When talking about the Chicago champion of the 90s era, several famous names immediately come to mind. Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Horace Grant, Toni Kukoc… But there are also those who, three decades later, are rarely remembered. One of those players would be Bison Dele, the trophy-winning center with the Bulls in 1997.
He joined the franchise nine games before the end of the regular season. Due to excessive financial demands, the player left the Clippers and could not find a new team at the beginning of the season, but in the playoffs he became an important player for the reigning champions, replacing the injured Bill Wennington. At that time, Dele was still called Brian Williams, which he changed in 1998 to honor his Indian and African origins.
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The center appeared in all 19 games of the 1997 postseason, averaging 6.1 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.0 steals per game in 17.7 minutes on the court. And Michael Jordan pushed him to get in shape after several months of absence. Williams was fast and athletic, had a good shot and was also a quality rebounder and defender. However, in Chicago he played for a minimum salary of about 30 thousand dollars and, due to existing financial rules, they could not offer him a new major contract.
As a result, the basketball player accepted an offer from Detroit, where he was to stay for seven years and earn around $50 million, but Dele announced his retirement in 1999, when he was only 30 years old. At the time, he still had $36 million left on his contract with the Pistons, but money was never particularly important to him. Bison regularly shared part of his earnings with ball boys and other staff members, with whom he often got along better than with his own teammates.
The same thing happened in Detroit: according to rumors, the relationship between Dele and his teammates was quite difficult. In addition, the player’s behavior was largely influenced by clinical depression, which he was diagnosed with at the beginning of his NBA career. Due to mental health issues, Bison even attempted suicide. In another incident in 1999, he was about to open the emergency door of a plane in which the Pistons were returning from a road game.
Bison Dele, 2002
Photo: Getty Images
At the same time, Dele remained the team’s starting center, regularly entered the court and did his job well, averaging 14 points, 7.6 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game. He impressed coach Doug Collins as a person, not as a basketball player. However, those who knew the athlete pointed out that he was never passionate about basketball. He didn’t want to continue playing and that’s why he retired so easily in 1999.
If the Bison wanted to return to the NBA, the Pistons would welcome him with open arms. However, he was not destined to return to the site. In 2002, Dele suffered a tragedy, as a result of which he and two other people died prematurely.
After leaving the NBA, the basketball player decided to do what had always been his soul: travel. He spent a lot of time in the Mediterranean and Australia, after which he spent 650 thousand dollars on an 18-meter catamaran (under the funny name “Hakuna Matata”) and went to explore the South Pacific Ocean with his girlfriend Serena Karlan and the boat. . Captain Bertrand Balance. They were later joined by Dele’s older brother, Miles Dabord, born Kevin Williams. He was the only one to return from the trip and was not reported missing on July 8, 2002.
Bison Dele, 1994
Photo: Roxanne McCann/Getty Images
It was that day when the occupants of the catamaran made contact for the last time. Dele and his wife were in regular contact with their families and the bank, and their sudden disappearance began to raise reasonable concerns. The coast guard, attempting to investigate what happened off the coast of Tahiti, initially found no evidence. But Dabord gave himself away when, on September 5 of that year, he posed as his brother and tried to buy $152,000 worth of gold in Phoenix, Arizona.
He forged Dele’s signature and used his passport to verify his identity. Two days earlier, the Hakuna Matata catamaran, registered in Tahiti under another name, was found off the island without its identification plate and with its hull damaged, and the bullet holes are believed to have been repaired. At that time, Dele’s missing reports had already been filed with police in Colorado and Michigan.
After Dabord was questioned by Phoenix police for identity theft, he fled to Mexico, where he hid in a Tijuana hotel. At that time, the FBI had already opened an investigation into the disappearance of his brother and Miles was considered the main suspect. For some time nothing was known about his whereabouts and the only clue was phone calls reported by the Williams’ mother.
Mama Bison Dele, 2002
Photo: Wally Skalij/Getty Images
“Kevin said, ‘Mom, I need you to believe me. I wouldn’t hurt my brother. I need to know that you love me before he dies. I can’t go to jail. You know that with my character I won’t be able to survive in prison. No one will believe my story,” he said.
But already on September 15, 2002, Dabord was found and arrested in a California hospital. Friends brought him there from neighboring Tijuana, deliberately withholding his name, but fingerprint analysis confirmed that it was Kevin Williams the comatose patient. Without regaining consciousness, he died two weeks later. The cause of death was an insulin overdose, which left Miles, 35, with severe brain damage.
At that time, off the coast of Tahiti, divers were still searching for traces of Dele, his companion and captain of the ship. During the investigation, in which the French authorities participated, it turned out that during the fateful trip, Dabord acquired heavy weights, which then allegedly served to hide the bodies of those killed under water. Taking into account this and other evidence found, Miles was posthumously charged with premeditated murder and police authorities considered the insulin overdose a suicide. Of course, it was not possible to legally question Williams. But before committing suicide, he managed to express his own version of what happened to his girlfriend.
Bison Dele, 1997
Photo: Getty Images
Relations between the Williams brothers have always been quite tense. According to rumors, Kevin has been jealous of Brian since college, when he became popular. He tried to build a career in sports, including basketball, but due to his asthma he was never able to achieve much success. Because of this, there was a long conflict between the boys, which reached a boiling point during that ill-fated trip to Tahiti. Despite everything, Dele supported his older brother financially: he paid for her studies and bought a car. But, according to rumors, it was in the summer of 2002 when Bison told his friend and manager that he wanted to stop helping Dabord with money because of his “wasteful and irresponsible financial adventures.”
“Miles always remained in the shadows. He always felt that he was not appreciated and loved because of the way he was. [как его младшего брата]. “I’m sure this influenced what happened in the last six months on the yacht,” said the Williamses’ mother, Patricia.
So Miles seemed to have a reason. However, according to him, what happened on the catamaran was not a murder. Dabord said another confrontation occurred that day between him and Bison. Serena, the former basketball player’s friend, tried to intervene and separate the brothers, but she fell unsuccessfully and hit her head. And since the captain of the ship intended to report his death to the authorities, Dele decided to kill him. After this, the fight between him and Dabord continued and as a result of the fight, Miles killed Bison in self-defense. He then tied the bodies to the same dumbbells and threw them into the water. The remains have never been found and are unlikely to be found.
Chicago Bulls, 1997
Photo: John W. McDonough/Getty Images
What really happened remains a mystery to this day. The investigation found no evidence to confirm Dabord’s version. Why he bought weights, why he threw the bodies into the water, why he tried to present himself as his brother and why he finally committed suicide: all these questions remain unanswered to this day. The Williams brothers’ farewell ceremony took place in October 2002.
This is how the story of the talented Brian Williams, 1997 champion and Michael Jordan’s teammate, ended. He was not mentioned in The Last Dance and is not a well-known name among most basketball fans. The circumstances of his death will never be revealed. However, he will always be a part of the Chicago Bulls, the NBA and their championship history.
