Arizona lost one of its best-ever low-post scorers — and a well-liked anchor of Lute Olson’s early Arizona basketball teams — when Sean Rooks died suddenly Tuesday in Philadelphia.
Rooks, 46, collapsed and died in a Philadelphia restaurant just hours after interviewing for an assistant coaching job with the New York Knicks, according to Yahoo Sports. He had been a player development coach for the Philadelphia 76ers the past two seasons.
No detail has been available yet on the cause of death.
“This is just a horrible shock,” Olson said in a UA statement. “Sean was such a wonderful young man with a great disposition. During his time at Arizona, he was always one of the most pleasant individuals to be around. His positivity was something I’ll always remember. This is a tough day and a terrible loss for Arizona basketball. We send our condolences to Sean’s family and friends.”
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Rooks’ mother, Deborah Brown, said in a statement published by the Philadelphia Inquirer that “it is with deep sadness and overwhelming grief that we mourn the sudden loss of my son, Sean. Our family asks that our privacy be respected as we grieve during this incredibly difficult time.”
The news was difficult for the entire Arizona basketball fraternity to hear about Rooks, an All-Pac-10 pick in 1992 known as “Wookie.”
Many former Wildcats, both those who played with Rooks and after him, poured out tributes and wishes via Twitter.
“Man, I’m hurting right now,” said Miles Simon, who landed at UA three years after Rooks left. “I can’t believe it. He watched out for me. Great person and father. Gone too soon.”
Pac-12 Networks analyst Matt Muehlebach, who played alongside Rooks for his entire four year career at Arizona, said he was “totally heartbroken” by the news. Former UA publicist Tom Duddleston expressed similar sentiment.
“Sickened that Sean Rooks has died,” Duddleston tweeted. “Did as much as any Cat to make Arizona Basketball relevant. @aplayersprogram (UA basketball’s Twitter handle) refers to guys like him.”
Rooks’ death came just after his coaching career had started to rise in the NBA, where he played for 12 years after his 1988-92 Arizona career.
Rooks did not have his contract renewed for 2016-17, according to the Inquirer, but had potential opportunities with the Knicks and in the D-League next season. Already, he had been an assistant in the D-League with Sioux Falls (2013-14), New Mexico (2010-11) and Bakersfield (2007-08). According to his 76ers bio, Rooks also briefly served as interim head coach at Bakersfield and worked with the Jam as both a television analyst and player mentor.
Originally a second-round pick (30th overall) by Dallas in the 1992 NBA Draft, Rooks went on to play 12 NBA seasons with the Mavericks (1992-94, 1999-2000), Timberwolves (1994-95), Hawks (1995-96), Lakers (1996-99), Clippers (2000-2003), Hornets (2003-04) and Magic (2003-04).
Not only did Rooks make his mark in the NBA — Mavericks owner Mark Cuban tweeted Tuesday that “you will be missed Wookie” — he made a name for himself at Arizona as a steadily developing big man from Fontana, California.
Rooks redshirted as a freshman during the Wildcats’ first Final Four season in 1987-88, joining the lively group of bench players known fondly as the “Gumbies,” while finishing his career as part of the “Tucson Skyline” that included fellow future NBA players Brian Williams and Ed Stokes.
He still ranks No. 4 on UA’s career list of free-throws attempted with 590. He’s fifth on the Cats’ blocked shots list with 142.
“He was really a nice person and a really good player for us, a really good offensive player,” said former UA associate head coach Jim Rosborough. “We ran a lot of late-game stuff for him; we’d let him go to work. And he won a lot of games for us.”
But as much as anything, Rosborough and Muehlebach said, Rooks was known for a funny and caring personality that created easy lifelong friendships. Muehlebach said he enjoyed texting Rooks about his son Kameron, a junior center at Cal, any time he worked a Bears game.
“He was one of the best teammates you could ever have,” Muehlebach said. “He was just a guy with a great heart and everybody loved him. He had a terrific attitude and was obviously a fantastic player. I’ve always maintained that he was the best low-post offensive player at Arizona, just really talented with the ball, and a terrific friend.
“He was just one of those guys on the bus who you always remember him laughing and joking, maybe one of the funniest guys on the team.”
Rooks’ concern for others appeared to grow after he left the Wildcats.
Rooks returned to Arizona during his playing career for a basketball players’ reunion with a new perspective, UA radio analyst Ryan Hansen said.
“We were standing around the dinner table and I was asking him how the NBA was going,” Hansen said. “He said, ‘When I first left Arizona, I wondered where Arizona would be if I didn’t come there.’ He had been out six or seven years then, and then he said, ‘Now I have great perspective: If it wasn’t for Arizona basketball, where would I be?’
“That really kind of captures the essences of Arizona basketball. All these guys come in as rock stars and it’s ‘look at what I’ve done,’ but there’s a maturation process. As they get older, they realize, ‘Wow, there was a lot going on and a lot more people helping me than I thought.’”
