PHILADELPHIA — Talk to anyone who knew Akhir "Geedy" Frazier, they all say the same thing — he had that kind of magnetic personality that drew people to him, he possessed the kind of beaming smile that lit up a room. He was a vibrant 16-year-old who didn't look at life through a prism, but viewed things from a broader, wider scope. He had aspirations of bigger things.
His ticket would be basketball, and the
Prep Charter (Philadelphia) 6-5 combination guard seemed destined to land a Division I scholarship.
Akhir Frazier, left.
Photo courtesy of the Frazier family
That all changed last Wednesday, when Frazier died at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia due to what his family said was a thickening of the heart. His death shocked everyone in the Philadelphia basketball community, and it started when Frazier removed himself from a summer league game on Aug. 21. As he was walking off the court, Frazier collapsed into the arms of his coach at the Hank Gathers Rec Center.
That's the eerie coincidence of the tragedy: Frazier collapsed on a court named after Gathers, a Philly high school legend who died on March 4, 1990, when he collapsed playing for Loyola Marymount just after scoring on an alley-oop dunk. He was declared dead on arrival at a nearby hospital at the age of 23. An autopsy found that he suffered from a heart-muscle disorder called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
Another interesting connection is Frazier's very close ties to Kamal Yard, the cousin of another Philly hoops high legend, Cuttino Mobley, whose NBA career was cut short due to a heart ailment — the same ailment Gathers suffered from. Yard, coach of the Philly Pride AAU team, was very moved by the death of Frazier, or Geedy, as he was known to close friends and family.
"It's hard, really tough to have this happen to someone like him," said Yard, a tinge of emotion in his voice. "Losing someone like Geedy, someone so special. He was such a great kid. He'd do anything for you. I was moving one time, and the kid calls me at around 6 in the morning asking what he could do to help me. And he was always smiling — and it never left. He's going to be really, really missed.”
Prep Charter coach Dan Brinkley was still trying to cope with Frazier's death a week after it happened.
"It's still hard to deal with, because you see these kids running up and down the court and it's the last thing you would think of, one of them suddenly going like that," said Brinkley, who directed the Huskies to consecutive Class AA state titles in 2006 (becoming the first-ever Philadelphia Public League team to win a state championship) and '07. "I'm much more fortunate to have met him and to have known such a great kid than to have coached him. He was a great kid. He touched everyone who ever met him."
The basketball bloodlines run deep in the Frazier family. His mother, Karen Beckham, once starred for Dobbins Tech (Gathers' alumna mater) in the mid-1980s and went on to play for Norfolk State. His older brother, Eddie, played on Strawberry Mansion's 2008 Class AA state runner-up.
Like with Gathers, there were signs something may not have been right with Akhir. While playing earlier this summer in a team camp at St. Joseph's University, he collapsed. Beckham immediately reacted. She had her son undergo a stress test, which proved negative, no abnormalities, Beckham said. Frazier was advised to avoid strenuous activity until undergoing an MRI that was scheduled to take place Aug. 24. The incident at the Gathers Rec occurred Aug. 21.
"You know how 16-year-olds are. They do what they want. They can be hardheaded," Beckham told the Philadelphia Daily News. "Akhir couldn't help himself. If that was his time to go ... I'm okay with the fact he was doing something he wanted to do. Something he loved to do."
Akhir "Geedy" Frazier was buried Friday, Aug. 27.
Joseph Santoliquito covers high schools for the Philadelphia Daily News and is a contributor to MaxPreps.com. He can be contacted at JSantoliquito@yahoo.com.
