Hawks' Jason Collier dies of possible cardiac arrest


Associated Press


ATLANTA -- Atlanta Hawks (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/clubhouse?team=atl) center Jason Collier (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3414) died Saturday morning, possibly of cardiac arrest, the team said. He was 28.
Hawks spokesman Arthur Triche said no other details immediately were available and did not say where Collier was when he died.
Collier experienced chest pains at his home Friday and his wife performed CPR and called 911, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Hawks players were notified of Collier's death at 9:30 a.m. Saturday morning before a scheduled workout was canceled, according to the paper.
The 7-foot, 260-pound Collier, a five-year NBA player, spent his first three seasons with Houston before joining Atlanta in 2003. He averaged 5.6 points and 2.9 rebounds in his career.
Collier played for Georgia Tech and was drafted by Milwaukee in the first round, with the 15th pick overall, in the 2000 NBA draft.

Wow so young to have died. He sure had a fast moving career though, didn't he?

7 feet tall? Good gracious! I'd probably come up to about his belly button. As it is, I only come up to about my hubby's mid-upper arm and he's 6 feet 4!

Geeeeez... 28 years old... that's just awful! My thoughts go out to his family and the team. :( :rose:

Wow, this is about the 3rd or 4th athlete over the past few years to do from a cardiac condition! My thoughts go out to his family.

I used to coach basketball (varisty assistant) for a small school in Cincinnati. We played his high school (Springfield Catholic) in the playoffs. It is very sad to see this happen.