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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- Former NBA and University of Michigan player Robert "Tractor" Traylor has died. He was 34.
Police in San Juan, Puerto Rico, said in
a statement he was found dead Wednesday on the bedroom floor of his
oceanfront apartment. Police and Traylor's team, the Bayamon Cowboys,
said he had been missing for a few days and apparently died from a heart
attack.
Cowboys team manager Jose Carlos Perez
told The Associated Press that Traylor had been talking by phone to his
wife in Chicago when the connection was suddenly cut off. She called
team officials Wednesday and they checked on him, Perez said.
The 6-foot-8, 300-pound Traylor was injured and had not been playing, the team said.
Traylor was drafted by the Mavericks
with the sixth pick in 1998, but they traded his rights to Milwaukee in a
major deal that sent Dirk Nowitzki to Dallas. Traylor played for the
Bucks in the first two seasons of a seven-year NBA career that included
stops in Cleveland, Charlotte and New Orleans.
"The entire Milwaukee Bucks organization
is saddened by the news of Robert Traylor's death," the Bucks said in a
statement. "Robert was a fierce competitor on the court who helped the
Bucks reach the playoffs in each of his two seasons in Milwaukee.
"Off the court he was a gentle giant,
displaying his smile and care, especially toward young people through
his involvement in school visits and his work with the Special Olympics
clinic."
He got his "Tractor" nickname in high
school for his girth, and although he eventually became a lottery pick,
he is best known for an eventful stint at Michigan that took place
shortly after the departures of Fab Five stars Chris Webber, Juwan
Howard and Jalen Rose.
Part of another highly touted recruiting
class that arrived in 1995, Traylor played three seasons with the
Wolverines. He was named the NIT's most valuable player in 1997 and
averaged 16.2 points and 10.1 rebounds the following season, when
Michigan won the inaugural Big Ten tournament.
"We are saddened to hear about the loss
of a former student-athlete, Robert Traylor," Michigan athletic
director Dave Brandon said. "Our sympathies go out to his family during
this difficult time."
Although he was productive on the
court, Traylor was one of the Michigan players whose ties to booster Ed
Martin resulted in NCAA sanctions against the basketball program.
He turned pro after his junior year, averaging 4.8 points and 3.7 rebounds in 438 NBA games.
Traylor had surgery on his aorta in 2005, the Bayamon Cowboys said.
"He was a leader of the team," said
Perez, the Cowboys' manager. "He was very, very friendly. He got along
very well with everyone. The fans loved him, idolized him."
The team suspended its game Wednesday night because of his death.
Traylor had been playing with a team in Veracruz, Mexico, before he moved to Puerto Rico in mid-March, Perez said.
"His game was one of a lot of strength, a lot of defense," he said.
Indiana coach Tom Crean, a former assistant at Michigan State, echoed those sentiments in a post on Twitter.
"At Michigan State we battled against
him and he might have been the most time-consuming and mind-challenging
matchup we ever faced and we as coaches weren't even playing. He had
great feet and hands and a very soft touch...You really had to have a
plan to stop him."
In 2009, Traylor was sentenced to jail
after violating conditions of supervised release related to an
income-tax case in which he acknowledged preparing a false tax return
that hid assets of a convicted drug dealer.
A judge had delayed the sentence so Traylor could play for an Italian team.
Detroit attorney Steve Fishman, a
friend of Traylor's who also represented him during his legal troubles,
said Traylor often worked with him at youth basketball camps.
"He was a gentle giant," Fishman told
the AP on Wednesday. "There were two things about him that really stood
out from other athletes of this day and age: He never complained and
always took responsibility for anything he ever did."
Fishman downplayed Traylor's size, saying the former NBA player was "just a huge person."
"If he starved himself in the Gobi Desert, he would still weigh 270 pounds," Fishman said.
Fishman said Traylor's aorta troubles were discovered during an NBA physical, causing teams to shy away.
The attorney also bristled at questions
about Traylor's connection to Martin, who died in 2003 after pleading
guilty to conspiracy to launder money. Martin had told federal
prosecutors that he took gambling money, combined it with other funds
and lent $616,000 to Traylor and other players.
"Any player that came from the
circumstances Robert Traylor came from would have taken money from Ed
Martin or anybody else," he said. "He was not a child of privilege."
Perez said Traylor's survivors include his wife and two sons.
