The Mystery Of The NBA Champion Who Disappeared
Topics: Basketball, Crime, US News, NBA
Rhiannon Ingle
Featured Image Credit: Alamy
Topics: Basketball, Crime, US News, NBA
Bison Dele was a hugely successful basketball player and NBA champion whose mysterious death still baffles his fans.
With a lifelong battle against mental health problems and his eventual vanishing - it's no surprise why so many people are intrigued with his disappearance following a boat trip with his brother and girlfriend.
Bison, originally known as Brian Williams, attended Santa Monica Catholic High School as a child and, contrary to his later career, didn't try organised basketball until the 10th grade when an unexpected growth spurt made him chase a career in the sport.
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While the 6ft 11in NBA champion's success on the court was marred by troubles off it, it was revealed that during a 1992/3 basketball season, Williams was diagnosed with clinical depression.
Fast forward some years, in 1998, Williams changed his name to Bison Dele as an 'honour to his Cherokee and African ancestry'.
A Youtube video, with over three million views, finally starts to unravel the mystery and links Dele's disappearance to his brother, Kevin Williams.
Dubbed as 'a shadow following him', the video explains that Kevin was a 'socially awkward and sensitive man'.
"While Dele had found success, Kevin had struggled."
The story starts to become suspicious when Kevin heard that Dele was planning on a boat trip with his girlfriend, Serena Karlan, on July 6, 2002 and 'decided to invite himself on what would go on to become a failed attempt to repair their spoiled relationship'.
After ten days passed with neither Dele, his girlfriend or his brother attempting to contact authorities or friends after previous regular communication via satellite calls, 'there was only confusion'.
This 'confusion' lasted up until their boat docked up at a port in Tahiti with only one person on board - Kevin Williams.
Following his disappearance, someone in Phoenix who claimed to be Dele 'attempted to purchase $152,000 of gold'.
It was learned that Kevin was impersonating his brother and admitted that although he had forged his brother's signature - he was buying the gold on behalf of him.
After the boat was found without licence plates and still no sign of Dele or Serena, Kevin Williams fled to Mexico.
According to Kevin's relaying of events to his girlfriend, he and Bison got into a 'heated altercation' and, in an attempt to separate the two brothers, Serina had accidentally been struck in the face and her head hit against a steel part of the boat killing her instantly.
Kevin claimed he then shot Bison to death out of self-defence before dumping the bodies overboard.
Kevin, the last and only source of information for this peculiar case, died September 27 2002 after slipping into a coma following an intentional insulin overdose.