Yinka Dare

Yinka Dare (born October 10, 1972 in Kano , Nigeria , † January 9, 2004 in Englewood , New Jersey ) was a Nigerian basketball player of the New Jersey Nets and the Orlando Magic in the National Basketball Association . The 2.17 meter tall Dare played the position of the Center .

Career

Dare was discovered in Nigeria by a lawyer named Lloyd Ukwu, who asked him about his height and got him into basketball. Dare made the leap into the United States college program and became a good player at George Washington University in Connecticut , good for 22 points and 10 rebounds per game. In the 1994 NBA draft, he was drawn by the New Jersey Nets in 14th place, but could never live up to his advance praise.

From the beginning, Dare's NBA career was not a lucky star. After three minutes of play, he tore his Achilles tendon and was eliminated for the rest of the season. In the following NBA season 1995/6 he set a negative record when he failed to play even one assist in 58 games with 626 minutes of playing time, and instead afforded 72 turnovers (ball losses). This earned him the unflattering nickname "The Black Hole". It even went so far that Dare became a cult figure of the then chronically unsuccessful Nets. Every time Dare came onto the floor (usually at the end of a game he had already won), the well-meaning teammates gave him the ball so that he could finally play his first assist, and fans celebrated him with “Yinka! Yinka! ”- chanting, which Dare was clearly embarrassed.

Only in the following season did Dare manage his first of a total of 4 assists after 770 career minutes: this losing streak is still the NBA record. His 4 assists and his total of 96 turnovers mean one of the worst “assist-to-turnover ratios” (ratio of assists to ball losses, an NBA measure of skill level) of all time.

It was clear that the physically strong, but lacking game overview, Dare was overwhelmed to play in the NBA. The Nets transferred Dare to the Orlando Magic in 1998 , where he spent two seasons without ever playing again. Dare played in the lower-class leagues CBA and the USBL until he retired in 2003. He made a good $ 8.7 million in his career.

Dare died of a heart attack on January 9, 2004.

Web links

• Yinka Dare - player profile on basketball-reference.com
• archive.fiba.com: Players - Yinka DARE (NGR) - Overview of participation in FIBA tournaments ( English )
• Selena Roberts: It's a Tall Order, but Dare's Image Still Needs an Assist. The New York Times , January 9, 1997, accessed July 29, 2014 (article on the "hunt" for Dare's first assist).