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Atlanta Hawks center Jason Collier dead at 28
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-17 14:04
Jeff Collier said he received a phone call at 3:30 a.m. Saturday from Jason's
wife, Katie, who said her husband was having trouble breathing and quickly
turned blue.
"You get a call and it's your daughter-in-law crying saying she's giving him
CPR and trying to keep him going," Jeff Collier said. "I guess it took awhile
for the paramedics to get there. He had a slight pulse when they took him and he
passed away in the ambulance while they took him to the hospital."
Jeff Collier told the AP by phone from his home in Springfield, Ohio, that
his son had knee surgery when he played in Houston.
"Now all of a sudden this comes up," he said. "We don't know exactly what
happened. I'm anxious to find out. But I guess it doesn't make a whole lot of
difference at this point."
Howell said his client was in good shape.
He said Collier and his wife ate dinner at a restaurant Friday night and then
returned home, where Collier spent time playing with his daughter.
"He started feeling real bad in the middle of the night," said Howell, who
spoke with Collier's wife.
"It's just very sad," Howell said. "I'm totally stunned and devastated."
Collier was a part-time starting center the last two seasons after playing
mostly as a backup in three years at Houston. He began his college career at
Indiana before transferring to Georgia Tech.
Former Tech coach Bobby Cremins said Collier "was a happy-go-lucky kid."
"He married an Atlanta girl and adopted Atlanta as his hometown," Cremins
said. "He came back and got his degree, which I was very proud of."
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