Michael Sweetney, the Georgetown big man taken ninth in the 2003 NBA draft, kept playing professionally on four continents for a decade once his four seasons in the league were behind him. He was 43 when he died at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center in Newark, N.J., on Wednesday, September 16, 2026.
His wife, India Murray Sweetney, announced his death in a Facebook post on September 17. “With the heaviest hearts, we are deeply saddened to announce the passing of our beloved Michael,” she wrote. “To know Mike Sweetney was to [love] him. No one loved him more and he loved no one more than his family.”
“His children were the light of his life, and he lived every day to give them the best life possible,” she continued. “He’s been my best friend for 30 years and my husband for almost 20. I’m not sure what we or I will do without him.” In the same tribute she called him “the best son, brother, family member, friend, father and husband ANYONE could ask for.”
From Hoyas Star to Ninth Pick
Raised in Washington, D.C., Sweetney crossed into Maryland for high school at Oxon Hill, then stayed home for college. In three years with the Hoyas he averaged 18.2 points and shot close to 55 percent, and his final two seasons were both double-double campaigns. His nightly line read 19 points and 10 rebounds in 2001-02, and it climbed to 22.8 points and 10.4 rebounds in 2002-03. His junior year brought Associated Press honorable mention All-American recognition and a spot among the finalists for the Naismith award.
Georgetown’s career leaderboard still carries his name, with 1,750 points, 887 rebounds and 180 blocks beside it. The pick that pulled him out of school after that junior season came ninth overall in 2003, when New York called his name. A power forward and center, Sweetney suited up for the Knicks from 2003 to 2005 before moving on to the Bulls, where his NBA run ended in 2007. In 233 games, 73 of them starts, his line came to 6.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 15.5 minutes.
Ten More Years, Far From the NBA
The NBA was only the most visible chapter of his playing career, not the end of it. Sweetney signed with the Shaanxi Kylins in China and spent a stretch with the Erie BayHawks in the NBA’s development league. Then came years in the winter and summer leagues of Latin America, where his passport filled up: Cangrejeros de Santurce, Vaqueros de Bayamón and Brujos de Guayama in Puerto Rico, Metros de Santiago in the Dominican Republic, Guaiqueríes de Margarita in Venezuela, Club Atlético Atenas in Argentina, and Club Biguá and Urunday Universitario in Uruguay. A roster still listed him in 2017, 14 years after the draft.
Coaching came next. In 2019 he joined the bench at Yeshiva University, a Division III program in New York, as an assistant — a job he held until 2023 — and he also took over the girls’ varsity team at the Ramaz School. “The world lost a giant today,” Yeshiva head coach Elliot Steinmetz wrote in a post on X. A close friend was gone, Steinmetz said, and the basketball world had lost a beloved star while the Jewish community had lost an ally. Sweetney, he added, was family who turned up whenever he was needed, without ever being asked.
Tributes also came from the Knicks, the Bulls and Georgetown. Each acknowledged his death on social media, with the two NBA clubs posting on September 17. Saddened by the news, the Knicks called him a person who would be missed by many, while the Bulls extended condolences to the family and friends of their former player.
Speaking Openly About His Rookie Years
A 2017 interview with HoopsHype drew candid remarks from Sweetney about the depression he battled as a young NBA player. His father had attended every one of his Georgetown games, and that loss came early in his professional career; Sweetney described going from college star with his dad in the stands to grieving while he barely saw the floor. His coach, he recalled, told him plainly that he would not play him.
He said he felt he had nowhere to turn while the media wrote about his struggles. “I just kept digging myself into a deeper hole of depression,” he said. Climbing out of it was something he eventually recognized he had to do, Sweetney told HoopsHype, and the process took time, leaning heavily on family and friends who had his back through the worst stretches. A generation of basketball fans came to know him beyond the box score partly because he described those lowest moments.
A Return to the Knicks Family
The franchise that drafted him never lost touch. An invitation brought him to an alumni night at a Knicks game in January 2026. Writing about it later, he said the evening had put him back among childhood idols and back in touch with former teammates and opponents alike.
As of September 18, no cause of death had been released. India Sweetney closed her post with a request: “We appreciate every call and text of love and support. We just ask that right now you give us all a little time before you start to reach out because it’s been pretty overwhelming. Thank you and God bless.”