In his last days, when his brother asked how he wished to be remembered, Cory Reiser said, "I want people to know that I battled and I never quit."
Those traits were evident to anyone who watched Reiser play basketball for Hunter High School, Salt Lake Community College or the University of Montana, where Larry Krystkowiak coached him. Recently, the roles were reversed.
"Going down the stretch run," Krystkowiak said, "he was my coach."
Reiser died May 17 of cancer at age 39. As Krystkowiak said Tuesday during a funeral service at Capital Christian Church in Salt Lake City, he kept learning from his former player's example of showing interest in other people and listening intently to them — rather than making himself the focus, even during his illness.
Beyond the competitive nature that carried the undersized guard into Division I basketball, Reiser was "a tremendous listener, a trait that not many of us have, unfortunately," Krystkowiak said, while endorsing a legacy of "just treating people right."
They worked together during the 1998-99 season, Krystkowiak's first year of coaching after retiring from the NBA. As the University of Utah's coach, Krystkowiak reunited with Reiser and helped the divorced father's 8-year-old son, Isaiah, during difficult times following Reiser's cancer diagnosis.
As Reiser's family wrote in his obituary, "Cory has always believed that everything happens for a reason and that God sends you the right people at the right time. Having said that, Cory and his family would like to thank the Larry & Jan Krystkowiak family who from the get-go jumped in with both feet, knowing that it would be tough, to embrace Cory and Isaiah with their love, support and providing them with many good, quality experiences."
Krystkowiak took Reiser to the Pac-12 tournament in Las Vegas in March and recently accompanied him to a Montana basketball reunion in Missoula. He's intending to follow through by supporting Reiser's son.
Turning to Isaiah, Krystkowiak recounted losing his mother to cancer when he was 8, the same age. The influence of an older brother and the love of basketball propelled him though a challenging childhood, and he hopes family backing and the pursuit of sports will do the same for Isaiah. As Krystkowiak promised the boy, "We can do it."
