First of all, he overcame a lot to get to where he was in life.
"His dad was a driver and used to take him out when Rodney was very young," Williams said. But Wadsworth left the family and died when Rogers was 8.
It got worse during Rogers's sophomore year in high school when his mother, Estelle Rogers Spencer, was in a near-fatal car accident and needed lengthy rehabilitation from injuries that included brain trauma. But a guardian angel appeared in the form of Nathaniel Brooks, who had coached one of Rogers's youth teams.
And secondly, he gave back more to the community and those around him than anyone might have really known, simply because he kept such a low, humble profile.
"I always told Rodney we were proud of him, not because he was a rich basketball player," Brooks said. Just the man who came home and built a computer lab in the projects, financed a youth football team, volunteered as a girls basketball coach, went to work as a public servant.
Which, considering all the self-centered actions that occur in today's world, is what makes this so freaking hard to stomach. If you have any sort of belief in fate, karma or higher powers, Rogers is the last person that you would ever expect to suffer this kind of accident.
And while the possibility that Rogers will be able to do the physical things he did before seems right around slim-to-none, he also profiles out as exactly the type of person that could somehow end up overcoming this sort of debilitating injury and turning the remainder of his life into a positive for the community around him.
Hearing Friends and Family Remember Rodney Rogers Only Emphasizes the Loss originally appeared on NBA FanHouse on Wed, 17 Dec 2008 18:32:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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