Hank Gathers, 25 years later

— -- On March 4, 1990, he wanted to fly.

Twenty-five years ago, Hank Gathers would boast to teammates and friends that with the right timing and leap, he could snatch a penny off the top of a backboard. They never witnessed the feat, but had no reason to doubt him.

And then that day -- the day he died -- death's indiscriminate methods snatched life from a man who had so much of it.