title: Ricky Berry
text: Ricky Alan Berry (October 6, 1964 – August 14, 1989) was an American professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Sacramento Kings.
  
  Early life
  Berry was born in Lansing, Michigan in 1964, when his father Bill Berry was a student-athlete at Michigan State University. The Berry family moved to the Sacramento, California area in 1966 when Bill Berry became head coach at a local high school and later Cosumnes River Junior College. Berry attended Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, California, when his father became head coach at San Jose State in 1979.
  
  Basketball career
  Berry was  and played small forward. After graduating from high school, he played for Oregon State in the 1983–84 season, and then transferred to San Jose State in 1984 to play under his father Bill Berry. After sitting out one year per transfer rules, Berry played for the San Jose State Spartans from 1985 to 1988. Berry was selected 18th overall in the 1988 NBA draft by the Sacramento Kings and had a solid rookie season, averaging 11.0 points, 3.1 rebounds, 1.3 assists while shooting 40.6 percent from three-point range.
  
  Berry is one of only three former San Jose State players to have his jersey retired, when San Jose State retired his number 34 jersey.
  
  Death
  In the 1989 off-season, and just weeks before his 25th birthday, Berry was found dead after a self-inflicted gunshot. He had showed no signs of depression, but left a suicide note in which he reportedly wrote that his wife did not love him and was taking advantage of him.
  
  Career statistics
  
  NBA
  
  Source
  
  Regular season
  
  |-
  | style="text-align:left;"|
  | style="text-align:left;"|Sacramento
  | 64 || 21 || 22.0 || .450 || .406 || .789 || 3.1 || 1.3 || .6 || .3 || 11.0
  
  See also
   List of basketball players who died during their careers
  
  References
  
  External links
  
   Article about Ricky Berry's NBA signing (published August 3, 1988) at The New York Times
   Article about Berry's suicide (published August 15, 1989) at The New York Times
   'He was Reggie Miller with a handle': Thirty years ago, the NBA lost Ricky Berry (published August 14, 2019, Mark J. Spears) @ theundefeated.com
  
  1964 births
  1989 suicides
  1989 deaths
  American men's basketball players
  Basketball players at the 1987 Pan American Games
  Basketball players from Sacramento, California
  Basketball players from Lansing, Michigan
  Medalists at the 1987 Pan American Games
  Oregon State Beavers men's basketball players
  Pan American Games medalists in basketball
  Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States
  People from Fair Oaks, California
  People from Morgan Hill, California
  Basketball players from Santa Clara County, California
  Sacramento Kings draft picks
  Sacramento Kings players
  San Jose State Spartans men's basketball players
  Small forwards
  Suicides by firearm in California