DETROIT – David “Smokey” Gaines, the former Harlem Globetrotters and ABA player who coached at Detroit-Mercy and San Diego State, has died. He was 80.
Gaines died Saturday of cancer, his family said. He also contracted COVID-19, The Detroit News reported.
A star guard in high school, the Detroit native was an all-state selection in 1959 and went on to star at LeMoyne-Owen College in Tennessee. He was a member of the Globetrotters from 1963 to 1967 and also played briefly for the Kentucky Colonels of the American Basketball Association before turning to coaching.
Gaines began coaching as a part-time assistant under Dick Vitale at Detroit-Mercy in 1973 and took over when Vitale stepped down after the 1976-77 season.
“I’m so saddened to just receive a call from Darryl Gaines son of David Smokey Gaines that his Dad has just passed from cancer,” Vitale wrote on Twitter. “Smokey a Hall of Fame Harlem Globetrotter was a dear friend who played a vital role in my career while at the University of Detroit. Pls God May he RIP!”