Former New York Knicks first-round pick Jerrod Mustaf died Monday at age 55, the Baltimore Sun is reporting.
No cause of death has been revealed.
Mustaf was a star at Maryland for three seasons, averaging 16.6 points a game from 1988 until 1990.
The Whiteville, North Carolina native was drafted 17th overall by the Knicks in 1990 ahead of future NBA stars such as Jayson Williams, Toni Kukoc, Antonio Davis and Cedric Ceballos.
Mustaf was later accused of being involved in the murder of his pregnant girlfriend, Althea Hayes, in 1993. He wasn’t charged and steadfastly denied the allegations, even as Mustaf’s cousin, Lavonnie Wooten, was found guilty of the crime and sentenced to life in prison in 1996.
Jerrod Mustaf was picked 17th overall by the Knicks in the 1990 draft out of Maryland
Mustaf later played for the Phoenix Suns before embarking on a career in Europe
The son of self-described ‘black militant’ Shaar Mustaf, the younger Mustaf played high school ball at DeMatha High in Hyattsville, where he developed into one of the top recruits in the county.
At his father’s urging, Mustaf enrolled at Maryland, where he was named to three Parade All-American tams.
Although he was a first-round pick, Mustaf struggled to crack the Knicks rotation, given the depth at power forward with the presence of Charles Oakley. As a result, New York traded Mustaf to Phoenix in the deal that brought defensive ace Xavier McDaniel to the Knicks.
Mustaf would continue playing in Phoniex until the 1993-94 season, during which, his alleged girlfriend, Hayes, was shot and killed at her apartment in Glendale, Arizona.
Multiple witnesses claimed at the time that Mustaf was unhappy to learn that she was pregnant, according to a Roanoke Times piece in August of 1993.
Jerrod Mustaf of the Knicks boxes out against the Pacers at Madison Square Garden in 1993
Hayes reportedly phoned a friend on the night of the murder to say that Wooten, Mutaf’s cousin, was frightening her at her apartment.
Several witnesses, including an off-duty police officer, claimed to have seen Mustaf and Wooten outside Hayes’ apartment complex on the night in question, according to a Washington Times piece from 2001.
Her mother, Hazel, and Hazel’s husband’s Alvin told the Times that they believed Mustaf ‘paid someone to murder my daughter.’
In a previous incident from earlier in 1993, Mustaf and Wooten allegedly got into an altercation over a bill at a bookstore, resulting in the 6-foot-10 basketball player attacking his cousin. Mustaf was charged with aggravated assault and Wooten sued him, according to SI.com.
He continued to play professionally overseas after Hayes’ murder before returning to Maryland around 2000.
In 2001, he was charged with attacking his then-partner, Shalamar Muhammad Mustaf, and for violating a protective order that was connected to the case, according to the Times.
Mustaf would ultimately become an activist and mentor to children in Baltimore. He once launched a Pull ‘Em Up campaign to encourage children to pull their pants up, according to an SI.com piece from 2017.
