Former UCLA basketball player Jalen Hill has died after going missing in Costa Rica, his father said on Tuesday. He was 22.
“Our hearts are shattered,” George Hill wrote on Instagram, saying he was “unable to share any details at this time.”
Hill, a 6-10 forward from Corona, California, played 70 games over three seasons from 2018 to 2021, and averaged 6.5 points and 6.4 rebounds.
He missed the Bruins’ 2021 March Madness run to the Final Four and announced on Instagram in April 2021 that he was “done with basketball” after enduring “a bunch of anxiety and depression problems.”
Hill traced the beginning to his 2017 arrest with two UCLA teammates for shoplifting in China. The trio was detained for about a week before then-President Donald Trump interceded during an Asian trip and China permitted the players to fly home. All three were suspended for the season.
Hill’s coach at Centennial High School mourned his death.
“Next-level devastating,” Josh Giles told the Los Angeles Times.
UCLA said on Twitter it was “deeply saddened.”
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