"It's still a lot of negative stuff out there. People should dial it back. You don't know what you'd do if you were in that seat. The family is entitled to grieve the way they want to. We should allow them that space," said Steven Williams, who attended Hillside High School with Rogers.
"I was not invited. Honestly, for me, I wasn't looking for an invitation. I was just wanting to be one of the people in the crowd. One of the mourners."
Williams first met the former Wake Forest University basketball star and 12-year NBA player, Rodney Rogers, when they were football players at Hillside High School. At the time, the upperclassman taught Williams a lot of lessons.
Rogers was the number 9 overall NBA draft pick in 1993. He had been paralyzed from the shoulders down since a dirt bike accident in November of 2008. He died of natural causes linked to his spinal cord injury almost two weeks ago.
"For all the kids that grew up in Durham, there was an image of people from Durham who grew up in Durham. He resonated something totally different," he said.
Durham Public Schools released the following statement to ABC11:
The Durham Public Schools family is grieved to learn of the passing of our fellow scholar-athlete, Rodney Rogers. He was a model citizen in many aspects, and his passing has broken our hearts. We send our thoughts and prayers to his family, friends, and the throngs of fans and others he has touched during his distinguished life.