No Sad Songs

On May 15, 2009, basketball great and award-winning jazz musician Wayman Tisdale lost his battle with cancer. He was 44 years old.

Often called one of the best college basketball players of all time, Tisdale played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 12 years with the Indiana Pacers, Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns. He also brought home a gold medal as a member of the 1984 U.S. Olympic Basketball team.

In February 2007, Tisdale learned of a cancerous cyst below his knee after falling down steps and breaking his right leg. Weeks later, he was diagnosed with bone cancer.

But the 6’9” gentle giant with an effervescent smile remained upbeat throughout his two-year battle—during surgery to remove the cyst, several rounds of chemotherapy (oncologists guessed at the dosage since they’d never had a patient his size), knee replacement surgery, radiation therapy treatments and all the side effects that accompany trying to cure a life-threatening disease.

Even after his leg was amputated, he joked with doctors, who were fitting him with the prosthesis, and allowed the media to report his progress during this vulnerable time.

Tisdale learned how expensive healthcare for those with a chronic disease—his prosthesis alone cost more than $30,000. He listened to stories from other amputees who told him that insurance often fell short of the amount required for prosthetics devices.

In his final months, he founded the Wayman Tisdale Foundation through which he hoped to provide funds for prostheses for those who could not otherwise afford them.

Tisdale excelled on the hardwood at Tulsa’s Booker T. Washington High School. Then it was on to the University of Oklahoma where he became the first Sooner to have his jersey retired and the first freshman to make the Associated Press All-American list—the only player in Division 1 history to achieve All-American as a freshman, sophomore and junior.

He still holds the distinction of being the highest scoring player at the University of Oklahoma. Last month, he was chosen for induction into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.

Tisdale traded his senior year at OU for the NBA draft. In 1986, the Indian Pacers landed him as the second overall pick.  As a power forward, he had a career average of 15.3 points per game, scored more than 12,800 points and pulled down more than 5,000 rebounds.

But fame never made him forget who he was: the son of a minister. In college, the coach moved the team’s Sunday basketball practice so Tisdale could make the two-hour drive home to Tulsa to attend morning worship at Friendship Church where his father was the pastor.