Celebrity Deathwatch: Malik Sealy, NBA Minnesota Timberwolves, 30

["Deathwatch Central" <cdw@slick.org>]

http://cnnsi.com/basketball/nba/news/2000/05/20/sealy_ap/

T'wolves' Sealy dies in car crash

Posted: Saturday May 20, 2000 03:16 PM

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Minnesota Timberwolves swingman Malik Sealy was killed
Saturday when his sport utility vehicle was hit head on by a pickup truck
traveling the wrong way on a divided highway, according to WCCO-AM in
Minneapolis and the Star Tribune.

Sealy, 30, was killed about 4 a.m. in a crash with a pickup on Minnesota
Highway 100 just south of Minnesota 7 in St. Louis Park, a Minneapolis
suburb.

The State Patrol would not confirm that Sealy was the victim in the crash.
The State Patrol scheduled a media availability at 5:30 p.m. Saturday to
talk about the crash.

The 43-year-old man driving the pickup was traveling north in the southbound
lane, the patrol said. He was hospitalized in serious condition with head
and chest injuries.

The accident happened in a construction zone where southbound Highway 100
has been narrowed to one lane.

Sealy had just finished his eighth NBA season and his second with the
Timberwolves. He averaged 11.3 points during the regular season and 12.5
during the playoffs as Minnesota was eliminated in four games in the first
round by the Portland Trail Blazers. He played in every regular season and
playoff game.

His season was notable for the way he improved his shooting percentage,
making more than 50 percent of his shots over the first half of the
season -- a rarity for an NBA guard -- before finishing at 47.6 percent. He
had never shot better than 43.5 percent over his first seven seasons.

Sealy was involved in a car accident on his way to practice during his first
season with the Timberwolves and needed 20 stitches to close a cut on his
forehead.

Sealy, who also played in the NBA for Indiana, the Los Angeles Clippers and
Detroit, grew up in New York and starred collegiately at St. John's, where
he was the school's second-leading career scorer behind Chris Mullin when he
left following his senior season in 1992.

As a high school senior, he led Tolentine to a No. 1 national ranking and
the New York state championship.

Sealy's father, Sidney, was a bodyguard for slain civil rights leader
Malcolm X. He named his son Malik after one of Malcolm X's Muslim names.

Copyright 2000 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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