Kevin Duckworth was a mountain of a man. Those who knew him well, including teammates on the two-time Western Conference championship Portland Trail Blazers teams on which he played, say his heart was just as big.
“Duck” was a relatively unheralded center out of Eastern Illinois University — one of only two players to hail from that small school to ever play in the NBA. (In a sad coincidence, both players — Duck and Jay Taylor — died young: Taylor at age 30 in 1998; Duck at age 44 in 2008.