Jason Collier

Who was Jason Collier?

Jason Jeffrey Collier was an American professional basketball player in the NBA. At death, the 7 ft 0 in tall center Collier weighed 250 pounds. He was the first active NBA player to die since Malik Sealy in 2000.

Collier led Catholic Central High School of his hometown Springfield, Ohio to the 1996 Ohio State Basketball Championship, for which he was named 1996 Ohio Mr. Basketball. After transferring from Indiana, he completed his college career at Georgia Tech and was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks with the 15th overall pick of the 2000 NBA Draft. He was traded on draft day to the Houston Rockets in exchange for their pick, Joel Przybilla. He then played for the Rockets and the Atlanta Hawks, averaging 5.6 points per game over his career.

During the NBA off-season, Collier died suddenly at the age of 28 on October 15, 2005 in Cumming, Georgia. His autopsy indicated that he died because of a "sudden heart rhythm disturbance caused by an abnormally enlarged heart." The Georgia's chief medical examiner, Dr. Kris Sperry, said Collier's heart "was above the accepted limits, even for a man of his size", and said the organ was about one and a half times the size it should have been.