http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/12345969/jerome-kersey-long-portland-trail-blazers-forward-diesCause of death not yet disclosed.
In 1988 I was a limo driver in San Diego, and there was an off-season all-star charity game/event benefitting the March of Dimes & others. I wound up running point for my company (I think we had at least 5 cars in action that day) on getting all the players from the downtown Marriott to the Arena & back again. Jerome Kersey was almost left behind at the Arena doing an interview, and my boss paged me to go back & get him after I thought the gig was over. So we had some quality time in the car & then he insisted that I get invited to the very exclusive after party. I had earlier met two total babes (one black, one blonde) who were at the game and introduced them to Jerome. The blonde hit it off with him, and on their way up to his room Jerome gave me $40 to stick around to give her a ride home...which didn't happen until 4am! I actually had to call his room to see if she was done yet!
I also met Magic & Jordan that night, and the game itself is one I'll never forget. The guys were VERY competitive & there were several sequences of plays that were out of this world. With about 2 minutes left Magic went over & grabbed the announcer's mike & asked "if it would be okay with the crowd" if they wrapped up the game and finished with a slam dunk contest instead. I'm sure he did that all on his own, but of course no one objected. And it didn't end until a 19 year old rookie from the Sonics by the name of Shawn Kemp completely stole the show. He asked two of the cheerleaders to come to the free throw line and get down on their hands & knees, and then he took off, jumped over them from about the top of the circle & did a reverse two-handed jam. Everyone - including Jordan - literally fell flat down on the court when they saw Kemp do that. I later got to talk to him and he showed me the scars on both knees from when he tried & failed to pull that off on the playground, except instead of two cheerleaders there was a car on the free throw line(!).
One of the best days of my life in terms of being a great story to retell over the years.
