Bobby Hurley’s Accident Remembered
What should be remembered is how he miraculously survived and made it back to the NBA.
One of the most shocking things that ever happened to a Duke player was the devastating injury that Bobby Hurley suffered in 1993 during his rookie season with the Sacramento Kings.
He was hit by a guy named Daniel Wieland; among his many injuries, his windpipe was nearly severed.
Wieland was driving without headlights and Hurley wasn’t wearing his seatbelt. It was a horrible accident to stay the least.
His Sacramento teammate, Mike Peplowski, was a few minutes behind him on the same road and probably saved his life.
He was lucky to live and that he made it back to the league at all was impressive. He wasn’t the same though.
You may remember that the only team to beat the Dream Team was the Select Team, the team of college players that scrimmaged against the legendary squad. At one point, Michael Jordan supposedly pointed to Hurley and said he could see why Duke won two straight championships.
The good news is that Hurley is back in the game. He grew up in it, became a legend at Duke and is showing great promise as a head coach.
We had the sense that it took him years to get over what happened to him and no wonder. He lost a dream in 1993 and other than his foray into thoroughbred racing, he didn’t get a chance to feed his competitive drive until he got into coaching in 2010, working for brother Danny at Wagner.
It took Wieland almost 20 years to apologize. Before he did, Hurley said this: “People make mistakes in life, and with (Wieland), I think it was just carelessness not having his lights on. I don’t think there was intent to harm someone. He never apologized, but I don’t lose moments in my life to why he didn’t or why he wouldn’t.”
About The Author
Leave a Reply