Deaths
- January 29 — Kay Yow, Hall of Fame coach of the NC State Lady Wolfpack (born 1942)
- February 20 — Larry H. Miller, American businessman, owner of the Utah Jazz (born 1944)
- February 26 — Johnny Kerr, Former NBA player, coach and Chicago Bulls announcer (born 1932)
- February 26 — Norm Van Lier, Former NBA player and announcer (born 1947)
- March 13 — William Davidson, American businessman, owner of the Detroit Pistons and Hall of Famer (born 1923)
- April 4 — Marvin Webster, The "Human Eraser" was a 10-year NBA vet and Division II National Champion at Morgan State University (born 1952)
- April 27 — Glen Gondrezick, Former NBA and UNLV guard (born 1955)
- April 30 — Hal Perry, Starting guard on San Francisco's back to back national championship teams (1955 & 1956) (born 1933)
- May 9 — Chuck Daly, Two-time NBA Champion coach of the Detroit Pistons and coach of the 1992 US Olympic team (born 1930)
- May 15 — Wayman Tisdale, American player, member of the College Basketball Hall of Fame and 12-year NBA veteran; also a renowned jazz bass guitarist (born 1964)
- June 4 — Randy Smith, Former All-Star guard for the Buffalo Braves (born 1948)
- July 27 — Dick Holub, Former Fairleigh Dickinson coach and All-American player at LIU (born 1921)
- August 11 — Kirby Minter, American basketball player, MVP of the 1954 FIBA World Championship (born 1929)
- August 13 — Lavelle Felton, American basketball player (born 1980)
- August 17 — Paul Hogue, All-American and 1962 NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player at Cincinnati (born 1940)
- October 19 — Angelo Musi, NBA (Philadelphia Warriors) and ABL player (born 1918)
- October 23 — Ron Sobieszczyk, former member of the New York Knicks and Minneapolis Lakers (born 1934)
- October 30 — Howie Schultz, member of two NBA championship teams with the Minneapolis Lakers (born 1922)
- November 1 — Alan Ogg, former UAB and Miami Heat center (born 1967)
- November 9 — Al Cervi, Hall of Fame player and coach of the 1955 NBA Champion Syracuse Nationals (born 1917)
- November 18 — Red Robbins, Tennessee standout and ABA player (born 1944)
- November 24 — Abe Pollin, Owner of the Washington Wizards and Washington Mystics (born 1923)
- December 8 — Fred Sheffield, BAA player (Philadelphia Warriors) (born 1923)
Read more about this topic: 2009 In Basketball
Famous quotes containing the word deaths:
“I sang of death but had I known
The many deaths one must have died
Before he came to meet his own!”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“There is the guilt all soldiers feel for having broken the taboo against killing, a guilt as old as war itself. Add to this the soldier’s sense of shame for having fought in actions that resulted, indirectly or directly, in the deaths of civilians. Then pile on top of that an attitude of social opprobrium, an attitude that made the fighting man feel personally morally responsible for the war, and you get your proverbial walking time bomb.”
—Philip Caputo (b. 1941)
“As deaths have accumulated I have begun to think of life and death as a set of balance scales. When one is young, the scale is heavily tipped toward the living. With the first death, the first consciousness of death, the counter scale begins to fall. Death by death, the scales shift weight until what was unthinkable becomes merely a matter of gravity and the fall into death becomes an easy step.”
—Alison Hawthorne Deming (b. 1946)