RIP Sean Rooks

[Riptide]

Didn't see this one posted. Gone at 46.

Hours after interviewing for an assistant-coaching job with the New York Knicks on Tuesday, former NBA center Sean Rooks collapsed and died in a Philadelphia restaurant.

Rooks, considered a warm and engaging gentleman within the basketball community, had been a player-development coach for the past two years with the Philadelphia 76ers.

Sean Rooks dies hours after Knicks meeting

 

[old_tony]

Steve from New York weeps in the afterlife.*

* -- Steve from New York was for some reason a huge Milwaukee Bucks fan living in New York. He continually called our office on the 800 number trying to get any and all information he could on the Bucks. Leading up to the draft in the year Rooks was drafted, he continually asked "What about this Seen Rook" -- pronouncing Sean as "Seen." Steve also used to call the AP Sports offices in New York when I was working there in 1984 to ask about the Bucks. Often he would call from a pay phone in a subway station. You could hear the trains coming in and going out.

Sadly, Steve passed away about 10 years ago. But any time Sean Rooks came up in the office, everyone pronounced it "Seen."

 

[CD Boogie]

What's the life expectancy of a seven-footer? The heart has to work overtime to keep a big body like that functioning. I saw Kareem in an airport about a month ago and he looked great, but he's always been lithe and wasn't into partying. Conversely, if Shaq makes it to 50, I'll be amazed, sorry to say.

 

[old_tony]

Hah! Found a column that mentions "Steve from New York," from 32 years ago.

The Milwaukee Journal - Google News Archive Search

 

[dixiehack]

Steve from New York ... calls up sportswriters so often that you would think he worked for a collection agency.

The more things change ...

 

[swingline]

I don't have a Seen Rooks story, but one of the scoretakers at a job many years ago called a coach and asked for Sea Moose. Coach's name was Seamus, of course.

 

[MileHigh]

This one hits close to me because I've known Sean for 30 years, my sophomore year in high school. We went to the same high school and graduated in the same class. My brother, a year younger, played on the high school basketball team with him. I was the sports editor for the school paper and the stat keeper for the basketball team, so I saw all of his high school games.

One of the nicest, uplifting, positive people I've known. He never big-timed you and we kept in touch over the years on Facebook. Lots of outpouring from my former classmates on Facebook this week. We grew up in a one high school town that was pretty close-knit. It wasn't small, but it felt that way. And seeing people remember Sean was uplifting in a dark week.

RIP, big guy.