I first saw Robert Traylor play when he was a senior in high school playing for an AAU team called “Team Michigan” (along with Kevin Garnett, Mateen Cleaves and others) in a Cage Classic Tournament at Solon that our friend Sam Sneeda was playing in, and at the time I’d never seen a guy so big move that way. A paragon of evolution, really, because when Traylor was at his best, there really hadn’t been a guy so big who moved that way, which helps to explain why the Mavs traded Dirk Nowitzki plus Pat Garrity for him in the ’98 draft.
As a college freshman, I also caught Traylor live at Madison Square Garden when he led Michigan to the NIT title in ’97, and Traylor’s support there allowed me to eat outside of my campus dining hall meal plan for the first time in months. Will always have fond memories of Robert Traylor.
He’d been playing in Puerto Rico, where they loved him per this proper obituary at the Dallas Morning News. The best rea...
Original Story:
