on my heart, his passing, because he was so young and he was just reaching the mountaintop of his career. “That quiet confidence, I never knew where it came from, I really didn’t. The franchise, led by former Big East commissioner Dave Gavitt and general manager Jan Volk, was perplexed about the situation because of its seriousness and the possibility that Lewis’s career was over. Reggie Lewis played at Northeastern from 1983 to 1987. There’s a lot of conjecture as to the nature of the illness, the nature of the malady but whatever it was, it was inexplicable. Legal battles continued after Lewis’s death. Whatever. Those who knew him describe a man who was fueled by a quiet confidence but never felt above the common man.

Absolutely not true.”. Twenty years ago, Boston lost a son. Durant, who turns 28 in November, could carry on the tradition with honor. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Your Privacy Controls. 44. But then Lewis died suddenly, and the Celtics were sent reeling, making just one playoff appearance over the next eight years. Of course you try to do all you can to save a person’s life but at the time he really didn’t know or I didn’t know really what was going on. Durant will listen to the Celtics’ pitch when free agency opens on July 1. The Dunbar Poets featured future NBA players David Wingate, Reggie Williams, and Tyrone “Muggsy” Bogues as well as three other Division 1 players. “We had some outstanding student-athletes, and he would come to every practice and give his all,” Wade said. He was one of the nicest people you could ever meet.’’. It’s that simple. It’s hardly a fitting memorial for someone held in such high esteem and so sorely missed, but it will remain that way until it’s time for Reggiena Lewis to say goodbye and hello. . We can’t sit there and dwell on it. He was a unique, unique kid.”, Calhoun laughs loudly when asked for his favorite Reggie Lewis story. The ping-pong balls fell wrong, the Celtics ended up with the fifth pick, Durant went to Seattle, and Danny Ainge constructed the new Big 3. Perhaps it was his lack of playing time that benefited Jim Calhoun and his Northeastern assistant coach Karl Fogel as they passionately recruited Lewis after seeing him at a basketball camp before his senior year. His widow Donna Harris-Lewis, and son Reggie Jr. made the presentation.

You saw that ability.

The 24-year-old daughter of former Celtics great Reggie Lewis never met her father, born a few months after his tragic and untimely death 25 years ago.

sibling relationship with Lewis, Reggina (born 7 February 1994) Source Notes. 18 to Peyton Manning.

“You had a young man in the prime of his life, the prime of his career who was an elite athlete,” Volk said. Follow him on Twitter @GwashburnGlobe. It’s hardly a fitting memorial for someone held in such high esteem and so sorely missed, but it will remain that way until it’s time for Reggiena Lewis to say goodbye and hello. He served as the sixth man, a talented player who would deliver in clutch moments. So it was tough, because I knew my career could have been different. He ran his own foundation and always participated in community events that helped children in need. The struggling D.C./Baltimore area longs for him to return home, but Boston isn’t far and could serve as a close connection to the area. 35 in Oklahoma City -- the opportunity to honor the life of Reggie Lewis by wearing his retired No. Even though it worked out fine -- remember Banner 17? “He was a quiet person and very reserved and there’s no major surprise factor.It’s interesting because I see a lot of his qualities through both of my kids. There’s something poetic about even the thought of it. And the family of Celtics great Reggie Lewis just gave the school a $500,000 shot in the arm. You go through those moments and you’re kind of sad but at the same time, we are where we are and you do what you can do.”. With rumors swirling around the Celtics’ looming pursuit of Durant, Isaiah Thomas recently sent out a tweet with Durant's No. Yet, what is fresh in the minds of those who loved him, coached him, played with him, and guided him is Reggie’s smile, Reggie’s humility, Reggie’s work ethic, Reggie’s generosity, Reggie’s confidence, Reggie’s passion. 35 would stand as a symbol of the Celtics’ 70-year history. 35 will always belong to Reggie Lewis, but Kevin Durant is a player fitting to continue his legacy. But when he got his opportunity, he took advantage of it.”. “Northeastern tried to recruit him not because of what he is but what he was going to be. Lewis was the Celtics’ first-round draft pick out of Northeastern University in 1987, a year after the franchise tragically lost Maryland’s Len Bias to heart failure related to cocaine use just two days after he was drafted. Everybody learned some valuable lessons. Williams, Bogues, and Lewis were all taken in the first round of the 1987 NBA Draft. But he had it and it was rare and once he got his opportunity.

At a subconscious level, Durant is a reminder of Reggie Lewis. Reggie Lewis was the captain and leader of the Boston Celtics. “For Reggie, you could see some of those special things, the love for the game, incredible athletic talent and as he got stronger and better, he became a force,” Calhoun said. Durant isn’t just any NBA superstar to Celtics fans. July 27, 1993 still stands as a day that changed the lives of those close to Reggie forever, and the day the Celtics lost their centerpiece. “It’s always yesterday for me and I think it always will be,” said Harris Lewis. “It was quite an honor to have my child be recognized in this manner for the achievements that he had achieved in the short time,” Ritch said. The fans. Lewis would eventually break into the starting lineup in his second season and the small forward earned All-Star honors in 1991-92 when he averaged 20.8 points and shot a career-best 50.3 percent. That’s what he was told. Gavitt died in 2011. . The front office. “I don’t think it would take anything from Reggie because his number is still hanging up in the Garden,” Ritch told me over the phone. Lewis was excited about the possibility of playing again and also annoyed that the Celtics not only quickly diagnosed his ailment as career-threatening but also went public with their findings quicker than Lewis wanted. Reggie Lewis was just another skinny basketball hopeful when he was introduced to coach Bob Wade in the summer of 1981 after failing to make the varsity team at Patterson High School in Baltimore. The reflections on Lewis are kind and thoughtful. I know blame has been shifted towards Reggie and towards me but we’re not . You just try to figure it out.”. The tradition of being a Boston Celtic is second to none.”, In the private confines of the visitor’s locker room at TD Garden, the stories continued.

We all miss him.”.

Thanks for remembering him! The legacy. Like Lewis, Durant can score by shooting over the top or by dunking loudly at the rim. The news of 27-year-old Reggie Lewis's fatal heart attack on Tuesday, July 27, hit the citizens of Boston and the basketball community as a whole like a blow to the solar plexus—some kind of sudden pain that, in the days that followed, gave way to a gnawing emptiness brought on by memories and too many unanswered what-ifs. -- Boston’s feelings for Durant haven’t diminished.

35. The Broncos gave Frank Tripucka’s No. I remember talking to people [about] Reggie; there’s no better first step in basketball. It was there that Dr. Gilbert H. Mudge, considered a renowned cardiologist, insisted that Lewis did not have a career-threatening heart ailment and instead diagnosed him with a nonfatal condition called “neurocardiogenic syncope,” which can cause a decrease in blood pressure and fainting spells because of high exertion. I asked Lewis’ mother, Inez Ritch, how she’d feel if the Celtics asked for her blessing to offer No. “One does not expect an elite athlete to be so vulnerable as he turned out to be.

Reggie Lewis played in 450 games for the Celtics. We and our partners will store and/or access information on your device through the use of cookies and similar technologies, to display personalised ads and content, for ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development.

Fans still wonder what would’ve happened had the C’s won the lottery and landed Durant. You do your best.