A couple years back my mom was in her office and heard a song on the radio that she liked and asked the receptionist who it was. “Oh this is Wayman Tisdale, he’s absolutely my favorite musician.” My mom proceeded to tell her how nice a guy he is, having known him during his Indiana Pacer days. “Wayman Tisdale was a basketball player?!?” was the woman’s only response. She knew him only as the award winning jazz musician that he has become since his playing days ended.
It’s remarkable when you stop to think about the fact that a two-time All-American, Olympic gold medal winning basketball player who averaged over 15 ppg during his professional basketball career is so good at his post-basketball career that he’s now thought of first as a musician with his playing career a mere afterthought.
News came out today that Wayman had a portion of his right leg amputated to treat the bone cancer that he has been fighting for over a year now. Wayman was indeed one of the friendliest players I was around during my time as a Pacer ball-boy and when I ran into him in the airport a couple of years ago, he remained every bit as nice as he has always been.
With any luck this surgery will have eliminated the cancer from his body and he’ll be entertaining us as a smiling and talented musician for years to come. Good luck to you Wayman. Our thoughts and prayers go out to you and your family.
Image Source: NBA
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great player when he was on the kings…