Michael Sweetney, a Georgetown standout who became the ninth pick of the 2003 NBA draft and went on to play professionally on four continents for a decade after his four seasons in the league, died Wednesday, September 16, 2026, at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center in Newark, N.J. He was 43.
In a Facebook post on September 17, his wife, India Sweetney, announced the death. “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.” She called him “the best son, brother, family member, friend, father and husband ANYONE could ask for.”
From Hoyas Star to Ninth Pick
Sweetney was raised in Washington, D.C., attended high school across the line at Oxon Hill in Maryland and then stayed home for college. His scoring average over three years with the Hoyas reached 18.2 points on shooting close to 55 percent, and he closed out his college run with a double-double in each of his final two seasons — 19 points and 10 rebounds a night in 2001-02, then 22.8 points and 10.4 rebounds in 2002-03. The Associated Press named him an honorable mention All-American as a junior, a year that also made him a finalist for the Naismith award.
He remains fifth in Georgetown history in career rebounds, with 887, seventh in career blocks with 180 and ninth in career points with 1,750.
New York took him ninth overall in 2003, pulling him out of school after that junior season. The Knicks employed the power forward and center from 2003 to 2005, and then traded him to the Bulls in the deal that sent Eddy Curry and Antonio Davis to New York, and his NBA run ended in 2007. In 233 games, including 73 starts, Sweetney averaged 6.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 15.5 minutes. He had relocated to New Jersey five years before his death.
Ten More Years, Far From the NBA
The NBA was the most visible part of his playing career, not the end of it. Sweetney signed with the Shaanxi Kylins in China and put in a stretch with the Erie BayHawks in the NBA’s development league. The winter and summer leagues of Latin America took up the years that followed: 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. His last season on the floor came in 2017, 14 years after the draft.
Sweetney then turned to coaching, working as an assistant at Yeshiva University, a Division III program in New York, from 2019 to 2023, and taking 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 what Steinmetz said he had lost; the basketball world, he said, had lost a beloved star, and the Jewish community had lost an ally. Sweetney, he added, was family who turned up whenever he was needed, without ever being asked.
Social media tributes came from the Knicks, the Bulls and Georgetown alike, with the two NBA clubs posting on September 17. New York said it was saddened by the news and described him as a person who would be missed by many. Condolences from the Bulls went to the family and friends of their former player.
Speaking Openly About His Rookie Years
Sweetney talked candidly about the depression he battled as a young NBA player in a 2017 interview with HoopsHype. His father had attended every one of his Georgetown games and died early in his son’s professional career. Sweetney said the shift was abrupt: a college star with his dad in the stands one year, then a man grieving that loss while barely seeing the floor. Plain words came from his coach, he recalled, who told him he would not play him.
With the media writing about his struggles, he felt he had nowhere to turn. “I just kept digging myself into a deeper hole of depression,” he said. The climb out was something he eventually recognized he had to make, Sweetney told HoopsHype, and the process took time and leaned 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 was willing to describe his lowest moments.
A Return to the Knicks Family
The franchise that drafted him remained part of his life. Sweetney was invited to an alumni night at a Knicks game in January 2026. Being in the company of the stars he had looked up to as a child was a pleasure, he wrote later, as was catching up with former teammates and opponents.
In June 2026, Sweetney spoke with New York Post reporter Stefan Bondy about overcoming past struggles with anxiety and mental health, and said the Knicks had invited him to three games during the past season. “I didn’t have the career I could have had. But for them to have me back and welcome me with open arms,” Sweetney told the Post. Of the invitations, he said, “It means a lot.”
A cause of death has not been shared.
As of September 18, India Sweetney had launched a GoFundMe campaign with a $10,000 goal, posted with a brief message: “God Bless and thank you.”
In her post, India Sweetney wrote: “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.”
