Former NBA forward and Wake Forest standout Rodney Rogers has died at 54, his wife Faye Rogers confirmed. Wake Forest Athletics also announced the news, calling him “one of the most transformative players in program history,” and said he passed peacefully while surrounded by family.
Rogers’ life changed on November 28, 2008, when a dirt-bike crash shattered the C3 and C4 vertebrae in his neck, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down. He was treated at Duke Hospital and later transferred to the Shepherd Center in Atlanta. After months of rehab, he returned home and, with Faye by his side, adjusted to round-the-clock care. Even so, he became an advocate for spinal cord injury awareness. In a 2013 interview, he summed up his mindset with a smile: “It’s hard to keep a good man down.”
Before the accident, Rogers was a force on the court. At Wake Forest, he won ACC Freshman of the Year (1991), First Team All-ACC (1992), and ACC Player of the Year (1993) after leading the Demon Deacons to the Sweet 16. The Denver Nuggets drafted him ninth overall in 1993. He played 12 NBA seasons across seven teams, averaged 11 points per game, and won NBA Sixth Man of the Year with the Phoenix Suns in 2000, retiring in 2005.
Rogers died on November 21, 2025, from natural causes linked to his spinal cord injury. He is survived by Faye, their children, and his mother. His No. 54 remains retired at Wake Forest.