David Greenwood Dies at Age 68, Won 1990 NBA Title with Pistons

Former NBA champion David Greenwood died from cancer on Sunday night at the age of 68, according to Ben Bolch of the L.A. Times.

Greenwood was a member of the Detroit Pistons' 1990 NBA championship team, and he also played for the Chicago Bulls, San Antonio Spurs and Denver Nuggets across 12 seasons in the league after beginning his career as the No. 2 pick in the 1979 NBA draft.

Greenwood was a high school basketball star at Verbum Dei in Los Angeles before committing to UCLA. He was one of the final players ever to be recruited by legendary head coach John Wooden, who surprisingly announced his retirement from UCLA shortly after Greenwood's senior season in high school. Still, the sudden change didn't deter Greenwood from becoming a Bruin.

"He told me if I went to USC or UNLV or Notre Dame, I’d be an All-American," Greenwood once told the L.A. Times of Wooden’s recruiting pitch, per Bolch. "But if I went to UCLA, I’d be able to test myself against 12 other high school All-Americans every single day. ... It was kind of like, 'Come here and test your mettle.'"

Greenwood's commitment paid off, as he was a consensus All-American in both his junior and senior seasons at UCLA after averaging a double-double in both years. He also earned back-to-back Pac-10 Player of the Year awards in 1978 and 1979 before transitioning to the NBA.

After being drafted second overall by the Bulls after the Los Angeles Lakers chose Magic Johnson with the No. 1 pick, Greenwood made an immediate impact with 16.3 points per game on his way to earning a spot on the NBA All-Rookie first team in 1980.

Unfortunately, Greenwood was mired by a series of foot injuries throughout the remainder of his career, and while he admirably played through them, they stopped him from reaching his full potential. He once told his brother, Al, that it felt as if his shoes were full of broken glass.

"That was how his feet felt a lot of the time, but he just played even when he shouldn’t have," Al Greenwood told Bolch. "I always called him The Thoroughbred."

Still, that didn't stop Greenwood from chasing his goal of becoming an NBA champion, which he achieved in his second-to-last NBA season with the Pistons.

"He was relentless," Al said, "because he loved the game."

Following his retirement, Greenwood coached high school basketball at his alma mater and guided Verbum Dei to state championships in 1998 and 1999. According to Bolch, he chose not to inform his family of his illness until near the end of his life, suffering in silence the same way he did with his foot injuries during his NBA career.

"Everything happened so quickly," Bronson Greenwood, David’s nephew, told Bolch. "It was kind of a shock."