# Dave DeBusschere RIP

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dave-debusschere-rip/175265>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [May 14, 2003, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dave-debusschere-rip/175265 "2003-05-14T19:06:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Banger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@Banger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banger)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dave-debusschere-rip/175265/1 "2003-05-14T19:06:49Z")

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The Hall of Fame basketball player [dead at 62](http://www.nydailynews.com/front/breaking_news/story/83568p-76427c.html).

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**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dave-debusschere-rip/175265/2 "2003-05-14T19:17:45Z")

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Just emailed that to my father, a lifelong Knicks fan. Not the sort of news he needed, having just got done with some sort of medical procedure involving barium. Also an ulcer and that whole “half my back is metal”.

Sigh. Maybe it’s time to write that pit thread…

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**Author:** ![Banger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@Banger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banger)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dave-debusschere-rip/175265/3 "2003-05-14T20:25:21Z")

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The guy certainly lived an interesting life. Major league baseball player, youngest coach in NBA history, two time NBA champion, commissioner of the ABA, Basketball Hall of Famer… Of course, being too young to have seen him play, I’ll always remember him as the Knicks GM when they won the first draft lottery and drafted Patrick Ewing.

I met DeBusschere when I was a kid on a family vacation in Puerto Rico in the late 1980s. He was a very friendly and approachable person, as my dad, a longtime Knicks fan, kept bugging him with questions 🙂

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**Author:** ![Jerrybear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8c91f0/32.png) [@Jerrybear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jerrybear)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dave-debusschere-rip/175265/4 "2003-05-14T21:26:15Z")

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Dave DeBusschere was also a Detroit native, who played college ball for the University of Detroit (now Detroit Mercy) and began his pro career with the Detroit Pistons.

He also briefly played MLB baseball for the Chicago White Sox.

I just barely remember the end of his basketball playing career, as I was born in 1964.