Honestly, we never much cared for Brian Williams when he was playing. Later known as Bison Dele, Williams started off at Maryland before transferring to Arizona.
He just always seem detached and later we understood why: he never lived for basketball. He had far too many other interests to confine himself to the game.
As it turned out, he was one of the more interesting guys to pass through the NBA.
He played multiple instruments - his father, Geno Williams, was in the Platters - and he inherited that talent.
At one point, when no one in their right mind went to Beirut, he went. He wanted to visit a friend and see it for himself, so he did.
He went and explored the Outback and later, when he met the love of his life, he learned how to sail and, along with his brother and an experienced captain, they sailed to Tahiti.
When they sailed away, eventually the ship returned, but only Dele’s brother was on board.
It was never completely clear what happened but it seemed clear that Dele, his girlfriend and the captain were all killed and dumped overboard.
It’s a very sad story. Dele was only 30 and, like many people, we saw him as a ballplayer first and a man second. He was an impressive man and would have done many interesting things. He had life and substance and passion and it was taken from him.
Here’s a short video about his disappearance. We will never know exactly what happened since his brother deliberately overdosed on insulin and died in 2002, a few months after he presumably murdered Dele.