Because his life and career was cut down in its prime, you can forget just how great an offensive player Reggie Lewis was. The Celtics swingman averaged 20.8 points a game the final two years of his career.
Joe Dumars didn’t forget.
The now Pistons GM sat down with Zach Lowe of Grantland for a Q&A, mostly to talk about Detroit’s offseason (more coming on that in a future post), but Zach ended it with a great fan question:
Who was the toughest guy Dumars ever had to guard not named Michael Jordan?
…it was Reggie Lewis for me. He was long, athletic, smooth, he could raise up over you and shoot. He was a really good defender, too. He was a tough, tough cover. Man, he was a tough guy to guard. He was definitely the one, other than MJ, who was the toughest for me to figure out. He was so long, and you couldn’t really get physical with him, because he was so slim, and it always seemed like I was getting called for fouls. He was a great, great player.
Lewis died at age 27 of a heart condition, at the peak of his career. If you didn’t know about him, you should read the fantastic piece Jackie MacMullan did at ESPN about him recently.
And you can watch this.