Stokes the most glaring omission from original list

Maurice Stokes (lower left) is shown here with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (upper left), Wilt Chamberlain and former Dodgers catcher Roy Campanella at a charity game in 1969. AP

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Leaving Maurice Stokes' name off a list of great or potentially great NBA players whose careers abruptly, even tragically, were cut short is like writing about history's great mimes and forgetting to mention Marcel Marceau.

No need for the list if you're going to neglect that guy.

Stokes probably qualifies as the saddest and most unfortunate case in league annals. A powerfully built 6-foot-7 and 240 pounds, Stokes was the NBA's Rookie of the Year in 1955-56 and, in three pro seasons, averaged 16.4 points and 17.3 rebounds in the days before videotape.

As reader Hugh Goodwin of Dublin, Calif., noted, "Would have been one of the all-time NBA greats.'' Bill Curtin of Washington questioned the omission more simply: "Maurice Stokes?!!!!!''

One question mark and five exclamation points, at least. Wrapping up the 1957-58 season with the Cincinnati Royals, Stokes ranked third in the NBA in both rebounds (18.1) and assists (6.4) when he crashed to the floor in the final regular-season game. Three days later, after scoring 12 points with 15 boards in a playoff loss to Detroit, Stokes felt sick on the team's flight home. He was taken to a hospital, where he lapsed into a coma and eventually was diagnosed with post-traumatic encephalopathy. The injury to Stokes' brain put him in a wheelchair, with only minimal control of his motor skills, for the rest of his shortened life.

Just 24 when he got hurt, Stokes died of a heart attack at age 36 in 1970. His guardian angel, literally, for those 12 years in between was Jack Twyman, his Cincinnati teammate who stepped up when the Royals declined to pay Stokes' medical bills and the player's family could not afford them. Twyman sought and got worker's compensation for his friend, then organized an annual benefit game in Stokes' name, drawing the NBA's greatest talents to raise money for his care and living expenses.

Twyman often wondered how Cincinnati might have fared if Stokes had avoided his mishap, the two of them joined a few years later by phenom Oscar Robertson. Former Celtics coach Red Auerbach considered Stokes a Magic Johnson prototype, while Boston's great point guard, Bob Cousy, likened him to Karl Malone "with more finesse.'' Still others saw Stokes as a taller, stronger Elgin Baylor.

In 2004, Twyman stood in for his fallen friend at Stokes' induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, a shrine that Twyman entered in 1983 at least in part for the help and love he gave to Stokes.

Following up the original list of curtailed careers is no fun; frankly, you wish there hadn't been enough names for the first one, much less a sequel. But astute readers nominated some others to join the ranks of Jay Williams, Bobby Hurley, Drazen Petrovic and, for one reason or another, the rest of the league's unfortunates:

• Philadelphia guard Andrew Toney earned his reputation as the "Boston Strangler'' for his many games as a Celtics nemesis in the team's Eastern Conference battles of the 1980s. Opponents like Larry Bird and Pat Riley simultaneously winced and raved over Toney's shooting stroke, quick first step and crunch-time heroics. The No. 8 pick in 1980, out of Southwestern Louisiana, averaged 17.5 points as the 76ers' matchup nightmare through his first five NBA seasons. But stress fractures in both feet virtually wiped out his 1985-86 season and Toney played a total of 87 games over his final three seasons before retiring after 1987-88. Readers Adam of Los Angeles and Robert Johnson of Minneapolis bemoaned Toney's omission from the first list.

• It's goofy to think that some young sports fans know Brad Daugherty only as a motor sports announcer and enthusiast, considering that the 7-footer averaged 19 points and 9.5 rebounds and earned five All-Star selections in eight seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Roger Johnson of Akron, Ohio, knew, though, that Daugherty's NBA career was over by age 28 due to recurring back problems.

Losing their No. 1 pick from the 1986 draft was only one of several injury headaches for the Cavs, however. Ron Harper and John (Hot Rod) Williams joined Daugherty on the NBA's All-Rookie team in 1986, but Harper suffered several leg injuries, including a blown right knee that forever altered his once-Jordan-like game. Williams' career was hampered by plantar fasciitis. Then, as Michael Lampers of Akron notes, Larry Nance and Mark Price also suffered significant injuries, qualifying the Cavs as one of the league's all-time bad-luck teams.

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