Amir Abdur-Rahim death sparks memories from college basketball world

Tom Crean told Shareef Abdur-Rahim the story when they were both at Tampa General Hospital Thursday night, recounting the ways in which Abdur-Rahim’s brother inspired the people he encountered in life.

This particular anecdote was about Amir Abdur-Rahim’s first home game during his first season as the men’s basketball coach at Kennesaw State in 2019. Crean was there with his wife in a crowd he described as “sparse is being generous.” But the former Indiana and Marquette coach still remembered the three students in the stands with him, dressed in Kennesaw State gear and their faces painted, and how Abdur-Rahim made them feel “like they were part of the team.”

Crean marveled at his former University of Georgia assistant coach, at how he innately seemed to know that building a basketball program is about building belief as much as it is about basketball.   

“He would have been, without question in my mind,” Crean told USA TODAY Sports through tears Friday morning, “one of the absolute great coaches that was in the first sentence out of everybody’s mouth as he continued to grow into it.”

Amir Abdur-Rahim died Thursday following complications from a medical procedure less than two weeks before he was set to begin his second season as the South Florida men’s basketball coach. He was 43 years old. 

Abdur-Rahim led USF on a remarkable turnaround in his first campaign, taking over a program that had finished with a below .500 record in 10 of the previous 11 seasons and finishing the 2023-24 season with a record 25 wins, the American Athletic Conference regular-season championship and AAC coach of the year honors.

It came on the heels of Abdur-Rahim pushing Kennesaw State from one win in his first season to the program’s first winning season and first NCAA tournament appearance as a Division-I program in 2023. 

His sudden passing sent shockwaves through the college coaching community because Abdur-Rahim, as Kansas coach Bill Self noted in his condolence message on social media, was seen as “a rising star in our sport.” But it was the way Abdur-Rahim related to anyone he encountered along the way that resonated more than his results with the coaches, administrators and players who knew him best.

‘His primary goal was always to have the most connected team in college basketball — what he ended up doing is connecting an entire community,’ USF athletic director Mike Kelly posted on X Friday. Former USF player Kasean Pryor, who transferred to Louisville this offseason, remarked on Instagram that ‘in only a short year of being together, you helped to change my life forever.’

Abdur-Rahim, a Marietta, Georgia native, played three seasons at Southeastern Louisiana University (2001-04) after beginning his college career at Garden City Community College for two years, “and he was a leader from the day he came in,” said Billy Kennedy, who coached Abdur-Rahim at SE Louisiana and later hired him to be an assistant coach at Murray State and Texas A&M. 

Just like at Kennesaw State and USF, SE Louisiana did what had never been done there before Abdur-Rahim arrived, winning the Southland Conference. 

“People admire the fact that he did it the hard way and he was rewarded for it. That’s rare today in athletics or in life,” Kennedy told USA TODAY Sports. “And he did it with a spirit of gratitude. That was the biggest thing. He never thought he was above anybody.”

“The one flaw he had,” Kennedy added, “was he was stubborn.”

The staff at Murray State even took to calling Abdur-Rahim “Donkey” in reference to the character from the animated film, “Shrek.” But even that often manifested itself in ways that were in the best interest of players. 

“If it was somebody we were recruiting and he thought he was a good player and good enough, he fought for that guy,” Kennedy said. “He was everything that was good with college basketball.”

Crean credits Abdur-Rahim for helping Georgia land future NBA star Anthony Edwards as a recruit, even though Abdur-Rahim left the Bulldogs for Kennesaw State before ever actually coaching Edwards. Abdur-Rahim even told the ‘Coaching Origins’ podcast in 2022 that he told Edwards he would stay at Georgia – and not take the Kennesaw State job – to ensure Edwards remained committed to the Bulldogs. 

The two remained close after the recruiting process, so much so that Crean made it a point to call Edwards Thursday so that he would hear the news of Abdur-Rahim’s death from him rather than media reports. 

‘If you asked Anthony to name somebody that he absolutely relies on, believes in and he knows will tell him the truth no matter what, he’d put Amir in the first sentence,” Crean said. 

“He just had an unbelievable ability to connect with young people. … He made me believe in myself,” added Murray State coach Steve Prohm.  “It was really, really amazing watching him these last couple years, and what makes you sick is he’s got his wife and three little kids and he had the world by his hands.”

Prohm coached Abdur-Rahim as an assistant at SE Louisiana and the two later served as assistant coaches together at Murray State under Kennedy. Prohm credits Abdur-Rahim for connecting Prohm and his wife. Abdur-Rahim served as a groomsman in the wedding. 

So Prohm found himself working through his emotions Thursday night by scrolling through social media, where some of Abdur-Rahim’s press conferences and quotes were being rediscovered in the wake of his death.

“Just to hear him talk,” Prohm explained.

The moment Prohm lingered over was filmed in the locker room, after Kennesaw State nearly upset Xavier in the 2023 NCAA tournament. There was Abdur-Rahim standing in front of a whiteboard giving a short speech about the only two words written on it: “Love wins.”

It was then that Prohm knew the story he was going to tell his Murray State players at practice Friday.

“I’m going to talk to my team about ‘Love wins,’ ” Prohm said. “I think that summarized him in a nutshell. He was so entrenched and so loyal and he just got the best out of everybody he was around.”

Follow USA TODAY Network sports reporter Mark Giannotto on social media @mgiannotto and email him at mgiannotto@gannett.com