FORMER PBA import Galen Young died on Saturday (Sunday morning Manila time), the Charlotte Observer reported. He was 45.
According to the report, Young was killed after a vehicle crashed into her mother’s house in Memphis. Young was inside the house when the incident occurred. His mother was unhurt.
“I understand that Galen was on a computer in a front room,” Young’s friend and former teammate Marlon Thomas said in an interview with the Charlotte Observer. “Then the car came into the house and killed him while he was sitting there.
"It’s such a freaky, terrible thing.”
Memphis Police said the driver was given a citation and an investigation is ongoing.
A product of University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Young played in 2004 with Alaska and in 2007 with San Miguel. He also had stints in Japan and Australia, and was recently an assistant coach for Lane College in Tennessee.
Prior to his PBA stint, Young won the MVP in 1999 in the Conference USA, one of the conferences under the NCAA Division I. He also led the Charlotte 49ers to the C-USA crown.
Tributes poured in from basketball personalities including former PBA and Gilas Pilipinas player Jimmy Alapag, who even got an opportunity to talk to Young recently.
“We had just talked a couple months ago about coaching and the joy of being able to share the wisdom/experiences we've learned from our own careers,” said Alapag in a post on Facebook.
Young played for the Aces in the 2004 Fiesta Conference, leading them to a second-place finish in the elimination round before their campaign ended in the quarterfinals.
Young returned to the PBA through the Beermen, lifting the squad from a 1-6 start to sixth place at the end of the elimination round. San Miguel went on to finish fourth after losing to eventual champion Alaska in the semifinals.
The Beermen were defeated by Red Bull in the battle for third place.
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