FIBA Basketball

    POR - Ex-Portugal power forward Plowden dies

    LISBON (National team) - This is a very sad week in Portuguese basketball following the death of 49-year-old Mike Plowden, a former national team power forward. The 61-times capped Plowden, who had a magnificent career with Benfica in the 1990s, collapsed and died while coaching lower division side Quintajense in training this week. Plowden's son, ...

    LISBON (National team) - This is a very sad week in Portuguese basketball following the death of 49-year-old Mike Plowden, a former national team power forward.

    The 61-times capped Plowden, who had a magnificent career with Benfica in the 1990s, collapsed and died while coaching lower division side Quintajense in training this week.

    Plowden's son, Rafael, is a player at Quintajense.

    Former Angola Portuguese international and ex-Benfica teammate Jean Jacques da Conceicao paid tribute to Plowden.

    He said to Basketball World News: "It is not just a loss for Portuguese Basketball.

    "It is a worldwide loss as he was an easygoing person.

    "He had the ability to make friends easily, everywhere he went. He was a very correct person. Sometimes, because he was too honest, it went against him.

    "Our European success must be stamped with Mike's name, for sure.”

    The American-born Plowden moved to Portugal in the early 1980s to play for Barreirense and became a citizen of the country at the age of 29.

    FIBA