Former Wake Forest star and 12-year NBA player Rodney Rogers has died. He was 54.<\/p>\n
The school announced Saturday\u00a0that Rogers had died on Friday. Rogers \u2014 the No. 9 overall NBA draft pick in 1993 \u2014 had been paralyzed from the shoulders down since a dirt bike\u00a0accident in November 2008. Rogers died of natural causes linked to his spinal cord injury, according to a statement from the National Basketball Players Association on behalf of Rogers\u2019 family.<\/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 was the Atlantic Coast Conference Rookie of the Year in 1991 and Player of the Year in 1993 whose No. 54 jersey was retired by the Demon Deacons. The burly 6-foot-7 forward with powerful athleticism earned the \u201cDurham Bull\u201d nickname during his prep career, then went on to score nearly 9,500 points in the NBA while being named league Sixth Man of the Year in 2000.<\/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. The school honored him with its\u00a0Distinguished Alumni Award in 2022 along with an honorary degree.<\/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 released by the school. \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 the 1992-93 season that saw Wake Forest reach the NCAA Tournament\u2019s Sweet 16, before entering the NBA draft as a junior. He started his NBA career with the Denver Nuggets and went on to play with the Los Angeles Clippers, Phoenix Suns, 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 Wake Forest star and 12-year NBA player Rodney Rogers has died. He was 54. The school announced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,177184,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-357734","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-nba","9":"tag-rodney-rogers-dies","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}