Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Alerts | Electronic edition | Advertise | Subscribe to the paper | Today's Extras
Subscribe

Breaking News:

Wesley to Smith: 'Only time heals'

Ex-teammate, friend of Phills knows emotion after accident

Chris Tomasson, Rocky Mountain News

Published June 13, 2007 at midnight

Text size  

More Denver Nuggets

More stories »

CLEVELAND - David Wesley knows what J.R. Smith is going through. He knows there will be sleepless nights. He knows only time can heal Smith's pain.

On Jan. 12, 2000, Wesley, then with the Charlotte Hornets, and teammate Bobby Phills were speeding up Tyvola Road at more than 100 mph after a team shootaround at the Charlotte Coliseum.

The two, both driving Porsches, were scheduled to meet at a nearby restaurant.

Phills, 30, lost control of his car and crashed head- on into a vehicle. He was pronounced dead at the scene, and Wesley later was convicted of reckless driving.

Saturday, Smith, a Nuggets guard who was Wesley's teammate with the New Orleans Hornets for the first two months of the 2004-05 season, was driving in his native New Jersey with two friends.

Smith, who has been cited for failure to stop at a stop sign and improper passing, entered an intersection, was hit by a car, and his sport utility vehicle flipped over.

Smith was thrown from the car, as was back-seat passenger Andre Bell, Smith's friend. While Smith and the front-seat passenger, Carl Marshall, who was wearing a seatbelt and not ejected, escaped with minor injuries, Bell, 21, suffered a severe head injury and died Monday.

"I'm definitely going to call him," Wesley, a Cleveland Cavaliers guard, said in an interview with the Rocky Mountain News before Tuesday's Game 3 of the NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs.

What advice will Wesley have for Smith, who could face additional charges?

"It's a tough situation," said Wesley, a 14-year veteran activated Tuesday for the first time in the Finals because of Larry Hughes' foot injury. "There's not a thing you can say that eases that pain. I would definitely tell him, 'Don't run from the thoughts and the memories. Embrace (Bell).'

"People start trying to avoid a street the way they used to (drive on it). . . . I think you should think about it. You should embrace that person's life as opposed to his death. And only time heals it.

"People will blame him, and there will be a ton of people who tell him that bad things happen to good people. He has to find that happy medium where maybe he takes some responsibility. But don't kill himself over it. Don't beat himself up to death."

Smith has been released from the hospital. The Nuggets issued a statement saying he's "devastated by the loss of his good friend."

Five years of grief

Wesley and Phills were best friends while Hornets teammates. After Phills' death, Wesley didn't talk publicly about it for five weeks. It took much longer to get it even a little bit off his mind.

"It was probably five years before I could ever remember a day I looked back and said, 'I didn't think about it yesterday,' " said Wesley, who suffered further tragedy in April when his older brother, Donald, unexpectedly died.

Wesley and Smith, then a rookie, were teammates on the 2004-05 Hornets until Wesley was traded Dec. 27, 2004, to the Houston Rockets.

"I knew him pretty good," Wesley said. "He's very young and he wants to learn - that kind of guy. Very good kid. My wife (Shannon) loved him. My kids loved him. My heart goes out to him. It really does."

Wesley certainly can relate.

After the Jan. 12, 2000, shootaround, Phills and Wesley were scheduled to meet for breakfast with their wives. Police initially said they were racing, but Wesley denies that.

"We were just driving fast. He was on the phone. I was on the phone," said Wesley, adding he was talking with his wife and Phills with his wife, Kendall. "We were both driving sticks. That doesn't sound like a race to me. . . . There was just kind of a strip there. Probably half a mile that we gunned our machines. It was unfortunate. . . . He was probably four or five car lengths back. And I don't know what happened."

After Phills lost control and smashed head-on into a car, that vehicle was struck in the rear by a minivan. Wesley called a Hornets staff member, who told then- coach Paul Silas, who rushed to the scene.

"(The staff member) called us, crying, saying something was wrong," Silas said in a telephone interview with the Rocky. "I just thought it was an accident. When I got there, Bobby was in the car slumped over. I didn't know at that point that he had passed away. After a while, the police covered his face. It was just devastating."

The drivers of the other two vehicles recovered. Wesley was found guilty of reckless driving after being cleared of a racing charge. He was fined $250 and court costs and ordered to complete 40 hours of community service.

Trade deemed a bad idea

The season went on, and there was a belief Wesley would be traded. Silas said he spoke with a psychologist, who advised against that.

"It was really tough because I think David blamed himself," Silas said. "We had a psychologist come up from Atlanta, and he spoke to the team and spoke to me. David was not playing very well, naturally, after he came back, and there was talk about trading him. But the psychologist said you cannot let that happen because he might do something really terrible. He might do harm to himself.

"I fought really hard against any trade. I told David, 'Somehow you've got to sum up enough strength to get over it. You never totally will. But somehow you've got to let it go and temporarily get back to playing.' I told David it wasn't his fault, that Bobby was his own man and he made his own decision. He could have not sped."

Wesley denied he blamed himself, saying, "It's not like our cars touched or I veered him off the road."

Silas said Wesley was in better shape by the end of the season. Wesley said he eventually decided he wouldn't run from the incident.

"The road we were on (Tyvola), I didn't avoid it," said Wesley, who remained in Charlotte until the team moved to New Orleans in 2002. "I still had my Porsche years after (Phills) was gone. I kept trying to think about the positive parts of his life and how much fun we had."

Wesley said being in Cleveland brings "back all those memories because" Phills played with the Cavaliers from 1991-92 to 1996-97, when he was a teammate of current Cavaliers general manager Danny Ferry. But Wesley said he continues to emphasize the positive, and Phills being a former Cleveland player was not an issue when he decided last summer to sign with the Cavaliers as a free agent.

"We've talked about mutual friends and what a great guy (Phills) was, a great teammate," said Ferry, who, with Wesley, recently saw Phills' widow when the Cavaliers played the Bobcats in Charlotte.

Silas, who was dismissed as Hornets coach in 2003 and coached Cleveland from 2003-04 to 2004-05 before being fired, sees some similarities between the two accidents. But he said the healing process could be tougher for Smith.

"The difference was J.R. was driving and he ran through that stop sign, if that's the case, whereby Bobby, it was his own free will (to drive fast)," Silas said. "If J.R. blamed himself, J.R. would probably have a tougher time because it could clearly be pointed out that it was Bobby's own free will."

Silas was asked what he would say to Smith if he were his coach.

"What I would tell J.R. is somehow he's got to forgive himself," Silas said. "Don't hold on to it that you were totally responsible. It was still an accident. It happened. He can't blame himself. He still should have the remorse, but you've somehow got to pick yourself up. You've got too much living to do."

Similar words soon should be heard by Smith in a phone call from Wesley. He certainly can speak from experience.

Tragic crashes

Nuggets guard J.R. Smith wasn't the first athlete to be charged in a car crash in which a friend died.

Date

Jan. 12, 2000

Driver

David Wesley, Hornets (NBA)

Who died

Bobby Phills, teammate

Circumstances

Phills was traveling behind Wesley at more than 100 mph when his car spun and crossed into oncoming traffic. A police report said the two were driving "erratic, reckless, careless, in a negligent and/or aggressive manner."

Date

Sept. 29, 2003

Driver

Dany Heatley, Thrashers (NHL)

Who died

Dan Snyder, teammate

Circumstances

Heatley pleaded guilty to second-degree vehicular homicide, driving too fast for conditions, failure to maintain a lane and speeding after driving his Ferrari into a brick wall. Alcohol was not a factor.

Date

Dec. 15, 2003

Driver

Rob Ramage, retired NHL

Who died

Keith Magnuson, retired NHL

Circumstances

Ramage was charged with impaired driving and dangerous driving after veering into oncoming traffic. They had been attending the funeral of NHL alumni association chairman Keith McCreary.

Date

June 9, 2007

Driver

J.R. Smith, Nuggets (NBA)

Who died

Andre Bell, friend

Circumstances

Smith was cited for failure to stop at a stop sign and improper passing after his SUV crashed head-on with a Jaguar and overturned.

Post your comment

Registration is required. Click here to create your free user account, or login below.

Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.




(Forgotten your password?)




News Tip

Know about something we should be reporting? Tell us about it.

Sponsored links



Reprints