Jewel Upshaw, the mother of Zeke Upshaw, a 26-year-old professional basketball player for the Detroit Pistons’ Grand Rapids Drive NBA G League team, has sued the NBA in a wrongful death action.
On March 24, 2018, during the final minutes of the last game of the team’s regular season, Upshaw suddenly collapsed to the floor, unconscious and in full cardiac arrest. The attorneys representing Upshaw, Hilliard Martinez Gonzales LLP (www.hmglawfirm.com), maintain that for more than five minutes “not a single life-saving measure was taken to address Zeke’s fatal condition. He was kept on life support for two days and then died.”
The lawsuit brings claims of negligence and gross negligence for the wrongful death of Zeke Upshaw against the NBA, the Detroit Pistons Basketball Company and SSJ Group, owners of the Grand Rapids Drive and the Deltaplex Arena where the game was held.
“When the otherwise healthy heart of a professional NBA athlete suddenly stops during a game there is absolutely no reason, in 2018, that his heart cannot be immediately restarted,” said attorney Bob Hilliard. “No attempts were made to save Zeke Upshaw’s life. No CPR, no defibrillation, nothing. This is the tragedy of this case, Zeke should be alive today, the human consequences are difficult to quantify.
“Changes must come to the NBA and we are bringing the lawsuit to cause those changes. No other young man should have to die on a basketball court again.”
Hilliard is no stranger to sports law. He led the litigation against Major League Baseball resulting in a league-wide policy change to extend protective netting at all MLB ballparks.
