Detroit — Earl Cureton had a long and well-traveled professional basketball career, which spanned nearly two decades and saw him play with seven NBA franchises and multiple organizations overseas.
Cureton, who played for the University of Detroit and later the Detroit Pistons and for many years has been working as a tireless ambassador for both, died Sunday morning, the Pistons and Detroit Mercy confirmed. He was 66. The cause of death wasn’t immediately known. He collapsed at his Farmington Hills home Sunday morning.
“Earl was one of the greatest people I have ever met and he also had an outstanding basketball mind, as well as his caring for all people he was unbelievable,” LaMont “ShowBoat” Robinson said, who is the founder of the American Basketball Hall of Fame (ABHOF) that is based in the City of Detroit.
Earl was a 2023 inductee of the ABHOF and he was like an adviser for the ABHOF and he had just called me last week to talk about his new book, and someone he wanted me to contact at St. Cecilia Gym also will as he wanted me and the staff at the ABHOF to consider inducting his close friend Tyrone “Muggsy” Bogues, that he played with in the NBA with the Charlotte Hornets. Robinson went on to say also that two weeks ago Earl came in a snow storm to the ABHOF press conference where we announced the 2024 class and Earl spoke at the conference. I had know idea this would be my last time seeing my friend Earl.
Cureton had worked on the ESPN+ broadcast for Detroit Mercy’s game against Robert Morris at Calihan Hall on Saturday afternoon. That game was always a favorite matchup on Cureton’s broadcast schedule, as he is also in the Hall of Fame’s at both Detroit Mercy and Robert Morris.
Cureton grew up in Detroit in the 1960s, and the race riots, playing basketball at famed St. Cecilia’s on the city’s west side, before going on to star at Detroit Finney High School. He then attended Robert Morris, playing a season there — Robert Morris’ first in Division I, after making the jump from junior college — and averaging 17.9 points and 10.5 rebounds, before he decided to transfer back home, to what then was known as the University of Detroit. The board of governors of the ABHOF has decided to dedicate this year’s 2024 induction ceremony in honor of Earl “The Twirl” Cureton.
