We are crying today for BoilerBall's Biggie Swanigan, for the demons he had to overcome as a child, and the demons he couldn't overcome as an adult, writes GreggDoyelStar.
We are crying here, and we are crying there. Just spoke with Chris Forman, Purdue’s associate athletic director for communications and the Boilermakers’ basketball spokesman. He’s a stats guy, Forman, always coming up with nuggets of information about Purdue basketball, but he’s like you and me right now. He’s devastated.
But the day before, in that locker room, Biggie was riding a stationary bike. He was wearing a sweatsuit, the kind wrestlers wear to cut weight before weigh-in. Even then, a college athlete, just 20 years old, Biggie was fighting off his body's natural inclinations. Biggie stayed out of the public eye after that, other than that arrest in Whitley County – he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor marijuana possession, and was given a 180-day suspended sentence – but you heard things. He was gaining weight, reportedly 400 pounds at the time of his arrest. He wasn’t close anymore with Roosevelt Barnes, his adoptive father. He was self-destructing.
And for a time, it got even better. Biggie returned to Purdue to finish his degree. Did you know? He’d spent two years in school before entering the 2017 NBA Draft, going 26th overall to Portland, but he earned his degree just one year later. Chris Forman is talking about that through tears as we remember a special young man.