The last great player of the Lou Carnesecca era at St. John's University, Malik Sealy set a standard which has yet to be equalled in the intervening years of St. John's basketball.

The Sealy family grew up in the Tremont section of the Bronx. Sidney Sealy was a former Golden Gloves boxer who had served as a bodyguard for Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X), and named his son Malik in El-Shabazz's honor. Malik was already a local legend when he arrived at St. Nicholas of Tolentine High School in the Bronx in 1984, where he teamed with future college stars Brian Reese and Adrian Autry in a 30-1 record in 1988 en route to the city title, and also served as the school's student body president. The 6-8 forward was recruited nationally, but committed to St. John's in 1987.

It was once joked that the recruiting budget for St. John's head coach Lou Carnesecca was a bag of subway tokens, but the New York high school recruiting scene was changing. Just two years removed from back to back 31 wins seasons, St. John's struggled to land local stars. Of the three first team Parade All-Americans from the New York area from 1986-1990, only Sealy signed with the Redmen, with Lloyd Daniels (UNLV), Kenny Anderson (Georgia Tech) and Bobby Hurley (Duke) all going elsewhere.

Sealy found himself on a young St. John's squad in 1988-89, coming off a 17-12 record in 1987-88. He finished second in scoring to Jayson Williams on a St. John's team that finished 16-13 in the regular season but swept the field for the 1989 title. Sealy was named to the Big East All-Rookie team for his 12.9 point, 6.4 rebound average, and it was during his freshman season that Sealy began a streak uparalleled in St. John's basketball history, as he would score in double figures for the next 102 games over his remaining college career.

Pairing with Greg (Boo) Harvey, Sealy led the Redmen back to the NCAA tournament in 1989-90, with Sealy or Harvey leading the team in scoring in 26 games, with Sealy leading the Redmen in six of the final seven. He had a season high 28 versus Manhattan and a 26 point, 13 rebound effort versus Connecticut. Sealy scored 18 in St. John's opening round upset over Temple and 19 in a narrow loss to eventual NCAA finalist Duke.

Sealy was dominant during his junior season, scoring a career high 43 versus Central Connecticut to set a new scoring record at Alumni Hall, where St. John's was 39-3 over his four years there. Sealy's back to back 35 point totals versus Connecticut and Providence are marks which still stand to this day, and a 22 point effort helped upset #1 seed Ohio State as St. John's advanced to the NCAA regional final, where Duke captured a win over the Redmen for the second time in as many years. Sealy earned All-Big East honors with a 22.1 points average.

As a senior, Sealy led the Redmen in scoring in all but two games, with a 37 point tour de force in a payback win over Duke in the Big East-ACC Challenge and a 34 point effort versus Providence. Averaging 22.6 points a game, he led the Redmen to a third consecutive NCAA bid in 1992, but their run fell short in a first round upset loss to Tulane, a school making its first ever NCAA appearance. Sealy scored 20 in his final collegiate game, and ended his college career as the school's second all-time leading scorer behind Chris Mullin, with 2,401 points.

No less important: as one of five children to Sidney and Ann Sealy, Malik joined each of his four brothers and sisters to earn a college degree.

Sealy was drafted with the 14th pick of the 1992 draft by the Indiana Pacers, and was traded three more times in seven seasons before joining the Minnesota Timberwolves in 1999. There, he became a mentor to the Timberwolves' biggest star, Kevin Garnett, and averaged 11.3 points a game off the bench.

On May 20, 2000, returning home from Garnett's 24th birthday party in the Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park, Sealy's SUV was struck by a drunk driver driving the wrong way on the highway, killing Sealy at the scene. His funeral was attended by 3,000 at New York's Riverside Church, where Sealy had played basketball as a youth in the basement below the sanctuary. Members of the extended St. John's and NBA families were in attendance, with Carnesecca presenting the eulogy and Garnett serving as a pallbearer.

"Malik Sealy was a product of the multilayered culture of New York City basketball, and yesterday was a celebration of a basketball life," wrote William Rhoden in the New York Times. "All boroughs, several generations, all levels of his basketball life converged on the Manhattan church. Sealy was a perfect synthesis of the city's basketball underground, the playground leagues and the theater of professional basketball."

Sealy was just the eighth NBA player to die during his career, and the second in five months following the death of Charlotte Hornets forward Bobby Phills in an auto accident in January 2000.

"He personified a great person and a great athlete," said Autry, who played alongside Sealy at Tolentine before starring at Syracuse from 1990 to 1994. "I learned so much from Malik...I respected him so much."