Local basketball star killed while riding bike to be honored Friday, buried Saturday

A local basketball star who was killed while riding a bicycle will be honored with a vigil Friday afternoon and buried Saturday.

Mikey Maddox, 18, who played at Rocky River High and at Vance High, was hit by a car on Old Concord Road while riding his bicycle in northeast Charlotte about 1 a.m. last Saturday. Maddox was pronounced dead at the scene.

A vigil for Madox will be held Friday, Aug. 17, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Reedy Creek Park, 2900 Rocky River Rd. in Charlotte. Friends and family plan to remember Mikey. Funeral services will be Saturday at Sugar Creek Church of Christ, 3932 Sofley Rd. in Charlotte. Visitation begins at 11 a.m. and the service begins at 11:30 a.m.

Last Sunday, a crowd of more than 200 gathered at Reedy Creek Park for a balloon release. Maddox’s mother, Tasha, spoke to the gathered crowd.

“This made me feel so good ... music playing, everybody moving,” she said. “He would’ve been so excited and y’all know that. All he wanted to do was rap and play basketball.”

Just before the crowd was about to release the balloons, she added: “I want y’all to know that I feel like Mikey really got drafted to heaven. I feel like he’s playing on the all-star team right now, the starting point guard. ... He’s probably watching us right now.”

▪ Maddox is the second local player to die in the past four months. In May, James Hampton, a player at Charlotte’s Liberty Heights School, collapsed and died while playing for Team United’s summer travel team at a tournament in Virginia.