Sad news to start the week. Alec Kessler, 40, died Saturday of an apparent heart attack. He was the ultimate Money Player -- an accomplished basketball player (Georgia’s all-time leading scorer with 1,788 points, later surpassed by Litterial Green, 12th pick in the 1990 NBA Draft, 4-year NBA career) and student (magna cum laude grad, Emory medical school graduate).
People can accuse athletes of not being real students, which may be the case more than we'd like to believe. But Alec Kessler may be the most accomplished student hyphen athlete in recent years: A career in professional sports (the NBA!!) and medicine. After graduating from Emory School of Medicine, Alec became an orthopedic surgeon.
Charles Barkley and others like to remind us that kids have a far better chance to grow up to become doctors than NBA players. Alec Kessler beat incredibly long odds. Twice. Unfortunately, the odds of life are often less predictable.
Kessler is survived by his wife, Rhea, and their two sons, Nicholas and Christopher.
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