Bob Lanier was home, for the final time.
He may have been born in Buffalo, blossoming into a star at Bennett High School after getting cut from the team as a sophomore. He may have become an essential part of two different NBA franchises, in Detroit and in Milwaukee, both of which retired his No. 16 jersey. He may have earned a bust at the Naismith Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.
And he may have settled into a happy civilian life as an assistant coach to Don Nelson with Golden State, and then as the NBA’s global ambassador under two commissioners, David Stern and Adam Silver, spreading more goodwill at the game’s grassroots level than anyone ever has. He did that from the warmth of Arizona.
But for Lanier, who died late Tuesday night at 73 after a short illness, home was St. Bonaventure. Home was the company of teammates with whom he led the Bonnies to the brink of immortality. Home was this small, out-of-the-way corner of the Southern Tier, where he left behind a vintage pair of his size-22 Chuck Taylors and an enormous chunk of his heart.
“I learned to be a man here, and how to treat people the right way,” he said in a quiet moment that December weekend in 2019, when Lanier and the rest of the 1969-70 Bonnies gathered to be feted on the 50th anniversary of the team’s remarkable trip to the Final Four. “I learned about love and about loss and how to handle them both.”
There was an unspoken melancholy surrounding Lanier that weekend. He’d been through some health issues, and just getting to Olean from Arizona had been a chore. Most of his life, he was a gregarious, outgoing soul, eager to engage on any subject you like. Now, he spoke in quiet, hushed tones.
“It’s good…