JEDDAH, 2 April 2008 — Death marred the Saudi Basketball Federation Top Eight Playoffs last night when Marvin Stone, starting center for Al-Ittihad, died at halftime in the locker room at Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium. Ittihad were playing Ohud in the best-of-three semifinal series.
Stone reportedly walked off the court and sat down on the locker room bench and just fell over, never to regain consciousness.
Stone, Ittihad’s American import, was only 26 years old, and a massively built player at 6 feet 10 inches tall and 265 pounds.
He played at the University of Kentucky. After college, he played professional basketball in Cyprus, Greece and Puerto Rico. Ittihad’s head coach Guillermo Vecchio said Marvin was like a son to him, a great player and a good person. The whole team were in shock and speechless. Mahmood Abdul Rauf was angry that there was no doctor present at the sports complex.
This is an important game in an important tournament; there were only trainers with the teams to look for after a sprained ankle or a jammed finger. The SBF and the sponsors must address this issue. The country’s youth must be protected in the same way the rest of the world does and provide professional care at the facilities. The unfinished game between Ittihad-Ohud would be resumed today. Ittihad led 43-28 after two quarters.
Stone passed away in a foreign country doing what he loved to do.
In the second game, Al-Hilal defeated Fath 113-107 to take a 1-0 lead in their own two-out-of-three series.
