Former skilled basketball participant and govt Lance Blanks has died, the NBA stated Thursday.
Blanks died in Dallas on Might 3, the league stated in a information launch. He was 56 years previous.
Blanks performed faculty basketball at Virginia and Texas earlier than he was drafted by the Detroit Pistons in 1990. He competed within the NBA for 3 seasons for the Pistons and Minnesota Timberwolves earlier than enjoying abroad for an additional seven years.
He returned to the States and had plenty of front-office jobs, together with as a scout for the San Antonio Spurs, assistant common supervisor for the Cleveland Cavaliers, common supervisor for the Phoenix Suns — a job he stored for 5 seasons — and, most just lately, as a scout for the Los Angeles Clippers. He additionally labored as an analyst for ESPN and a commentator for the Longhorn Community.
He was on a scouting journey when he died, in keeping with the Austin American-Statesman.
“It’s been a privilege to have known as him one among my closest associates,” former Pistons teammate Joe Dumars stated. “I’m eternally grateful for all of the assist he has proven me all through the years. His legacy will probably be carried on, not solely by his household, however by all these whose lives he touched for the higher.”
Blanks is survived by his mom Clarice, brother Sidney Jr., the mom of his two daughters, Renee, his daughters, Riley and Bryn, and granddaughter, Isabel.
“The love I've for him is solely immeasurable,” Riley Blanks Reed stated in a press release. “He carried his household and associates on his selfless shoulders and he was the wisest man I’ll ever know.
“The trail forward is darkish with out him however he as soon as informed me that he trusted my sister and me to hold the torch of our household’s legacy. And we'll.”