Rodney Rogers, the powerful forward who burst out of Durham to reach basketball stardom in the ACC and NBA, died Friday at age 54, Wake Forest University officials announced Saturday.
An all-ACC player who was the league’s player of the year during his standout career with Wake Forest in the early 1990s, the 6-foot-7 Rogers spent the past 17 years in a wheelchair after a 2008 ATV accident left him paralyzed below his shoulders.
In a statement released by Wake Forest, his wife, Faye Rogers, said he died from natural causes.
“He made his transition peacefully,” Faye Rogers said.
Playing at Durham’s Hillside High School, Rogers was the state’s player of the year in 1990 and a McDonald’s All-American when he averaged 28 points and 12 rebounds per game as a senior. That earned him the nickname “the Durham Bull.”
Rogers chose to play college basketball for coach Dave Odom at Wake Forest, even though the Demon Deacons hadn’t played in the NCAA Tournament since 1984. Rogers played three seasons at Wake Forest, winning ACC rookie of the year in 1991 and league player of the year in 1993.
The Demon Deacons made the NCAA tournament all three seasons, reaching the Sweet 16 in 1993.
“Rodney is truly one of the greatest athletes to ever play in the Atlantic Coast Conference — without reservation,” Odom said. “You can place him alongside the very best our league has ever seen. It’s easy to focus on his extraordinary talent, but what stood out to everyone who knew him was that he was every bit as remarkable as a human being. He loved his teammates, he loved his family, he loved Wake Forest and he loved the game of basketball. He loved playing for Wake Forest.”
Wake Forest retired Rogers’ No. 54 in 1996 and he won the school’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2022. He’s also a member of the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame.
“Rodney is the strongest person I have ever met — physically and mentally — and his resilience was evident in the fight he showed every single day,” said Randolph Childress, an all-ACC guard who teamed with Tim Duncan on Wake Forest’s ACC championship teams in 1995 and 1996. “I’ve said this before and I still mean it today: he was the best athlete ever to walk onto Wake Forest’s campus. He meant so much to so many people, and I feel profoundly blessed to have been with him yesterday.”
Selected No. 9 overall by the Denver Nuggets in the 1993 NBA Draft, Rogers played 12 seasons in the NBA. He also played for the Los Angeles Clippers, Phoenix Suns, Boston Celtics, New Jersey Nets and New Orleans Hornets before playing his final NBA season in 2005 with the Philadelphia 76ers.
Rogers returned to Durham after his playing career where, despite his wealth from his NBA career, he worked for the city’s public works department operating heavy equipment. He was a volunteer girls’ basketball coach at Durham’s Rogers-Herr Middle School while also helping start the Durham Eagles youth football program.
On Nov. 28, 2008, Rogers suffered a spinal cord injury in an accident riding an all-terrain vehicle in a rural part of Vance County, the News & Observer previously reported. He never walked again.
But, even facing those trying circumstances, Rogers maintained a positive attitude that inspired friends and family.
“Every time we visited him,” Odom said, “I walked away reminding myself never to complain — because he never did. He faced life exactly as it came and made the very best of every moment. He was a joy to watch as a basketball player, but he was an even greater man. He shared his strength, his spirit and his life with everyone around him.”
In addition to his wife, Faye Rogers, Rodney Rogers is survived by his son, Rodney Rogers II and two daughters, Roddreka Rogers, an assistant women’s coach at Georgia State and former Georgia Tech player, and Rydeiah Rogers, a former N.C. State basketball player.
“Rodney Rogers transformed and accelerated the upward trajectory of Wake Forest University as well as Demon Deacons basketball from the moment he signed his letter of intent in the fall of 1989,” John Currie, a 1993 Wake Forest graduate who is currently the school’s athletics director, said in a statement. “His generational combination of power and grace as a player was exceeded only by the size of his heart. His perseverance and spirit following his accident inspired thousands and embodied the true meaning of Pro Humanitate. Rodney showed us what strength looks like in every chapter of life. Our hearts are with Faye, Roddreka, Rodney II, Rydeiah and the entire Rogers family.”