Ex-NBA player Tyson Wheeler’s daughter dies in Connecticut dirt bike crash
The daughter of ex-NBA player Tyson Wheeler died after a devastating dirt bike crash in southeastern Connecticut.
Tiara Wheeler, 24, was a passenger on a dirt bike that ran a red light before colliding with an Audi that had been turning left on a green arrow in Groton, Connecticut, around 9:30 Monday night.
Wheeler was thrown into the car and pronounced dead at the scene.
“She was so bright. So articulate,” Tyson Wheeler, who played for the Denver Nuggets in 1999, told CT Insider. “So wonderful. So smart.”
Tiara, who graduated in 2021 from Fairfield University, was “a real go-getter” and “got things done,” added Wheeler, who is now an assistant men’s basketball coach at Brown University,
Groton police said that Wheeler and the injured driver had been among a group of dirt bikes and ATVs, some of whom had their lights off, that were driving recklessly and did not provide any aid to the victims.
The bike’s driver was taken to Lawrence + Memorial Hospital in New London, before being flown to Yale New Haven Hospital, where a hospital spokesperson said he was in critical condition earlier this week.
“What is most troubling is that someone who may have been traveling with them stopped for this crash, and rather than rendering aid to the critically injured parties, removed the dirt bike from the road,” Groton Police Chief Louis J. Fusaro told CT Insider.
At Fairfield, Tiara studied abroad in Florence, Italy; served as the treasurer for the school’s Black Student Union, and received an award for being the most promising public health graduate, her grieving dad said.
She began working at the Orthodontic Associates of Southeastern Connecticut in 2017 and rose to a treatment coordinator position, was set to join Pfizer in the winter, her father said.
In her obituary, Wheeler’s family wrote that she was dedicated to racial and social justice issues, and always put her family first.
Her loved ones remembered her as being “passionate about life” and having a love for food and fashion, but also helping marginalized communities through public health projects.
“She was a beautiful person, one who loved shopping, Hermes bracelets, and looking her best, but she also cared about people,” her family wrote.
Wheeler is survived by her father and mother, Farrah, and two brothers, Tyson, 18, and Tevin, 13.
