Q+A: Quinton Ross

by Adam Figman

Quinton Ross had a weird week. The former NBA player—who played for five teams during his seven-season career from 2004-2011—woke up Monday morning to learn that the entire world believed he was dead, the victim of a horrific crime, first reported by the NY Post, in which the body of a man named Quinton Ross was found stuffed in a trash bag in Queens, NY. Alas, it was a different Quinton Ross—the Quinton Ross who spent the mid-00s suiting up for the Los Angeles Clippers currently lives in Dallas and is very much safe and sound—and the Post inevitably modified its report.quinton ross

(That said, a man named Quinton Ross was indeed found dead, and our thoughts go out to his family and friends.)

We spoke with the 32-year-old Ross about his emotional past few days.

SLAM: You’ve had some week.

Quinton Ross: Yeah, it was definitely unexpected, man.

SLAM: Tell me a little about your Monday—how’d you find out that reports of your death were circulating?

QR: I was actually just waking up in the morning, and my fiancé had received a text message from one of her friends that said, “Tell me the news isn’t true.” And I’m looking at her, like, “What news is she talking about?” She called her friend and the friend said I was dead. So I got up really quick and got on the Internet, and I saw my picture and everything. It said I was dead. I couldn’t believe it.

SLAM: What’d you do next?

QR: Well, my mom was at the house with me. Her phone was blowing up. My brother’s phone was blowing up. I just got on my phone and was texting and calling people to let them know that it’s not me. I went on Facebook and posted on Facebook that I was alive. Shoot, just reaching out to as many people as I can to let them know that the person that did die, it definitely wasn’t me. There were a couple people I hadn’t spoken to in years, so I guess you can definitely say it brought people back into my life that I hadn’t communicated with in a minute.

SLAM: And it’s such a sad situation because there was someone that was actually killed.

QR: Yeah, somebody died. All my prayers go out to their family, because they’re dealing with that. That’s a really tough situation.

SLAM: Did anyone from the Post reach out to you or your family at all?

QR: That’s the great thing about it—I didn’t receive nothing. I guess you can post a story like that and just make it go away. I don’t know, I didn’t receive a call or an apology or nothing. That’s amazing. Shoot, I had people calling my momma crying, distraught, because they really thought I was dead. I don’t know, that doesn’t make any sense to me.

SLAM: What are you up to these days?

QR: My back situation hasn’t always been the greatest—I had surgery back in 2011, and I’ve been off and on trying to play since then. The back will be good one day, off one day, so I think I’m gonna shut it down. I was really just enjoying my family for a little bit and getting ready to try to get into coaching. I’m gonna try to get into that and see where it takes me. I have a couple contacts that I’ve already reached out to, so hopefully when this college season ends things will work out.