Bison Dele

Bison Dele
Player information
Full name	Brian Carson Williams
birthday	April 6, 1969
place of birth	Fresno , California , United States
date of death	July 7, 2002 at the age of 33 years and 92 days
Place of death	Unknown,
size	206 cm
position	Center / Power Forward
college	Arizona
NBA draft	1991 , 10th Pick, Orlando Magic
Clubs as active
1991–1993 Orlando Magic 1993–1995 Denver Nuggets 1995–1996 Los Angeles Clippers 1996–1997 Chicago Bulls 1997–1999 Detroit Pistons

Bison Dele (* 6. April 1969 in Fresno , California as Brian Carson Williams ; † 7. July 2002 declared dead, of death unknown) was an American basketball player for the Orlando Magic , Denver Nuggets , Los Angeles Clippers , Chicago Bulls and the Detroit Pistons in the NBA . The 2.06 meter tall Dele played the positions of center and power forward and won the 1997 NBA title with the Bulls. He disappeared under mysterious circumstances from his yacht in the Pacific in July 2002 and was subsequently pronounced dead.

Career

Dele, who was born Brian Carson Williams , was a successful college player at the University of Arizona who did well for 12.5 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. In 1993 Williams was drafted by the Orlando Magic in 10th place, but got little playing time and was given to the Denver Nuggets after two disappointing years. Williams played the backup of center Dikembe Mutombo and power forward LaPhonso Ellis . With his rebound strength he was a good fit for shot blocker Mutombo and the defensive specialist Ellis, so that coach Dan Issel brought Williams to power forward from the beginning and Ellis moved to small forward at the end of the season. With just 42 wins, the Nuggets qualified as the 8th and last team for the 1993 playoffs and were blatant outsiders against the Seattle SuperSonics (63 wins, 1st place). But Williams contributed with several double doubles to the fact that the Nuggets sensationally defeated the Sonics with 3-2 games. He was the sixth man in Denver for another year until he was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers in 1995. There he was in the starting five for the first time and achieved career highs of 16 points and 8 rebounds per game. The Clippers refused to renew his contract, so that Williams was without a contract in the summer of 1996. Shortly before the 1997 playoffs began, the Chicago Bulls of superstar Michael Jordan gave him a contract until the end of the season, and Williams won the NBA title as a reserve player.

In the 1997-1998 season, Williams adopted a new name, Bison Dele , with which he wanted to honor his Cherokee and African roots. He moved to the Detroit Pistons and reached new career highs of 17 points and 9 rebounds per game as a starting center, but missed the playoffs. In the following season, his stats dropped considerably, and after 48 season games, he abruptly announced his retirement. Dele was a top earner with the Pistons and got out early from an ongoing five-year contract that would have guaranteed him $ 36 million.

Dele lived in the following years as a dropout and traveled as a backpacker a. a. Australia , Indonesia , Lebanon , Cuba and Turkey .

Private life

Dele was a son of the well-known jazz musician Eugene Williams ( The Platters ). His ancestors were part Cherokee from Oklahoma , some Africans from the tribe of Yoruba (now Nigeria ), he therefore later Bison Dele called: The Bison symbolizing his Indian roots, and "Dele" was the name of his ancestor, who once as a slave from Africa had been abducted. Dele's parents divorced when he was a child.

Dele was considered an introverted, unstable character who, despite his job, was strangely uninterested in basketball, sealed himself off from his teammates and devoted himself to his many books. As a rookie, he made two attempts to kill himself and shocked his teammates when he tried to open the door once during a flight at a height of 10 kilometers. He was considered an eccentric, but always treated ball boys and club employees kindly. For a short time he was a partner of the pop singer Madonna .

Disappear

In the summer of 2002 Dele set sail with his yacht, the Hakuna Matata . He was in the company of his girlfriend Serena Karlan, his older brother Miles Dabord (born as Keith Williams) and the captain Bertrand Saldo. The starting point of the trip was Tahiti , the destination was Honolulu . After the Hakuna Matata did not answer for weeks, Dabord was suddenly spotted alone in Phoenix on September 5th when he tried to buy gold for $ 152,000 under the name of his brother. The gold dealer, who knew Dele from television, notified the police, whereupon Dabord was arrested but released for lack of evidence. The Hakuna Matata was soon found with a new coat of paint under the name Arabella . Battle marks, bullet holes, and bloody marks from large pliers were found in the boat, and Dele's passport and papers were found at Dabord.

Dabord was soon under suspicion of having shot Saldo, Karlan and Dele (whom he had previously incapacitated with the tongs), although the police also considered a counter-theory: Subsequently, Dele and Dabord quarreled, which Saldo and Karlan tried to mediate, Dele struck her to death with the pliers in a fit of rage, and Dabord shot his brother in self-defense . A short time later died Dabord with an overdose of insulin by suicide .

Dele, Karlan and Saldo were pronounced dead on July 7, 2002, and the case was filed as "unsolved" after Dabord's death.

Web links

• Bison Dele - player profile on NBA.com
• Bison Dele - player profile on basketball-reference.com
• Collection of articles on Deles Disappearance , New York Times

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} New Name, New Numbers Have Special Meaning For Detroit's Bison Dele And LA's Dennis Rodman , March 22, 1999
2. ^ Piston's Dele retires , CBS News.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} The Mysterious Case Of Bison Dele ( Memento of March 11, 2003 in the Internet Archive ), Sports Illustrated
4. ↑ ^{a b} PRO BASKETBALL; Dele and Dabord: The Twisting Trail Of Two Brothers
5. ↑ Paradise Lost , espn.com.
6. ↑ ^{a b} René Radoi: The Life of Brian. On: Basket website; Cologne, July 14, 2004. Retrieved February 10, 2019.
7. ↑ FBI probes ex-NBA player Bison Dele's disappearance
8. ↑ ^{a b} Dabord dies at San Diego hospital ( December 6, 2003 memento in the Internet Archive ), Sports Illustrated .