Former UCLA basketball player Jalen Hill died at 22, according to an announcement posted by his father on Tuesday.
Hill played for UCLA basketball for three seasons before quitting in 2021 due to anxiety and depression stemming from his detainment in China. The exact circumstances of his death are not immediately clear, but his father explained that his death came after he went missing in Costa Rica.
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“Our hearts are shattered and completely broken to inform family and friends that our beloved son, Jalen has passed away,” his father, George Hill, wrote on Instagram. “Jalen went missing while in Costa Rica and we have recently learned of his passing.”
Throughout his tenure at UCLA, Hill shuffled between center and forward positions and averaged 6.5 points and 6.4 rebounds, Yahoo Sports reported. In 2017, Hill was detained alongside two other players in China over allegations that they stole from a local shop.
Hill was in China as a freshman during the start of the season and was suspended alongside the other two for the rest of the season, Wall Street Journal reported.
The roughly one-week detainment became a high-profile diplomatic pressure point between the United States and China. Officials in China did not divulge evidence that Hill engaged in shoplifting, but he and his fellow players were facing up to 10 years behind bars at the time, per the outlet.
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Eventually, former President Donald Trump called Chinese leader Xi Jinping and helped broker the release of the players, but Hill claimed the saga left him emotionally scarred. He cited the toll his detainment took on him when he stepped down from the basketball team last April.
“I just had to distance myself because the headspace I was in, it was damaging the team,” Hill explained in an Instagram video at the time. “So I didn’t want to restrict them from achieving their goals too.”
