ARG – Former center Gonzalez dies in Argentina
EL COLORADO (CABB) - Argentina basketball is in mourning following the death of former national team center Jorge Gonzalez. He was 44. The 2.30m (7ft 5in) Gonzalez played for Sport Club Cañadense, Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata and Argentina. In 1988, the Atlanta Hawks selected him 54th overall in the NBA Draft. He was the first person from ...
EL COLORADO (CABB) - Argentina basketball is in mourning following the death of former national team center Jorge Gonzalez.
He was 44.
The 2.30m (7ft 5in) Gonzalez played for Sport Club Cañadense, Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata and Argentina.
In 1988, the Atlanta Hawks selected him 54th overall in the NBA Draft.
He was the first person from his country to be drafted by an NBA club.
Though he never played in the NBA, he did remain in America, accepting an offer from TV mogul Ted Turner to compete in World Championship Wrestling for a few years.
Gonzalez returned home in 1995.
He suffered from diabetes and was wheelchair bound.
Argentina’s Basketball Federation reached out to Gonzalez with their CABB Solidarity last year, providing him with appliances for his home, as well as clothes and medicine.
"I feel grateful to CABB Solidarity for this gesture,” Gonzalez said last October.
“It's good that they remember me at this stage of life."
FIBA