Former NBA Player Art Long's First Night Incarcerated: Fear, Confusion, and My Kids
- Teo Drinkovic
- Jul 5
- 2 min read
Art Long: From Rochester Basketball Star to a Prison Cell; The Untold Story of a Former NBA Player
For basketball fans in Rochester, New York, the story of Arthur “Art” Long is a complicated one. Born October 1, 1972, in Rochester, Long emerged from East High School as a talented 6-foot-9 forward-center before continuing his basketball journey through several junior colleges and ultimately the University of Cincinnati.
Long went undrafted in 1996, but he refused to give up on his NBA dream. After years of professional basketball in the United States and overseas, he finally reached the NBA in 2001 with the Sacramento Kings.
He later played for the Seattle SuperSonics, Philadelphia 76ers, and Toronto Raptors, appearing in 98 NBA games between 2001 and 2003. His best NBA season came with Seattle in 2001-02, when he played 63 games and started 27. He averaged 4.5 points and 4.0 rebounds per game, bringing physicality, rebounding, and interior defense to the court.
His NBA career was relatively short, but Long's professional basketball journey continued well beyond the league. He played internationally in countries including France, Greece, the Philippines, Ukraine, Turkey, Iran, and Mexico, remaining a professional player until around 2010.
Long's life away from basketball, however, became increasingly troubled. His legal problems began years before his NBA career. In 1993, while attending Dodge City Community College, he pleaded no contest to selling marijuana to an undercover police officer. In 1995, while in Cincinnati, he faced charges involving an alleged domestic-violence incident and was also accused of punching a Cincinnati police horse during a confrontation.
The most serious chapter came in 2013. Rochester-area authorities arrested Long after a traffic stop and searches of his vehicle and home allegedly uncovered ecstasy, marijuana, an AK-47, a stolen .45-caliber handgun and drug-packaging materials. In 2015, he was convicted on federal drug and gun charges and sentenced to 81 months, nearly seven years, in federal prison.
That painful chapter is at the center of the video accompanying this article. Long describes the terrifying uncertainty of his first night behind bars, the fear of not knowing what would happen next, and the heartbreak of realizing he might miss his daughter's graduation. Ultimately, he did miss it. He speaks emotionally about what his daughter may have felt when she realized her father was in prison.
For Rochester and New York basketball fans, this is more than an old NBA story. It is a raw account of how quickly a life can move from basketball dreams to consequences that reach far beyond the court.
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