Roy Lane Marble, Jr. (December 13, 1966 – September 11, 2015) was an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player, 6'6" tall, who played as a swingman (shooting guard/small forward). After playing four seasons at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 col ...

from 1985 to 1989, Marble left the college as Iowa's all-time leading scorer with 2,116 points, a record which stood for 32 years until

Luka Garza Luka H. Garza (born December 27, 1998) is an American-Bosnian professional basketball player for the Minnesota Timberwolves of the National Basketball Association (NBA), on a two-way contract with the Iowa Wolves of the NBA G League. He played c ...

broke it on February 21, 2021. Marble was selected by the

Atlanta Hawks The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The team plays its home games at ...

in the first round (23rd overall) of the

1989 NBA Draft The 1989 NBA draft took place on June 27, 1989, in New York City. Despite eight of the top ten picks being considered busts, including the first two picks Pervis Ellison and Danny Ferry, the draft produced many talented players such as Shawn Ke ...

, playing for the club during his rookie year (24 games, scoring a total of 51 points). He also had a brief stint with the Denver Nuggets during the 1993–94 season, appearing in 5 games.

Personal life

In August 2014, Marble was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer that began in his lungs. He was publicly vocal about his struggle with this terminal disease, while relocating his family from Iowa to his home state of Michigan. Marble died of cancer on September 11, 2015 at the age of 48. Marble's son, Devyn, followed in his father's footsteps to Iowa and the NBA. Devyn and his father were the first father-son duo in Big Ten history to each score 1,000 points. Marble came into the news again in 2021 when his family expressed displeasure at the retirement of

's jersey number (announced after the last game of the season on March 7), noting that they felt hurt and disrespected by the move upon the fact that Marble's number was not retired; Marble, alongside Murray Wier and

Chuck Darling :''A fictional character named Chuck Darling was in the comedy series Back to You.'' Charles Frick Darling (March 20, 1930 – April 6, 2021) was an American basketball player who competed in the 1956 Summer Olympics. Born in Denison, Iowa, Darl ...

, are considered the best players to not have their jersey number retired by Iowa. Devyn stated that he would never publicly watch another Iowa game again. Two days after announcing Garza's jersey retirement, Iowa athletic director Gary Barta gave a public apology to the Marble family.

References

External links

Stats at Basketball-Reference
1966 births 2015 deaths American expatriate basketball people in Canada American men's basketball players Atlanta Hawks draft picks Atlanta Hawks players Basketball players from Flint, Michigan Deaths from cancer in Michigan Cedar Rapids Silver Bullets players Denver Nuggets players Fargo-Moorhead Fever players Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball players McDonald's High School All-Americans Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball) Quad City Thunder players Shooting guards Shreveport Crawdads players Small forwards Tri-City Chinook players {{1960s-US-basketball-bio-stub