Teenager James Hampton Dies After Collapsing During Nike EYBL Game

James Hampton, a rising senior prep basketball player, died Saturday night after collapsing during a Nike Elite Youth Basketball League game.

Hampton was running down the floor before suddenly collapsing, per Steve Wiseman and Langston Wertz Jr. of the Charlotte Observer. Medical personnel on hand unsuccessfully attempted to revive him with chest compressions, and he was pronounced dead after arriving at a Hampton, Virginia, hospital. 

“He just fell down on the floor,” Team United director Jacoby Davis said. “He had seizures a year ago and I remember (one of the Team United coaches) telling me that, ‘I saw his eyes rolling back in his head.’ I ran on the court thinking he was having a seizure. A trainer came over and said he didn’t know what was wrong. Another trainer checked his pulse. He said he didn’t have a pulse. It got crazy after that.”

Team United players and All Ohio Red gathered at center court Sunday in a pregame moment of silence in Hampton's honor:

“It’s hard to even explain,” Davis said. “To have a kid in your program with so much life, that’s just the kind of kid he was. He was always happy. For something like this to happen, I can’t even explain it, and to have to talk to a parent not even in town and tell him that his son has died, well, that’s more devastating.”

It is unclear at this time what led to Hampton's death.