Kim Hughes, who played five seasons in the NBA and later served as an assistant coach with the Portland Trail Blazers, died Saturday of unknown causes. He was 73.
Meyers Leonard, a former Blazers center during Hughes’ time in Portland, shared the news on Instagram.
“You were like a father,” Leonard wrote in a heartfelt message. “You were my coach. You loved me unconditionally. You pushed me, but always followed up with an arm around me. You taught me about basketball, but more importantly, about life. You were a great father and husband, and that’s what I admired most about you. I’ve never seen someone deal with so much heartache and pain, yet you never complained, and always found a way through.
“You were a straight shooter and as truthful as it gets, yet you knew how to love and protect me. It’s hard to believe you’re gone, and I love you so much Kim Hughes.”
Hughes grew up in Freeport, Illinois, and blossomed into a three-year standout center at the University of Wisconsin, where he averaged 13.6 points and 11.2 rebounds over 72 games from 1971-74. He still ranks seventh on the Badgers’ all-time and single-season rebound list, with 806 and 301, respectively.
Buffalo drafted him in the third round of the 1974 NBA draft, but Hughes did not make the roster and played in Italy instead. After one season in Europe, Hughes, who was 6-foot-11, landed in the ABA with the New Jersey Nets, where he averaged 8.2 points and 9.2 rebounds, earned a spot on the ABA All-Rookie team and helped the Julius Erving-led Nets win the 1976 ABA title.
When the ABA and NBA merged after the season, Hughes went on to play five seasons in the NBA with the Nets, Denver Nuggets, and Cleveland Cavaliers, before returning to Italy, where he played eight more seasons in Rome and Milan. After retiring in 1989, he joined the Nuggets’ front office, serving as director of scouting and, later, director of player personnel. Ten years later, after scouting for the Milwaukee Bucks, Hughes moved to the bench as an assistant coach, and remained there for parts of three decades.
When Terry Stotts was hired to coach the Blazers in 2012, he added Hughes to his staff and the veteran assistant specialized in developing the team’s big men, including Leonard, Joel Freeland, Chris Kaman and Robin Lopez. A well-liked and respected figure on the staff, Hughes was known for his intelligence, toughness, quick wit, strong opinions and for shooting it straight. It was the last trait, in fact, that led to the end of his time in Portland.
In June 2015 — which became a franchise-changing summer for the Blazers — Hughes told a small Indiana television station that All-Star free agent LaMarcus Aldridge was planning on leaving Portland and that the Blazers would be transitioning into a youth movement. The statement turned out to be true. But general manager Neil Olshey insisted that Hughes had no knowledge of the team’s free agent plans and fired Hughes.
It was not the only time Hughes drew headlines. During his time with the Clippers, which included a brief stint as interim head coach, Hughes was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Owner Donald Sterling refused to pay for the five-figure treatment, prompting a group of players led by Corey Maggette, Kaman, Elton Brand and Marko Jaric, to foot the bill.
“Those guys saved my life,” Hughes told the Journal Times in 2011, seven years after the surgery. “They paid the whole medical bill. It was like $70,000 or more. It wasn’t cheap.”
And it wasn’t Hughes’ first health scare — he nearly died in Portland in 2013 because of an enlarged small intestine and complications related to emergency surgery.
“I promise to carry on your memory,” Leonard wrote on Instagram. “I promise that someday my two boys will know about Kim Hughes, when they’re old enough to understand. I promise to be there for your wife and children, just as you would for me, if roles were reversed for you and I right now.
“Thank you for everything. Love you always and forever Kim.”
—Joe Freeman is a senior writer at The Oregonian/OregonLive covering the Trail Blazers and NBA. Reach him at 503-294-5183,jfreeman@oregonian.com,@BlazerFreeman or@freemanjoe.bsky.social. Our journalism needs your support.Subscribe today toOregonLive.com.
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