Wayman Tisdale
The NBA player who became a musician
The NBA player who became a musician
1964–2009
Wayman Tisdale shot hoops with the Sacramento Kings, the Indiana Pacers, and the Phoenix Suns for 12 years. He spent another 14 playing bass guitar and recording eight best-selling albums. “I actually started playing music before I started playing basketball,” he explained. “Then I grew to 6-foot-9 and my values started changing.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The son of a pastor in Tulsa, Okla., Tisdale “idolized the bass players in the church band,” said The New York Times. “I thought they were the coolest cats,” he said. “They got to stand and do their thing in the back.” When his father gave him a toy guitar, he taught himself to play. Though he showed little interest in basketball growing up, “after sprouting 24 inches during junior high school and learning to dunk, he began to like the game.” Recruited by 150 colleges, Tisdale joined the University of Oklahoma as a power forward. With a quick-release short jump and soft southpaw shot, he averaged 25.6 points a game. In each of his first three years he was a first-team All-American and Big Eight Conference player of the year. He also “scored 2,661 points in his career, a Big Eight Conference record.”
After playing with the gold medal–winning 1984 U.S. Olympic basketball team, Tisdale turned pro and averaged 15.3 points per game, said The Washington Post. As his career was winding down, he picked up the bass guitar again. Emulating such artists as Stanley Clarke and Marcus Miller, he used his five-string electric “as a melodic solo instrument rather than as thumping background accompaniment.” In 1995, two years before retiring from the NBA, Tisdale “released his first album, Power Forward, which rose to No. 4 on Billboard’s contemporary jazz chart.” He hit No. 1 with Can’t Hide Love and a remake of Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now, but he had trouble explaining his commercial success. “To become a chart guy is baffling to me. It was a gift. I can’t even read music. I couldn’t tell you what key I’m playing in.”
Diagnosed with bone cancer in 2007, Tisdale had a leg amputated last August. The prosthetic limb he wore until his death last week was crimson, one of Oklahoma’s colors.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
The Vietnamese migrants crossing the Channel
The Explainer 2024 has seen a surge in the numbers of Vietnamese migrants making the illegal passage into the UK
By Richard Windsor, The Week UK Published
-
How to make the most of your leftover pumpkins
The Week Recommends As the Halloween fun wraps up, snap up pumpkins still on sale and don't leave your jack-o-lanterns to rot
By Tess Foley-Cox Published
-
How Harris and Trump differ on education
The Explainer Trump wants to disband the Department of Education. Harris wants to boost teacher pay.
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
Dame Maggie Smith: an intensely private national treasure
In The Spotlight Her mother told her she didn't have the looks to be an actor, but Smith went on to win awards and capture hearts
By Elizabeth Carr-Ellis, The Week UK Published
-
James Earl Jones: classically trained actor who gave a voice to Darth Vader
In The Spotlight One of the most respected actors of his generation, Jones overcame a childhood stutter to become a 'towering' presence on stage and screen
By The Week UK Published
-
Michael Mosley obituary: television doctor whose work changed thousands of lives
In the Spotlight TV doctor was known for his popularisation of the 5:2 diet and his cheerful willingness to use himself as a guinea pig
By The Week UK Published
-
Morgan Spurlock: the filmmaker who shone a spotlight on McDonald's
In the Spotlight Spurlock rose to fame for his controversial documentary Super Size Me
By The Week UK Published
-
Benjamin Zephaniah: trailblazing writer who 'took poetry everywhere'
Why Everyone's Talking About Remembering the 'radical' wordsmith's 'wit and sense of mischief'
By The Week UK Published
-
Shane MacGowan: the unruly former punk with a literary soul
Why Everyone's Talking About The Pogues frontman died aged 65
By The Week UK Published
-
'Euphoria' star Angus Cloud dies at 25
Speed Read
By Catherine Garcia Published
-
Legendary jazz and pop singer Tony Bennett dies at 96
Speed Read
By Devika Rao Published