"A total badass."
That's how ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas remembers Chris Spatola.
Spatola, who died unexpectedly Sept. 21 at age 47, built a remarkable life that stretched far beyond the basketball court. He was an Army standout, a U.S. Army veteran, a respected broadcaster for ESPN and SiriusXM, and the son-in-law of legendary Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski.
News of his death has left the college basketball world reeling. Friends, colleagues and former teammates have flooded social media with stories of his generosity, humility and competitive spirit.
Bilas counts himself among them.
"Devastated and heartbroken," he said, mourning the loss of "a treasured friend."
"Chris was the most solid guy that you could ever meet," Bilas told USA TODAY Sports. "High character, thoughtful and he was selfless. He wasn't the first to speak, but when he spoke, it was always thoughtful and measured."
That's how Army basketball teammates remembered Spatola, too.
"You wouldn't hear him speak unless he had something really important to say,'' George Tatum recalled of his backcourt mate Spatola, three years his junior. "To see Chris come out of his shell and be such a great commentator and a star on TV, it really warmed my heart to see him finally coming into his own with that profession.''
Rick Schultz was the Army radio play-by-play announcer for two seasons, including Spatola's freshman year. Five years ago in Syracuse, the pair ran into one another at a hotel, and Schultz asked him: Did you ever imagine you would be on the broadcasting side? Spatola shook his head no and said, "I never had any idea."
"It's such a tragedy," said Pat Harris, who coached Spatola at West Point for four seasons but knew him years earlier as a Duke camper. "I still haven't wrapped my arms around the loss of Chris. It still hasn't set in. It's almost like you think it's a hoax."
Harris wasn't the coach who recruited Spatola, a product of Babylon, Long Island, to the U.S. Military Prep School for the 1997-98 season (it was previous coach Dino Gaudio) but he certainly benefited from the 6-1, gangly kid who led with determination and possessed a great shooting touch. He had a great feel for the game and a tremendous basketball IQ, noted former teammate Babe Kwasniak, also three years Spatola's elder.
Spatola started as a freshman, played 111 games and scored 1,543 points, ranking No. 5 all-time at the Academy. He was fast, a 90% free-throw shooter his final two seasons and a deft passer. "I can't really say that Chris ever truly took a bad shot," his coach said.
West Point remains a military academy where seniors can still look down on lowly freshmen — or plebes, as they are called — in the pecking order, but that dynamic changes when it comes to the "fields of friendly strife" and becoming teammates. Kwasniak recalled a young Spatola helping him clean his barracks room, and also presenting the Firstie (a senior) his first salute.
"I think when it came to (playing basketball), that was like breathing to him," Kwasniak said. "It just came very, very natural." That endeared him to his teammates, whether at West Point or on the All-U.S. Army team, when his squad didn't care about his 1,500 collegiate points or ties to Coach K.
Bilas had known Spatola since 2004, when Spatola married Krzyzewski's daughter, Jamie. Over the next two decades, their paths remained intertwined. Spatola served on Duke's staff from 2007 to 2012, connecting him to Bilas' alma mater, and later the two became colleagues at ESPN.
Yet for all the basketball ties that linked their careers, it was rarely the subject of their conversations.
Instead, Bilas said Spatola always focused on the people around him, whether it was the players and coaches he covered, the fans who followed the sport or, most importantly, his family. That selflessness only deepened Bilas' admiration for a man who had already accomplished so much, including serving in the U.S. Army during Operation Iraqi Freedom from 2002 to 2007.
Despite an impressive résumé that included military service, coaching and broadcasting, Spatola never made himself the center of attention. That's one of the many qualities Bilas found remarkable.
"Chris was all-American in every way as a human being," Bilas said. "I would sit there and sort of see Chris and go, 'You realize he's done things tougher than we could ever imagine, right? Like, do you guys have any idea what he's accomplished?' And he would never tell you that.
"You would have to pry it out of him, all the accomplishments that he had as a vet, and and when he would talk about it, it would usually be something on Veterans Day when he was putting attention on others, not on himself. That was the kind of guy he was."
That's why Bilas will always remember him as "a selfless human being that was a total badass."
"Chris was a person that I loved, but also admired," he added. "He'll always be a part of of everyone that was fortunate enough to know him."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: From Army to ESPN, Chris Spatola was a 'total badass' who never stopped winning people over
