As ESPN reports, on July 27, 1993, Lewis collapsed on the basketball court during a practice at Brandeis University, just outside Boston.The All-Star was pronounced dead two hours later. His cause of death was cited as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a common athletic ailment where the heart thickens, eventually causing heart attacks and cardiac arrest.

Per CBS, Lewis had collapsed one time before, during a playoff game earlier that year against the Charlotte Hornets. He revived on his own, but was pulled from the game due to shortness of breath and dizziness. While a doctor diagnosed the athlete with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in the spring (and deeming the disease career-ending), Lewis sought a second opinion from another area hospital, where another doctor gave the basketball star a less serious, non-fatal diagnosis.

The news of Lewis’s untimely and unexpected death left a long-lasting hole in the Boston community and the sports world as a whole. His relative youth, his dedication, and his clear potential made his death all the more poignant. “He was on his way to being one of the best 2-guards in the league,” said friend and former teammate Brian Shaw.