Meminger from a basketball event in 2004. (Aubrey Reuben)
Dean “The Dream” Meminger, a key player on the last New York Knicks team to win a title, was found dead in Harlem of a possible drug overdose today — with his gold championship ring still on his finger, sources said.
A fully-clothed Meminger, 65, was discovered on his bed in the Casablanca Hotel on West 145th Street near Broadway after hotel staff went to talk to him after he didn’t check out as expected, sources said.
“There was white stuff oozing out of his nose,” one source said about the troubled ex-Knick. “Looked like he had a seizure after he was using cocaine, but the medical examiner will have the final say.”
Meminger was a South Carolina native who grew up in New York, where he starred at Rice High School before earning All-America honors under coach and Queens native Al McGuire at Marquette.
The defensive-minded point guard was a Knicks first-round draft pick in 1971 and played a key role in their march to their last championship in 1973, when he played along the legendary Willis Reed, Walt Frazier and Earl “The Pearl” Monroe.
But he fell on hard times in recent years, nearly burning himself to death in 2009 in a fire in the Bronx rooming house where he was living while smoking crack.
He spent four seasons with the Knicks and two with the Atlanta Hawks, and then bounced around several hoops jobs, including stints as head coach at Manhattanville College and the Albany Patroons of the Continental Basketball Association, where he was replaced by former teammate Phil Jackson.
“Everyone at the New York Knicks organization is saddened to hear the news of Dean Meminger’s passing,” the Knicks wrote in a statement. “From the day he was drafted by this franchise in 1971, Dean was a friend and close family member of this team. On April 5, 2013, the 1973 World Championship team was honored at Madison Square Garden on it’s 40th anniversary — there was no one prouder than Dean to be back on the court with his teammates. We send our heartfelt condolences to the entire Meminger family.”
Additional reporting by Bob Fredericks