Report: Former Michigan guard, NBA player Darius Morris passes away at 33
Former Michigan Wolverines guard and NBA player Darius Morris has died at the age of 33, according to NBA insider Shams Charania.
Morris spent four seasons in the NBA, playing for the Los Angeles Lakers, Clippers, Philadelphia 76ers, Memphis Grizzlies and Brooklyn Nets from 2011-2015. After his NBA career ended he played basketball internationally until he retired in 2020.
He spent two seasons with the Wolverines in college, where during the 2010-11 season he led the Big Ten in assists and set the program single-season assist record by the end of the year. That mark has since been broken by Trey Burke, but his efforts earned him third-team All-Big Ten honors at the end of the season.
In the NBA, Morris would be selected in the second round of the 2011 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Lakers with the 41st overall pick. However, he would not get the call-up from the then-D-League until January, when he scored the first four points, two assists, and one rebound of his NBA career against the Utah Jazz.
He re-signed with the Lakers the following offseason, where he would go on to lead the 2012-13 Lakers Summer League team in scoring and assists. In one of the season’s opening games, he would record one of the best games of his Lakers career after filling in for an injured Steve Nash with 10 points, five rebounds, five assists and a steal in a 101-77 victory.
Morris joined the Philadelphia 76ers before the 2013 season but was waived by the end of November. He never saw a regular stint with another team during his NBA career. From there, 10-day contracts with the Grizzlies, he spent the 2014 offseason with the San Antonio Spurs Summer League squad and was signed and then waived by the Portland Trail Blazers before the season. He landed on the Brooklyn Nets in December of 2014 and spent the rest of the season there.
From 2016-2018 he was with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers in the D-League, an affiliate with the Houston Rockets, before taking his talents to the international scene, where he would play in China, Russia and France. However, he did play for the New Orleans Pelicans organization in 2019 with the Santa Cruz Warriors and even logged a triple-double during his stay. He last played in France in 2020 for BCM Gravelines-Dunkerque.
His cause of death is unknown as of this report.