Malik Sealy’s memory has been honored several times since his tragic death 14 years ago. But Saturday afternoon, when he will be inducted into the St. John’s Hall of Fame, will be different — for the first time, his son, Malik Remington Sealy, will be able to understand what his dad meant to those who knew him well.
“I’m really happy he will see the respect and honor that will be given to his dad,” Lisa Sealy, Malik’s wife, said in a phone interview. “Malik died when he was 3, so he doesn’t have a lot of memories of Malik. The last time when Malik was honored, he was younger. He might’ve been 7. Now that he’s about to be 17, he will learn to understand what it means and he will be able to soak it up and enjoy it. That’s why I’m excited about it, that he can see as a big kid what his dad meant to a lot of people.”
Sealy was killed May 20, 2000, at the age of 30, by a drunken driver while heading home from Timberwolves teammate Kevin’s Garnett’s 24th birthday party in St. Louis Park, Minn.
Malik Remington is currently a junior at LaGuardia High, who like his father before him, plays basketball. His passion, however, is animation, not hoops.
St. John’s was special to Malik, a Bronx product and high school All-American at since-closed St. Nicholas of Tolentine High. He met Lisa there and the two fell in love. When they married, nearly a quarter of the wedding party was former friends, teammates and coaches from St. John’s. He was a basketball star there, one of only two players in St. John’s history to score more than 2,000 career points, behind only Chris Mullin on the all-time list.
Sealy scored in double figures in 102 consecutive games, breaking Mullin’s record of 100 straight games, and is still listed among all-time leaders in several statistical categories. He went on to become a first-round pick in the 1992 NBA Draft, taken 14th overall by the Pacers. He played eight seasons in the NBA, averaging more than 10 points per game.
Popular and respected, he was more than just a basketball player. Garnett wears the No. 2 jersey with the Nets in honor of Sealy.
He had a tie business and founded Baseline Studios in 2000, where Jay Z recorded several hits, and appeared in the 1996 Whoopi Goldberg movie “Eddie.”
“If he never bounced a ball, he would still have been a wonderful success,” St. John’s Hall of Fame coach Lou Carnesecca said. “He was always ahead, thinking beyond his time. It was a tragedy to lose him, he was taken away from us in the most fruitful time of his life.”
“There’s never a day I don’t think about Malik, never a day I don’t cry about Malik,” said Lisa, who lives with her son in Holliswood, Queens. “It’s never going to be just OK for me. I’m just happy that he’s finally being honored. I’m hoping I will be able to keep it together.
“I’m hoping I’m going to be able to keep it brief and simple. It’s an emotional day. I’m sure we all wish I wouldn’t have to go up there. Malik would be the one to go up there.”
Sealy will be part of a seven-person Hall of Fame class that also includes former major league shortstop Rich Aurilia, volleyball star Wioleta Leszczynska and men’s soccer single-season goals record-holder Fred Bischoff.