Remembering Bruce Harris, who passed away Thursday

Bruce Harris, brother of Devin Harris, has passed away after an early Thursday morning car accident. It appears that his car broke down on Central Expressway and was struck from behind with Harris and another passenger inside. Harris was 38 and leaves behind a son.

I knew Bruce. Not well, and we hadn’t even met in person, but we talked. He worked with Adidas. He would often tweet about Dallas Mavericks games and how well his brother was playing, although they were always vague enough you wouldn’t understand without watching the game yourself. I wrote a brief post about a couple of his tweets once. We would DM on Twitter from time to time, though less so in recent years. He helped me out once when I was tracking down contact information for someone. He amusingly tweeted this about me once, which was probably deserved.

I guess this is just what we do when someone dies. We think back to the last time we interacted, and then the time before that, trying to add a personal touch to the least personal thing that can happen. I hate even writing the word “I” because this isn’t about me at all. Devin Harris lost a brother. Bruce’s son lost his father. Many, many people lost someone they knew closely, a hell of a lot closer than I did. I just talked with Bruce on Twitter sometimes.

Clint Peterson did know him better than I did — much better, in fact. He gave me permission to quote his Facebook post about Harris.

I'm heartbroken, I can't stop crying. When I got the news I had to pull over into a parking lot where I bawled for 30 minutes.

Bruce died from injuries sustained in a horrific wreck. He was one of the good guys.

I first met Bruce when his brother Devin played for the Utah Jazz. We hit it off and he asked me to help out with a couple of local charity projects that Jazz players were working on. If you know me at all you know I said yes.

We became great friends, even after Devin went on to play for other teams, always stayed in touch. If Bruce hadn't heard from me in a while, or seen me on Twitter, he'd shoot me a text or tweet to make sure I was okay.

When Devin's current team came into town Bruce and I would spend the afternoon trolling downtown SLC, then hit the game, livetweeting smartass stuff back and forth for laughs!

Bruce could have been a better baller than Devin even, but admittedly made some poor choices earlier in life that prevented it. As a result he lived vicariously through Devin, and supported "DH" viciously. Bruce was always up for an interview or podcast when I was a writer/ed. We did a few and they were always hits.

From Milwaukee, I used to tease Bruce about being a Lakers and Kobe fan, much to his chagrin lol! We'd throw back beers and go back and forth with jabs.

We'd planned on hangin at the cabin next visit.

Bruce was an incredible father, amazing brother, thoughtful friend, and all-around amazing human being. I'm gonna miss you sorely, brother. Prayers up for your little man and fam.

I’ll let Clint’s words carry this post. This is tragic, and this is beyond basketball, and this is beyond me. I’m glad we had those brief interactions, and sad that I didn’t know him any closer, because Bruce was a great person. That much is clear.