YouTube Gold: The Late Bison Dele
He lived life on his own terms until his own brother apparently took his life.
We first saw Bison Dele play for Maryland when he was still known as Brian Williams. Obviously talented, he had enough of Bob Wade after one season and decamped for Tucson, where he excelled under Lute Olson’s tutelage.
He left Arizona after his junior year and began a bit of an NBA odyssey.
Many thought that basketball was not his passion. Highly intelligent, the son of Geno Williams of The Platters also had musical talent. He was curious and inquisitive about many things but he wasn’t always easy to get along with.
When he was 30 and still in his prime, he had a dispute with the management of the Detroit Pistons and just left the game right before the 1999-2000 season.
Dele then embarked on another odyssey. He visited Lebanon more than once when no American in his or right mind would have done that. He spent time in the Outback and, eventually, learned how to sail.
He was living in Tahiti when his brother Miles Dabord came to see him. As best as anyone could figure, Dabord sailed on Dele’s boat and killed his brother, his brother’s girlfriend Serena Karlan and Bertrand Saldo, who was the captain, and tossed their body’s overboard into the Pacific.
It was a shocking allegation that has never been proven, partly because Dabord committed suicide and thus was never tried. He gave the police a story, but it was too ridiculous to be taken seriously and the physical evidence didn’t match up.
This video is of Dele in his final season against his old team, the Chicago Bulls, where he won a championship. He was a huge if erratic and misunderstood talent. It’s still shocking to think that his brother likely killed him.