Seven years after a near-fatal car crash tore Bobby Hurley's ACL and put him in the hospital for weeks, the former Duke All-America point guard retired from basketball at the age of 29.
Although he has not played an NBA game since 1998, Hurley had always dreamed of making a comeback to the basketball court. But Bob Hurley, Sr., the coach of the legendary St. Anthony Prep basketball program, told Reuters yesterday that his son's dream has come to an end.
"He had knee surgery a year ago and [doctors] discovered the torn ACL. It had never been properly taken care of," Hurley's father said. "They attached it to another tendon. But it didn't respond. He was hoping to come back and try again but he found it wasn't stable."
Hurley played only a few months in the NBA for the Sacramento Kings, who made him a lottery selection in the 1993 draft, before a station wagon smashed into Hurley's Toyota pickup truck as he was driving through an intersection following a Dec. 12 game. After first fighting for his life and then fighting to rebuild his body, Hurley returned to the Kings and still managed to play in more than 80 percent
But the slowed and shaken Hurley, who contributed sparingly for the Kings in the winter and spring of 1994, looked nothing like the young man who guided Duke to two national championships in '91 and '92.
Having never made a mark on the professional basketball scene, Hurley will forever be linked to Duke, where his No. 11 jersey was retired and where he became the first point guard ever to start from Day 1 for Mike Krzyzewski.
"I've never loved coaching a player any more than I did Bobby Hurley," Krzyzewski said. "He is the most daring player I have ever seen in college basketball. We followed his heart to two national championships and I loved every second of coaching him."
Hurley's return to the basketball court was always in question, even in the immediate aftermath of his accident, when some doctors speculated Duke's all-time assist leader would never again be able to play.
Even his own team apparently gave up on him when the Kings finally traded away Hurley to Vancouver in February 1998. Nonetheless, as recently as last year, a relentless Hurley was determined to prove nay-sayers wrong by rehabilitating his still-troubled body.
"There's something in there that still wants to play," Hurley told The Chronicle last November. "Whether my body allows that, I don't know. But deep down I still want to play."
But that body of Hurley's at last gave out one final time last summer. When he went down again, his dream went down with him.
"Playing in a Shore League last summer he blew the knee out again," Hurley Sr. told Reuters. "He wanted to play again, but he was having problems moving laterally and retreating."
Duke fans have long predicted Hurley's return to Cameron Indoor Stadium as an assistant coach, but for now he plans to use his coaching skills in another sport, Reuters reported.
According to Hurley's father, Bobby will concentrate on his six thoroughbred horses, including Song and a Prayer and Shooter, two highly touted racehorses with champion pedigree.
"I am hopeful that Bobby attacks the next phase of his life the way he attacked basketball," Krzyzewski said. "It was a deep honor to be his college coach and a deeper honor to be his friend."
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