The versatile guard starred in both North America and Europe.
Michael Ray Richardson, a four-time All-Star with the Knicks and Nets who starred in Europe after the NBA banned him due to his cocaine use, died of prostate cancer Tuesday. He was 70.in a social-media statement.
"Michael dedicated his post-NBA career to using his life story to teach life skills to young people." Born in Lubbock, Texas, Richardson—whose name was often rendered as "Micheal"—played collegiately for Montana. He made a trio of All-Big Sky teams for the Grizzlies and remains second on the school's scoring list. Drafted fourth by New York in 1978, he immediately established himself as a star by leading the league in both assists and steals in 1981. Two trades led him to New Jersey, where he made a fourth All-Star team in 1985 before a third positive cocaine test in three years resulted in a lifetime ban. "When you get like that, you lose all sense of yourself. You become a zombie. Your only thoughts are when you'll be getting high next and for how long. It's a parasite and you don't care about anything but pacifying it," Richardson wrote in Though he could return to the NBA after 1988, Richardson played the remainder of his career elsewhere, making a trio of All-Star Games in the Italian league. He laterPatrick Andres is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He joined SI in December 2022, having worked for The Blade, Athlon Sports, Fear the Sword and Diamond Digest. Andres has covered everything from zero-attendance Big Ten basketball to a seven-overtime college football game. He is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism with a double major in history .
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