Alec Kessler, a former Miami Heat forward-center who wound up achieving more as an orthopedic surgeon than on the basketball court, died Saturday in Pensacola, Fla., of an apparent heart attack. He was 40.
According to a release from the University of Georgia, Kessler was playing in a pickup basketball game when stricken.
Kessler, the 12th player taken in the 1990 draft, was acquired by the Heat from Houston on draft day that year and spent four seasons with Miami. He averaged 5.2 points in the NBA.
Coming out of Georgia, Kessler was lauded by then-Heat partner Billy Cunningham as a combination of power player and accurate shooter. Instead, Kessler struggled with the physical nature of the pro game and soon began to plan for a medical career, having deferred his 1990 acceptance into the Emory School of Medicine.
Kessler graduated from Emory's medical school in 1999 and later worked as an orthopedic surgeon in the Charlotte, N.C., area and in Pensacola, residing in a nearby suburb.
"He was such a bright man with such a great future," Heat trainer Ron Culp said Sunday. "The thing I remember with Alec was he was so absorbed with his future. He always sat in the back of the airplane and the entire plane would be darkened except for Alec, and he would always be reading his medical books.
"It didn't matter if he had played that night. And he would always be coming in the training room and questioning the training staff and medical staff and our doctors
According to a release from the University of Georgia, Kessler was playing in a pickup basketball game when stricken.
Kessler, the 12th player taken in the 1990 draft, was acquired by the Heat from Houston on draft day that year and spent four seasons with Miami. He averaged 5.2 points in the NBA.
Coming out of Georgia, Kessler was lauded by then-Heat partner Billy Cunningham as a combination of power player and accurate shooter. Instead, Kessler struggled with the physical nature of the pro game and soon began to plan for a medical career, having deferred his 1990 acceptance into the Emory School of Medicine.
Kessler graduated from Emory's medical school in 1999 and later worked as an orthopedic surgeon in the Charlotte, N.C., area and in Pensacola, residing in a nearby suburb.
"He was such a bright man with such a great future," Heat trainer Ron Culp said Sunday. "The thing I remember with Alec was he was so absorbed with his future. He always sat in the back of the airplane and the entire plane would be darkened except for Alec, and he would always be reading his medical books.
"It didn't matter if he had played that night. And he would always be coming in the training room and questioning the training staff and medical staff and our doctors
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