{"id":6621,"date":"2011-05-12T14:40:26","date_gmt":"2011-05-12T18:40:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=6621"},"modified":"2011-05-12T14:40:26","modified_gmt":"2011-05-12T18:40:26","slug":"ex-nba-michigan-player-tractor-traylor-dies-at-34","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=6621","title":{"rendered":"Ex-NBA, Michigan Player ‘Tractor’ Traylor Dies At 34"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Robert Traylor<\/strong>, the former NBA and University of Michigan big man nicknamed “Tractor”<\/strong> because of his hulking frame, has died. He was 34.<\/p>\n

Described as a “gentle giant” with a generous smile, Traylor <\/strong>played seven years in the NBA. He is perhaps most remembered, however, for his career at Michigan, where he was a standout for three seasons but, became embroiled in a major scandal involving a booster.<\/p>\n

Police in San Juan said Traylor<\/strong> was found dead Wednesday on the bedroom floor of his oceanfront apartment. Police and Traylor’s<\/strong> team, the Bayamon Cowboys, said he had been missing for a few days and apparently died from a heart attack.<\/p>\n

“He was a leader of the team,” said Jose Carlos Perez<\/strong>, the Cowboys’ manager. “He was very, very friendly. He got along very well with everyone. The fans loved him, idolized him.”<\/p>\n

Perez<\/strong> said that Traylor<\/strong> had been talking by phone to his wife in Chicago when the connection was suddenly cut off. She called team officials Wednesday and they checked on him, Perez said.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-8, 300-pound Traylor<\/strong> was injured and had not been playing, the team said.<\/p>\n

Traylor<\/strong> was drafted by the Dallas Mavericks with the sixth pick in 1998, but they traded his rights to Milwaukee in a major deal that sent Dirk Nowitzki<\/strong> to Dallas.<\/p>\n

Traylor <\/strong>played for the Bucks in the first two seasons of an NBA career that included stops in Cleveland, Charlotte and New Orleans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Robert Traylor, the former NBA and University of Michigan big man nicknamed “Tractor” because of his hulking frame, has died. He was 34. Described as a “gentle giant” with a generous smile, Traylor played seven years in the NBA. He is perhaps most remembered, however, for his career at Michigan, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6621\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}