Kevin Duckworth Tribute

Whether he was on his way to the Thornridge High School gym, or whether hesimply had a free period and some extra time, Kevin Duckworth would wanderby the school's athletic department offices and stop in for a chat.

The basketball star would ask secretary Fran Quebbeman how her day was going or make sure everything was copacetic with athletic director Ron Bonfiglio. No earth-shaking revelations, no emotional heart-to-hearts. Just polite, human discourse with genuine concern.

"I guess I just remember him as a big kid who had a soft heart and cared about people," Bonfiglio said Tuesday. "And who developed into a hell of a player."

That may be the most thorough summary of how people viewed Kevin Duckworth, and there was no other way people chose to remember him after his sudden death Monday in Oregon at 44.

On the marquee is Duckworth's basketball life, which began at Thornridge, continued at Eastern Illinois and culminated in an 11-year NBA career that included two appearances in the NBA Finals with the Portland Trail Blazers.

But ultimately, everything peripheral to basketball provided the truest definition of the 7-footer labeled a "gentle giant" by former Eastern Illinois coach Rick Samuels.

The diligence with which Duckworth attacked his weight, to make a basketball career even possible. The courage to transform his size from insecurity to a source of pride. The loyalty, which he used to decline interest from John Thompson and Georgetown because Eastern Illinois discovered him first.

And Duckworth died, actually, acting on his unflagging selflessness.

The player who bought houses for his parents after signing a $16 million contract with Portland in 1988, who spoke to Thornridge students about his life's journey every time he returned to the school, died while on a trip to the Oregon coast to hold a free basketball clinic.

The cause of death has yet to be determined by the medical examiner in Lincoln County, Ore.

"Kevin will be remembered by fans as one of the most popular and recognizable players to ever wear the Blazers uniform, but to people who knew him, he'll be remembered as one of the warmest and biggest-hearted," Trail Blazers President Larry Miller said.

Indeed, Duckworth's nickname as a boy was Boo-Boo, a bit absurd for someone who checked in at 6 feet 11 inches and 350 pounds as a high school senior, but aptly tender for the person inhabiting that outsized frame.

"Kevin was always a little different," said Francine Duckworth, Kevin's sister and lone living sibling after brothers Ray and Eddie died in 1999 and 2003, respectively. "He was quiet, laid-back, not like the rest of us. He could never hurt anybody."

Indeed, even when Thornridge coach Bob Sullivan nearly tortured him with daily conditioning drills that began at 6 a.m., a glum obeisance was all Duckworth could muster.

"One day, Boo-Boo pulled me aside and said, 'You really enjoy this, don't you?' " Sullivan recalled. "I told him I loved it. He said, 'I stand in my doorway every morning and pray to the Lord that you won't show up.' "

The size battle — both physically and mentally — didn't end there. But how Duckworth attacked it shaped who he would become. Samuels disclosed Tuesday that he had to talk Duckworth out of going home "two to three times a week" in his early days at Eastern Illinois. The reason? He felt fellow students' stares because he couldn't fit into classroom desks.

To ease Duckworth's self-consciousness on the court, Samuels would take the stopwatch from his assistants during timed conditioning drills and give Duckworth an extra second or two if the player was exerting maximum effort. He usually was.

"I remember the line drills where we'd have to run and touch nine lines in 30 seconds," said Kevin Jones, the former Chicago State coach and a Duckworth teammate at Eastern Illinois. "He would never make it, but he never stopped trying."

That diligence led Duckworth to 1,589 career points and 867 career rebounds at Eastern Illinois, and he was San Antonio's second-round pick in the 1986 NBA draft. He was traded later that year to Portland, where he began in earnest a career that resulted in averages of 11.8 points and 5.8 rebounds a game over 11 seasons.

He credited an ethic instilled by his parents, especially his father, Edward, a long-haul truck driver. "You think back to how your parents struggled just so you could have certain things," he told the Oregonian newspaper in a 1991 profile.

"He never forgot his roots," Bonfiglio said. "We used him as a good example of what can happen if you just stay with it and work hard."