Former NBA player Bison Dele is missing somewhere in the South Pacific and may be dead. “I don’t want to say Bison’s dead,” said Dwight Manley, Dele’s agent. “But is there any other option?”
Dele, 33, formerly known as Brian Williams, has not been seen since July 8, when Capt. Bertrand Saldo, skipper of Dele’s 55-foot-long, 60-foot-high catamaran, logged out of the French Polynesian island of Moorea, bound for Honolulu.
Saldo and Dele were accompanied by at least one other passenger, Serena Karlan, Dele’s girlfriend from Boulder, Colo. Karlan’s family said she had been checking in regularly with her whereabouts but that she had not been heard from since early July.
Clouding the disappearance is a recent attempt by a man believed to be Dele’s brother to buy gold, using the name Brian Williams.
Dele played for the University of Arizona and five NBA teams in eight seasons. He changed his name from Brian Williams in 1998 to honor his American Indian roots and the last known slave in his mother’s family. A licensed pilot and scuba diver, Dele chose to retire instead of playing out the final three years of a contract with the Detroit Pistons, which would have paid him $30 million. He moved to Lebanon to run a water purification plant, then headed to Australia, where he discovered sailing.
“He’s an explorer, and there’s a lot to be explored on the water,” said Patricia Phillips, Dele’s mother.
Phillips and Manley said Dele has allowed months to pass without contacting them before. Phillips said there are differences this time. Dele is not reachable by his satellite telephone and hasn’t responded to an e-mail about the cancer death of his aunt. His banker told Phillips Dele normally checked in monthly but that he had not done so for two months.
“I’ve drawn conclusions that run the gamut,” Phillips said. “I’ve gone from thinking this is just about two lovers who are laying on the beach and have almost entirely forgotten about their life on the mainland, to thinking the next phone call will be the police saying, ‘We need you to come identify a body.'”
On Thursday, Phoenix police picked up and questioned a man who had tried to write a $152,000 check for gold bullion at a coin/exchange establishment, Certified Mint. Phoenix police and the FBI refused to identify the person questioned, but Phillips said it was her other son, Dele’s 35-year-old brother, known both as Kevin Williams and Miles Dabord. Meanwhile, the search for Dele and Karlan goes on.
Jeff Janszen, a U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant at the Honolulu Rescue Control Center, said Tahitian authorities were hamstrung in their efforts to find a vessel in a 1,000-mile radius. Lance Pugmire writes for the Los Angeles Times, a Tribune Co. newspaper.
