{"id":365364,"date":"2024-02-05T02:08:22","date_gmt":"2024-02-05T03:08:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=365364"},"modified":"2024-02-05T04:02:28","modified_gmt":"2024-02-05T04:02:28","slug":"beautiful-dude-two-time-nba-champ-dies-unexpectedly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=365364","title":{"rendered":"'Beautiful dude': Two-time NBA champ dies 'unexpectedly'"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earl \u201cThe Twirl\u201d Cureton, who won two NBA<\/a> championships in 12 seasons in the league, has died. He was 66.<\/p>\n

Cureton, who served as a community ambassador for the Detroit Pistons for the last 10 years, died \u201cunexpectedly\u201d on Sunday, according to a release from the Pistons.<\/p>\n

No other information was provided by the team.<\/p>\n

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\u201cEarl was one of the most generous, positive and caring people I knew," Pistons owner Tom Gores said.<\/p>\n

"He was a loving father, devoted to his family, and I was honoured to be his friend. He was a champion as a player and an important ambassador in our community. We are heartbroken over his loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 205cm Cureton began his collegiate career with Robert Morris before transferring to Detroit Mercy for his final two seasons under then-coach Dick Vitale. The Detroit native was selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 1979 NBA draft.<\/p>\n

\"Dennis<\/p>\n

Cureton averaged 5.4 points and 4.7 rebounds in 674 NBA games. He played for Philly, Detroit, Chicago, the Los Angeles Clippers, Charlotte, Houston and Toronto. He was part of championship teams with the 1982-83 76ers and 93-94 Rockets.<\/p>\n

He also coached in the NBA, United States Basketball League and Continental Basketball Association after his playing career.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a tremendous teammate, tough competitor, a champion and a great human being," former Pistons guard Isiah Thomas said in the team's release.<\/p>\n

"Earl always held the Detroit community close to his heart and worked tirelessly to make a difference for the city he loved. He will be greatly missed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups took the news of his former teammate's death hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was just a beautiful dude,\u201d Billups said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spent a lot of time with him in Detroit, obviously. Just a big teddy bear. Always so fun.<\/p>\n

"He had one of those infectious laughs where whenever he laughed he made everybody laugh. Never had a bad day, ever. I marvel at guys like that, people like that.<\/p>\n

"The world can be really rough and tough and they never see it that way, you know? And I loved that about him. Every time I'd go to Detroit, I\u2019d give him a big hug. So, that was tough news today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earl \u201cThe Twirl\u201d Cureton, who won two NBA championships in 12 seasons in the league, has died. He was 66. Cureton, who served as a […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":365366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365364"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=365364"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":365367,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365364\/revisions\/365367"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/365366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=365364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=365364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=365364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}