Columnist Dean Juipe: Is Dele alive? Don’t give up the ship

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2002 | 9:33 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

It's a story that has a little bit of everything, from eccentricity to fraud to the possibility of pirates. As such, foul play immediately comes to mind.

Bison Dele, aka Brian Williams when he played basketball at Bishop Gorman High School in 1986-87, is missing. He was last seen July 8.

Based purely on speculation, most people associated with Dele seem to believe he is dead. Likewise with his girlfriend (Serena Karlan) and a Tahiti-based boat captain (Bertrand Saldo) also missing, there is reason to believe the trio have gone to a watery grave in or near French Polynesia, a group of 130 islands in the South Pacific.

The FBI is coordinating an investigation that may appear to be following the script of a diabolical movie. Dele, who played in the National Basketball Association from 1991 through 1999 and who walked away from the sport with almost $36 million remaining on his contract, might easily have put himself and his friends in harm's way.

If so, it wouldn't be the first time. He has run with the bulls in Pamplona, he has sky dived, he has lived in Lebanon and Australia, and he has met the description of your basic nomad.

He's a free spirit, it might fancifully be said. And when he and Karlan and Saldo were last spotted, they supposedly were within days of sailing Dele's 55-foot catamaran from Tahiti to Hawaii.

Factor in a brother who has since attempted to use Dele's ID to exchange bonds for $150,000 in gold coins in Phoenix and who is in exile in Mexico, and the potential for mischief abounds.

Yet I'm seeing this a little differently than everyone else: I think Dele is alive and is either being held for ransom or living among the natives on some semi-deserted island where gold coins are the preferred currency.

For every dangerous possibility in Dele's disappearance, there is also a tangible, if not reasonable explanation. Which is what gives this tale a Movie of the Week persona.

I knew Dele when he was Williams and saw almost every game he played at Gorman. It was obvious he had pro ability and was a quiet, flowing part of a super team that also included sharpshooter Matt Othick.

As Williams and then Dele (since '98), he bounced from two colleges to five NBA teams, averaging 11 points as a professional. At 6-foot-11 and 260 pounds he had lost some of the silky smooth instincts that he displayed at Gorman, but he was a decent enough player that the Detroit Pistons gave him $45 million for a seven-year contract in 1997.

He's now 33 and attracting at least as much attention as he did as a basketball player. He's missing in an area where Capt. Bligh became famous and where pirating goes unchecked even today.

But this thing with his brother (who changed his name from Mike Williams to Miles Dabord) leads me to believe Dele is alive. I think he asked Dabord to negotiate for some gold coins and Dabord skipped the country when the ploy ran aground.

I think Dele, Karlan and Saldo are complicit in an attempt to so totally withdraw from society that none of them even told their relatives. I think they've found their own Gilligan's Island and are there by choice.