Words of rememberance
Friends, family, and colleagues alike seem to have nothing but positive things to say about Bobby Phills, II. These are just a handful of quotes and kind words in remembrance of Bobby from those who knew him.
“Not only was Bobby a tremendous person, but a great husband, father and role model that everyone respected and admired. He was someone that you would want your children to be like. He was just a prince of a human being. He’s going to be missed enormously on the court as well as off the court. This community is going to miss him.“
George Shinn
Hornets Owner
Bobby Phills represented the very best of the NBA. We all know Bobby was a talented and competitive player. But he was also one of the most respected members of the NBA, a valued teammate and a caring member of the community. He will be greatly missed by the entire NBA family and basketball fans around the world.
David Stern
NBA Commissioner
He was such a special person… He could have been one of the foremost Black leaders in the country. He had the brain power, he had the great family background. He had everything. For years, I tried to get him to go on to med school like he had talked about when he was a kid.
Ben Jobe
Bobby’s Former Coach at Southern University
The NBA looks for role models. This is the guy who was Captain of the Hornets. There is a reason for that. He was Captain in Cleveland. And there were higher-profile players on both teams. He’s got two great kids. I know how unbelievably important family was to him. His parents did a great job of raising him.
Mark Bartelstein
Bobby’s Agent
The guy just had an infectious smile. I’ll always remember how intelligent he was. The things I asked him to do, he never wavered. It was always, ‘Whatever I can do to help the team win.’ I’ll remember his confidence. He became such a confident player on the court. And off the court, he affected everyone’s lives. He just touched everybody.
Paul Silas
Hornets Head Coach
He was one of the players you could honestly say thought of other people before he thought of himself, always putting other people in front of himself. A guy that was dedicated not only on the basketball floor, but inside the community. He was definitely one of the guys in the NBA that was a first-class person.
Glen Rice
L.A. Lakers Forward and Former Teammate
Bobby had no pretensions. He was concerned about real issues, not the next car or the next house. He was worried about poor people, about kids and education. He had depth.
Rev. Kenneth Paramore
As good a basketball player as Bobby was, he was 10 times that as a human being. He was everything you would want as a person. He was intelligent, he had character, he was a great family man. He was an inspiration to all of us. Bobby Phills was a classic example of how people with character can make themselves better.
Wayne Embry
Cleveland Cavaliers President/COO
He was an absolutely great, great person, someone I’m genuinely proud to say has been a very good friend of mine for several years. He’s the type of person who would do anything to help a teammate, friend or stranger… I don’t want to believe it happened, especially to someone with as much class and dignity as Bobby Phills.
Chris Mills
Former Cleveland Teammate
He was just one of those rare guys who came in pure, in the way he played basketball and the way he lived his life. Selfishness is what kills team sports, and he didn’t have any of it.
Dave Cowens
Former Hornets Head Coach
If someone asked you to describe the NBA player who epitomizes all that you wished NBA players would be, it is Bobby Phills. I don’t know one negative thing about Bobby. He was a good father, good husband and good player. He loved his parents, and he stayed out of trouble. We lost one of a vanishing breed in the NBA.
Joe Tait
Cleveland Cavaliers Radio Broadcaster
I feel like I’ve lost a friend and I feel like the world has lost a great human being because he was much more than a basketball player. He was a very in-depth person, just a treasure to be around.
Clay Moser
Assistant Coach, CBA’s Sioux Falls Skyforce
The League has lost someone special. He was a unique individual. He was going to be successful at anything he did. He just happened to be a basketball player. The best thing I can say about Bobby Phills is that I hope someday my kids can be like him. If they can be like Bobby Phills, they will be fine.
Gary Fitzsimmons
Golden State Warriors Assistant General Manager
I look at it like God wants something else for him, wants him to do something else. It was meant to be. Everything happens for a reason. Maybe so people will learn from this, maybe so people will turn their lives around because of Bobby Phills. I know I will. I know it’s important to keep living every day like it’s my last…
Allen Iverson
Philadelphia 76ers Guard
I know that some of what I’m writing, and what others are saying and writing, make Phills sound like Gandhi in high tops. But as classy as everybody says he is, that’s how classy he was. I wish I had glorified him while he was still alive.
Tom Sorensen
Charlotte Observer Columnist
The relationship between pro athletes and sportswriters is supposed to be purely professional, but Phills made objectivity impossible for me. I first met him in 1992 when we both worked in Ohio. Believe me, all the things that will be said about him in his eulogy will be true; he was a beautiful person.
Michael Holley
Boston Globe Columnist
We’re not remembering how Bobby played ball. We’re remembering how he treated people. It’s unfortunate that it takes something like this to bring us all together, to make that connection. We really compete – we knock each other’s heads off – but we’re also a fraternity. Bobby represents the best of who we are.
Sidney Lowe
Former Cleveland Assistant Coach
It’s very unfortunate that bad things happen to good people. He was the type of guy who you could call and say, ‘Hey, can you watch my kids?” … He would do that for you. He really wasn’t like the stereotype athletes, the ones that think they’re special. He didn’t think he was special, but he was special.
Chuck Person
Seattle Sonics Forward and Former Teammate
Daddy is in heaven… with the angels.
Trey Phills
Bobby’s Three-Year-Old Son
You just have to live life to its fullest. I think this is going to wake a lot of guys up, especially a lot of guys in our profession. This shows you’re not promised anything. If this can happen to a person like Bobby Phills, it can definitely happen to anybody. He had everything a man could want in life.
Dell Curry
Toronto Guard and Former Teammate
They don’t come any better than Bobby. The good Lord has his reasons for taking people at certain times, but this is very hard because Bobby was so special to all of us. And not only on the court, but off the court. He was just a special man.
Paul Silas
Hornets Head Coach
Of all the things that could possibly happen to parents, I think that the absolute worse is the death of a child. Parents generally expect their children to bury them, not the other way around. There is not a single day that we don’t think of Bobby and all of the things surrounding his death. Thus, keeping the Bobby Phills Educational Awareness Foundation, which Bobby established, alive and well, is our way of keeping the ideals that he stood for alive and well.
Dr. Bobby R. and Mary L. Phills
Bobby’s Parents
Not only will Bobby be missed greatly by all of us, but also by the many in the Northeast Ohio community he touched while here for six years. More important than Bobby’s abilities as a player were his attributes as a gentleman, husband and father.
Gordon Gund
Cleveland Cavaliers Owner
When your parents die, it is said you lose your past; when your spouse dies, you lose your present; and when your child dies, you lose your future. However, when your sibling dies, you lose a part of your past, your present, and your future. When a sibling dies, the world changes in a heartbeat, and oftentimes when such a loss occurs, others fail to recognize that the surviving sibling faces emotional battles on many fronts while working through the loss. Keeping the Bobby Phills Educational Awareness Foundation alive, not only maintains that connection that I felt with my brother, but also maintains the ideology of what Bobby and all of us structured his life around.
Dwayne A. Phills
Bobby’s Brother