Former NBA Player, General Manager Lance Blanks Dies at 56

Lance Blanks, a former NBA player and Suns general manager, died Wednesday in Dallas. He was 56.

Blanks’s family confirmed his death Thursday. The former NBA guard spent three seasons in the league, playing for the Pistons and Timberwolves after being selected No. 26 in the first round of the 1990 NBA draft.

He ultimately served as Phoenix’s general manager from 2010 to ’13 after serving five years as assistant general manager of the Cavaliers. Blanks also worked as a scout and director of scouting for the Spurs.

Joe Dumars, executive vice president and head of basketball operations for the NBA, played with Blanks in Detroit. He described Blanks as one of his “closest friends.”

“Lance (Blanks) was a light for all those who knew him,” Dumars said, per ESPN. “I’m eternally grateful for all the support he has shown me throughout the years. His legacy will be carried on, not only by his family, but by all those whose lives he touched for the better.”

Before his playing career and front office work in the NBA, Blanks played college basketball at Virginia from 1985 to ’87 and Texas from ’88 to ’90. In 2007, he was inducted into the Longhorns Hall of Honor.

Prior to his death, Blanks served as a TV analyst for The Longhorn Network, a position he began in ’14.