Joe Wolf, a retired NBA veteran who remains one of the greatest players the state of Wisconsin has ever produced, has died, the Milwaukee Bucks announced Thursday. He was 59 years old.
Wolf’s cause of death was not announced, but Mark Miller of the Wisconsin Basketball Yearbook reports He suffered an apparent heart attack.
Wolf’s basketball career began and ended in Wisconsin. He initially became a star at Kohler, where he won state titles in 1980, 1982 and 1983. He became Wisconsin’s first McDonald’s All-American and remains one of only eight in state history.
In 2005, a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel poll voted Wolf the best high school basketball player in Wisconsin history.
Wolf decided to spend his college career playing for Dean Smith at North Carolina, where he was a teammate of Michael Jordan as a freshman. He became a first-team All-ACC player in 1987 and was selected 13th overall by the Los Angeles Clippers in the 1987 NBA Draft.
Wolf never became a consistent starter in the NBA, but remained in the league for 13 seasons while playing for seven different teams. He averaged 4.2 points and 3.3 rebounds in 16.3 minutes per game in his career, which spanned 592 games.
After retiring as a player, Wolf spent the rest of his life as a coach. He was on the Bucks staff from 2008 to 2013 and served as head coach of three different development teams. Of the dollars:
“Throughout his life, Joe touched many lives and was a highly respected, adored and dedicated coach and player throughout the NBA. His well-regarded talent was instrumental to the Bucks and Herd during eight years in the organization, including as a player and coach.”
At the time of his death, Wolf was working as an assistant coach for the Bucks affiliate Wisconsin Herd.
