Former point guard McLinton dies at 52
Silver Spring native captured state championships in basketball and football
Kevin McLinton, who shaped himself into the top facilitator for the Maryland men’s basketball program in his final three seasons from 1990 to 1993, died Thursday morning. He was 52.
The cause of death was not immediately known. Earlier Thursday, McLinton posted a photo of himself in a hospital to his Facebook account. “Looking for some prayers!!! Could definitely use them,” he wrote.
“The Maryland Men’s Basketball family mourns the passing of former guard Kevin McLinton, who played 91 games as a Terp and was a co-captain his senior season,” the Terps program posted on X, formerly Twitter. “We send our thoughts and prayers to his family and friends.”
In 91 games from 1989 to 1993, McLinton averaged 11.3 points, 5.2 assists, 4.1 rebounds and 1.5 steals. The 6-foot-3, 218-pound point guard still ranks fourth on the school’s all-time list in assists per game and ninth in total assists with 469.
Point guard was not McLinton’s natural position, former Terps coach Gary Williams said. But when star Walt Williams broke the fibula in his left leg midway through the 1990-91 season, McLinton didn’t shy away from that responsibility.
“He had to work to learn the position,” Gary Williams remembered. “As a point guard, you’re kind of responsible for everybody else on the court, and unless you grow up doing that, that can be really difficult to learn at the college level. Kevin was able to do that because he was a smart player.”
Jerrod Mustaf, whose sophomore season in 1989-90 overlapped with McLinton’s freshman year, said he has known McLinton since they were teenagers at one of Morgan Wootten’s summer basketball camps at DeMatha High in Hyattsville when Mustaf was a counselor and McLinton was a camper.
Mustaf — who spent four seasons in the NBA, including the last three with the Phoenix Suns — said the 1989-90 squad struggled to find consistency at the point guard position.
“Every team he played on in our scrimmages, they were winning. He was just so talented,” Mustaf recalled. “We [Mustaf and Tony Massenburg] gave him the nickname ‘Juice’ because we thought he resembled O.J. Simpson when O.J. Simpson was running through the airport in that commercial. This was back in ‘89. We used to say, ‘Oh, that’s Juice.’”
Massenburg, who played for Lefty Driesell, Wade and
Williams during his time with the Terps, wasn’t sure whether he or Mustaf coined the “Juice” nickname. What Massenburg remembered McLinton had a tryout with the Denver Nuggets and said he thinks McLinton might have played overseas.
“He made it to the last cut,” said Massenburg, the former power forward who became the first player in NBA history to win a championship after playing for at least 12 franchises. “That really spoke to how much he improved from the time he was a freshman. … I admired him for the fact that he came to Maryland and he really exceeded expectations from his freshman year to his senior year.”
As a senior for the 1992-93 season, McLinton served as co-captain along with power forward Evers Burns, a Woodlawn graduate, and enjoyed career highs in points (15.8 per game) and assists (6.3). His average assists total that year ranks eighth on the program’s single-season list, and he led the Terps in assists for three consecutive seasons from 1990 to 1993.
Exree Hipp spent his freshman season sharing a suite in Frederick Hall with McLinton, who was a senior at the time. Hipp recalled times when the pair ate meals provided by Hipp’s mother.
“He taught me a lot,” said Hipp, who averaged 11.3 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.7 assists in four years with the Terps. “He taught me how to live, what to expect at practice. He was not just a great competitor, but a good leader on the floor. Coming straight out of Harker Prep [in Potomac] to start as a freshman and have a guy that is the point guard living with you, there’s just no words. I’m just shook.”
The son of former NFL linebacker Harold McLinton who died on Oct. 31, 1980 after getting struck by a vehicle on Interstate 295 in Washington, Kevin McLinton grew up in Silver Spring and helped Springbrook High capture Class 4A state championships in basketball (1987-88) and football (1988) before enrolling at Maryland. Younger brother Darren McLinton averaged 13.0 points, 2.3 assists and 1.8 rebounds in four seasons at James Madison, which was coached by the late Driesell, who had helmed the Terps from 1969 to 1986.
Former center Cedric Lewis’ last two seasons at Maryland coincided with McLinton’s first two, and the pair shared a suite in their last year together. Lewis recalled overhearing phone conversations McLinton had with his brother, who was three years younger.
“He was an older soul,” Lewis said. “I guess losing his father at an early age, he was in a position where he was more like a father figure to his younger brother. The way he would talk to his younger brother, it was more of a situation where he was trying to direct him in a direction he should be going. I just thought that was one of the greatest things from someone who was two years younger than me. That made me look at Kevin a little different.”
Terps great Walt Williams crossed paths with McLinton in that 1987-88 Class 4A state championship final when Williams and his Crossland team lost to McLinton and his Springbrook squad, 77-73. Even when they got reacquainted at Maryland, it took some time for Williams to warm up to McLinton.
“We always thought of those guys as just suburb guys,” said Williams, who grew up in Temple Hills in Prince George’s County. “But he was the first guy that ever showed me that these suburb guys could be really tough. He was a hard-nosed player. As the kids say these days, he wanted all of that smoke. He was very competitive.”
Burns, who was selected by the Sacramento Kings in the second round of the 1993 NBA draft, said McLinton inherited that competitive streak from his father.
“He did not quit on any play,” Burns said. “He fought you toothand-nail. I appreciated that about him.”
Although McLinton was recruited by his predecessor, Bob Wade, Williams said he had a solid relationship with McLinton. Williams said what he appreciated most about McLinton was his no-nonsense manner.
Hipp credited McLinton with leading by example.