Former Clipper Rodney Rogers died Friday of natural causes linked to a spinal cord injury he sustained in a 2008 dirt bike accident. He was 54. <\/p>\n
Wake Forest, which retired his No. 54, announced his death Saturday along with the National Basketball Players Assn., which released a statement on behalf of Rogers\u2019 family. <\/p>\n
Rogers was the Atlantic Coast Conference rookie of the year in 1991 and player of the year in 1993. The burly 6-foot-7 forward with powerful athleticism earned the \u201cDurham Bull\u201d nickname during his prep career, then was drafted ninth overall in 1993. He played 12 years in the NBA, scoring nearly 9,500 points and being named league sixth man of the year in 2000.<\/p>\n
Rogers had been paralyzed from the shoulders down since his accident in November 2008. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe last 17 years have been both challenging and profoundly blessed,\u201d the NBPA statement said. \u201cThrough every moment, Rodney remained a light \u2014 positive, motivated, and full of the quiet strength that inspired everyone around him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rogers\u2019 injury led to the establishment of a foundation bearing his name, with Rogers encouraging people with spinal cord injuries while promoting resilience and personal growth in the face of those challenges. Wake Forest honored him with its Distinguished Alumni Award in 2022 along with an honorary degree.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Clippers forward Rodney Rogers has a few words for referee Leon Wood after getting called for a foul during a game in 1997.<\/p>\n
(Al Seib \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
\u201cRodney is the strongest person I have ever met \u2014 physically and mentally \u2014 and his resilience was evident in the fight he showed every single day,\u201d program great and former teammate Randolph Childress said in a statement. \u201cI\u2019ve said this before and I still mean it today: He was the best athlete ever to walk onto Wake Forest\u2019s campus. He meant so much to so many people, and I feel profoundly blessed to have been with him yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rogers played three years at Wake Forest, averaging 21.2 points in 1992-93 as the Demon Deacons reached the NCAA tournament\u2019s Sweet 16, before entering the draft as a junior. He started his NBA career with the Denver Nuggets before being traded to the Clippers in 1995 along with the draft rights to Brent Barry for the draft rights to Antonio McDyess and Randy Woods. Rogers averaged 12.3 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists in four seasons in L.A. before becoming a valuable reserve with the Phoenix Suns. He also played for the Boston Celtics, New Jersey Nets, New Orleans Hornets and Philadelphia 76ers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s easy to focus on his extraordinary talent, but what stood out to everyone who knew him was that he was every bit as remarkable as a human being,\u201d said Dave Odom, Rogers\u2019 coach at Wake Forest. \u201cHe loved his teammates, he loved his family, he loved Wake Forest and he loved the game of basketball. He loved playing for Wake Forest.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time we visited him, I walked away reminding myself never to complain \u2014 because he never did. He faced life exactly as it came and made the very best of every moment. He was a joy to watch as a basketball player, but he was an even greater man. He shared his strength, his spirit and his life with everyone around him.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the NBPA statement, Rogers is survived by wife, Faye; daughters Roddreka and Rydiah; sons Rodney II and Devonte; his mother, Estelle Spencer; and Eric Hipilito, embraced as a son by Rogers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Clipper Rodney Rogers died Friday of natural causes linked to a spinal cord injury he sustained in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[48,52,51,47,50,49,63,129,18158,39744,592,1417,39745,6523,39743,18785,4265,39742,3025,39741,72],"class_list":{"0":"post-66690","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-la","9":"tag-la-headlines","10":"tag-la-news","11":"tag-los-angeles","12":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","13":"tag-los-angeles-news","14":"tag-los-angeles-times","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-no","17":"tag-overall-nba-draft-pick","18":"tag-people","19":"tag-point","20":"tag-quiet-strength","21":"tag-resilience","22":"tag-rodney","23":"tag-rogers","24":"tag-school","25":"tag-spinal-cord-injury","26":"tag-statement","27":"tag-wake-forest","28":"tag-year"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}