Caleb Swanigan

Picture Credit: Twitter

On June 21 (Tuesday), the former NBA player and Purdue Boilermakers star Caleb Swanigan died at the age of 25. The Purdue men's basketball announced his untimely demise but did not share enough details about the same. According to the Allen County Coroner’s Office in Fort Wayne, Swanigan died of natural causes.

Caleb Swanigan was drafted into the Portland Trailblazers team in 2017 and spent three years in the NBA with the Blazers and Sacramento Kings. However, since 2019/20, he did not feature in any of the games. He did not join the COVID-19 bubble in Florida due to personal reasons. The former player was arrested after three pounds of marijuana were found in his car. On Twitter, people have suggested that the rising weight and addiction to drugs must have been a cause of Swanigan’s death.

In 2015, Caleb Swanigan led the Homestead basketball team to their maiden state championship in the school's history. Due to this performance, he won Indiana’s prestigious Mr. Basketball honor. He also broke the Purdue single-season records for the highest number of rebounds and double-doubles.

He was one of the top prep players in the national class of 2015 by Rivals.com, Scout.com, and ESPN. Prep players are the ones who represent their respective teams in high school. Their journey from prep to pro is completed when they are drafted to the National Basketball Association (NBA) teams.

He decided to stay at home and chose Purdue, despite committing to the Michigan State team in the early part of his career which was an immediate success. Caleb Swanigan won the Big Ten Freshman of the Week three times and was named to the Big Ten All-Freshman team as well.

He had also put out a music video ‘Acquired Test’ in April this year, and more projects were in the pipeline.