Harlem basketball legend Lamont “Tip Dog” Thornton was stabbed to death by his son inside their NYCHA apartment, police said Wednesday, touching off a crush of remembrances from fans and friends.
Thornton, 58, was inside the eighth-floor apartment in NYCHA’s Rangel Houses in Washington Heights when his 24-year-old son Lamont Oliphant allegedly stabbed him in the neck about 11:45 p.m. July 20, cops said.
The beloved hoopster ran out of the apartment and fled the building, “leaving an extensive trail of blood from the unit, down the hallway to the elevator, through the lobby and to the sidewalk, where he ultimately collapsed,” prosecutors said during the son’s initial arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court. The single stab wound severed his artery.
Responding officers found Thornton passed out on the sidewalk outside the building on Harlem River Drive near Frederick Douglass Blvd.
“I came home and there was blood on the floor, blood smeared on my door, there was blood everywhere,” said Wilton George, 40, a security guard who lives next door to the victim. “I was petrified to say the least. There were cops everywhere.”
Medics rushed Thornton to Harlem Hospital, where he was intubated, placed in a medically induced coma and underwent hours of emergency surgery. He clung to life for nearly two weeks before dying Friday.
“There was blood on the elevator door and the buttons. It was a crazy scene,” George added. “I never seen anything like it. He was obviously going door to door looking for help.”
Another neighbor, Ana Montana, 75 said Thornton tried to get her to open her door.
“He said that I knew him and that he was bleeding,” she said. But fearing for her safety, she was hesitant to open up.
“I heard some arguing and then later he was knocking on my door but I didn’t answer it,” said Montana, who has lived in the building for 40 years. “I don’t open my door for nobody. I got shot years ago, so I learned my lesson. In the morning when I got up, my door was covered in blood.”
His son was initially charged with attempted murder but arraigned on upgraded murder charges Wednesday morning in the wake of Thornton’s death.
Thornton, who graduated from the former Benjamin Franklin High School in East Harlem, was a neighborhood blacktop legend at Rucker Park in the 1980s who entertained thousands of fans at Harlem courts with his amazing moves.
He played with the likes of street ball legends Richie “The Animal” Adams and James “Pookie” Wilson before playing for Jacksonville Baptist College and becoming a point guard for the University of New Orleans between 1987 and 1989.
He never played professionally and spent his later years as a counselor at Volunteers of America, according to a 2012 video interview.
In the video, he introduces his then-12-year-old son Lamont, who he affectionally calls “Lil’ Tip.”
“Right now its all about the future, man,” Thornton said, talking about the importance of caring for young people while steering them away from crime and violence. “If you ever played basketball, you have to give back to the kids. Because back in the day, guys gave back to me so I’m trying to do the same thing.”
Avid fans of the neighborhood basketball star were shattered by the news of his slaying.
“I’m crushed to learn that one of my childhood basketball idols has passed away,” fan Bruns Parks wrote on Facebook. “Can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched him play. One of the most underrated point guards in the rich NYC basketball history. Inventor of so many moves, just ridiculous!!”
Cops arrested Oliphant 90 minutes after the attack when he approached cops outside the building saying he needed help getting back into his apartment. He gave the officers the apartment number and cops quickly realized that’s where his father’s blood trail began.
Oliphant was holding a knife in his hand and had dried blood on his leg when he approached the officers and was immediately taken into custody, prosecutors said.
He was arraigned on on July 21 and ordered held $100,000 bail in Bellevue Hospital’s prison ward, Department of Correction records show.
On Wednesday, he was indicted on second-degree murder charges and was ordered held without bail. It’s his first arrest in New York, officials said.
Hundreds of people packed at the Fred Samuel Playground on Lenox Ave. near 139th St. on Monday to attend a balloon release vigil for the neighborhood basketball phenom.
“Tip Dog” was spelled out in votive candles as mourners dressed in white released the balloons and chanted his nickname. His daughter Simone was among the crowd.
“Lamont was always love,” said one mourner who played basketball with Thornton. “This has shocked everybody. I’ve come up here from Philadelphia. Not too many people when they leave me break me down. But this one broke me down.”
“Us ball players from this city, we can go anywhere in the world and we’re loved or hated but Tip was love,” he added. “Tip was always giving back to the youth. He had a love not just for basketball, but love for people.”
Wearing a white bucket hat and dark sunglasses, Thornton’s brother Mike “Boogie” Thornton also attended the vigil.
“Me and my brother, we were like peanut butter and jelly,” he said, as mourners shouted “Mike Boogie and Who? Tip Dog!”
“I’m dealing with it,” he said about his beloved brother’s murder. “But it hasn’t hit me yet.”
Originally Published: August 6, 2025 at 10:05 AM EDT
