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Michael Ray Richardson, a four-time All-Star guard whose ferocious defense and slashing drives with the New York Knicks awed even N.B.A. greats, but who later became the league’s first player to be banned for drug use, died on Tuesday in Lawton, Okla. He was 70. He was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer, his friend and lawyer John Zelbst said in a statement confirming the death. Despite his brilliance, Richardson — who at times preferred an alternate spelling, Micheal, and was nicknamed Sugar — was remembered as much for his ouster from the league in 1986 over cocaine as for his achievements on the hardwood. His memoir, “Banned: How I Squandered an All-Star NBA Career Before Finding My Redemption,” was published last year. “He had it all as a player, with no weaknesses,” Isiah Thomas, the Hall of Fame guard for the Detroit Pistons, said of Richardson, in an interview with the sports and culture site Andscape in June. In a 2020 interview with the sports columnist Mike Vaccaro of The New York Post, Magic Johnson, the Los Angeles Lakers superstar, said: “When I was playing, the one player I enjoyed watching more than anyone else was Sugar Ray Richardson. When I saw him, I saw a smaller version of me.” Richardson, a 6-foot-5 product of the University of Montana, was drafted fourth overall by the Knicks in 1978, two slots ahead of Larry Bird, who went on to a Hall of Fame career of his own with the Boston Celtics. New York fans and media quickly labeled Richardson “the next Walt Frazier,” a reference to the stellar Knicks point guard known as Clyde, who helped pilot the franchise to two league championships in the early 1970s. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
