Rob Preston was the kind of guy you wanted on your basketball team.
On the floor, he would fly around, using his 6-foot-8 frame, huge hands and leaping ability to throw down dunks on his opponents.
Off the floor, he was the life of the party, constantly executing practical jokes, trading banter with teammates and keeping the atmosphere light.
“There is so much to say about Rob,” said Patrick Lee, a teammate of Preston’s at Idaho State, where Preston played from 1994 through 1997. “He was truly a great teammate and friend. He worked hard on and off the court, and people truly enjoyed just being around him. He had a big smile and a big heart.”
Sadly, Preston, a former all-Big Sky Conference player for the Bengals, died Friday in Surprise, Arizona, after suffering from ALS. He leaves behind wife Marci and six children, including 13-year-old triplets.
Preston and his family moved to Arizona three years ago from Washington state, and he was diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, a year later. ALS is a progressive brain and spinal cord disease that kills nerve cells, leading to severe muscle weakness, loss of voluntary movement and trouble breathing. There is no cure.
After hearing of Preston’s diagnosis, Lee and Ron Harwell, another former Bengal teammate, surprised him with a visit in Arizona last year.
“Of course we pranked him at his home,” said Lee, who played with Preston at ISU from 1994-1996. “He was still the same — joking, smiling, laughing, even knowing what was to come. He knew Jesus as his Lord and Savior. He has a beautiful and loving family that cared for him and never left his side.”
Preston, who was from Washington state originally, played a season of junior college basketball at the College of Southern Idaho, overcoming an ACL tear, before being recruited by ISU coach Herb Williams, whose team was coming off a tie for the Big Sky Conference regular-season championship during the 1993-94 season.
Preston played a backup role his first season at ISU, averaging 4 points and 2.5 rebounds a game in 1994-95. He stepped into a starting spot the following season, averaging 12.4 points and 6.2 rebounds a contest. His senior year in 1996-97, he earned first-team all-Big Sky honors, averaging 14.6 points while leading the conference in rebounding with 7.7 a game.
After his ISU career was over, he joined another former teammate, ISU Hall of Famer Jim Potter, in Belgium, where Preston began his professional basketball career. Unlike Potter, who had a fairly long and celebrated career overseas, however, Preston’s pro career was a struggle. In his third season, he got cut from the team in Belgium, and lived with Potter and his family for several months while hoping for another opportunity in Belgium. Later he had runs with teams in France, Switzerland and the Netherlands before deciding to return to the states and begin his family.
“We had a big old dart machine, like the ones they have in the bars,” said Potter of the time that Preston lived with his family in Belgium. “We spent hours and hours playing darts, busting chops, talking about the love we had for our families, coaches and teammates, the futures we hoped to have.”
In Potter’s mind, there is no doubt Preston had the athletic ability to have a longer, more successful professional career.
“He was beyond talented enough to play professional basketball,” said Potter, who praised his former teammate’s work ethic.
“When we lived together in Belgium, we would go to the gym and do drill after drill for hours,” said Potter. “Then we’d go home, play darts and drink a beer. It was all just good times. I knew he was good enough to play for a long time.”
His basketball talents aside, Preston brought mirth to wherever he played.
“Some of my best memories in college were with him,” remembered Lee. “From the time Rob and Ron Harwell filled up a large trash can with water and leaned it against my door to flood my dorm room.”
Preston had to take the pranking as well as dish it out.
“… Ron (Harwell) and I egged and floured Rob’s car while he was in class,” said Lee. “Rob was super mad, but it was the funniest sight ever watching him drive down the road with his head out the window and flour blowing in his face.”
With the progression of his ALS, those light-hearted days have been replaced with the deep sadness that comes with losing a friend, a comrade and a family member.
“Mostly now, I’m thinking of his family and his kids, and the sadness that’s just right in front of them,” said Potter. “He was a man of faith and I’m thinking that will help support them and comfort them.”
Preston was an account executive for CNA National, a company that provides vehicle service contracts. He is survived by his wife, Marci, and children Dylan, Mariah, Kayla and triplets Grayson, Addison and Ainsley. Funeral services have not been announced yet.