Elijah Olaniyi died at 26 – American basketball player
Biography and cause of death of Elijah Olaniyi
America lost a great basketball player on February 27, 2025, Elijah Olaniyi. He was born January 11, 1999. During his career, Olaniyi suited up for two different conferences: the America East’s Stony Brook Seawolves and the Atlantic Coast’s Miami Hurricanes.
Before moving to Miami, Olaniyi won America East Rookie of the Year in 2018 and was chosen first-team All-Conference in 2020 while playing at Stony Brook. For his last year of college, he returned to Stony Brook, although he did not stay until the season ended. In 2023, after a diagnosis of brain cancer, Olaniyi decided to retire. In February 2025, he passed away due to cancer.
Elijah Olaniyi Life in elementary and secondary school
Brooklyn, NewYork,k is the place of Olaniyi’s birth. When he was a freshman in high school, he went to a charter school in Newark, New Jersey, but the next semester, he transferred to East Side, where they had a basketball team. It wasn’t until Olaniyi’s eighth grade gym instructor directed him to AAU basketball that he started playing the game. The NJ Roadrunners were his AAU team for two years. His head coach at East Side was Anthony Tavares.
Under Olaniyi’s leadership, the East Side Red Raiders won the 2015 state title, two county titles in 2017 and 2014, and the 2014 crown. Olaniyi averaged 928 points and 588 rebounds in 87 games for his high school. He made the All-Group 4 First Team during his junior year. After his senior year, he was recognized as All-Conference and first-team All-State.
With an overall gradeof 677, Olaniyi was touted by ESPN as a two-star small forward prospect. According to ESPN, Olaniyi was the 75th best small forward and the 11th top recruit from New Jersey.
Elijah Olaniyi Academic journey via university
In his collegiate basketball debut against Maryland on November 10, 2017, Elijah Olaniyi played 20 minutes and finished with three points. Olaniyi scored 16 points, including a game-high 16 points, in Stony Brook’s 19-11 victory against No. 2 Michigan State. From his bench position, Olaniyi began a run of five consecutive games with double-digit points in this game.
Elijah Olaniyi started for the first time in his career and scored 10 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in a win against Hartford. He topped all freshman with 7.8 points and 3.8 rebounds per game in 2018, earning him the America East Rookie of the Year honor. He made it into the America East All-Rookie Team and was selected Rookie of the Week four times.
Before sustaining a concussion in Stony Brook’s home opener against Molloy, Olaniyi averaged 16.8 points in the first four games of his sophomore season. After sitting out two games, he returned to the lineup against Quinnipiac. In a game against Hartford on February 2, 2019, Olaniyi set a new career best with 28 points. Thanks to acareer highh 27 points from Olaniyi, Stony Brook fell to Binghamton in the America East quarterfinals. As a sophomore, he shot 42.5% from beyond the arc and averaged 12.3 points and 5.9 rebounds per game. He earned a spot on the All-America East Third Team.
During his junior year, Olaniyi became a star. He scored 30 points against Brown on 11-for-15 shooting on December 7, 2019, in a career game. In a 70-62 win against Albany on January 18, 2020, he recorded his 1,000th point in his career, along with his fourth consecutive 20-point and 10-rebound performance.Inn Against UMass Lowell on February 5, he scored 33 points, which was his career best.
Elijah Olaniyi averaged 19.7 points and 6.9 rebounds per game before suffering a high ankle sprain against New Hampshire on February 8. He missed five games due to the injury. After returning to the lineup in 2020 America East tournament play off the bench against UMBC on March 3, he started the next game against Albany in the quarterfinals and scored 19 points in the semifinals versus Hartford. At the conclusion of his junior year, Olaniyi shot 36.1% from outside the arc and averaged 18.0 points and 6.5 rebounds per game, earning him a spot on the First Team All-America East.
Elijah Olaniyi officially entered the 2020 NBA draft on March 28, 2020. He made the announcement that he will be playing his last year of college ballint Miami, Florida, on May 17. He grabbed 5.1 rebounds and scored 10.5 points per game on average. He used the transfer portal after the season. For his fifth year of eligibility, Olaniyi returned to Stony Brook University, as he announced on April 2, 2021.
Elijah Olaniyi was sidelined for ten games after hurting his leg in a game against Sacred Heart on November 22, 2021. Against Maine, he made a triumphant comeback on January 8, 2022. Olaniyi was absent from the squad for personal reasons from January 19, 2022, and was back on January 26, 2022. Due to his injury and Stony Brook’s punishment for joining the Colonial Athletic Association in July, Olaniyi announced on February 10 that he had withdrawn from the university and permanently left the team.
This was in response to the America East Conference’s decision to prevent Stony Brook from participating in the postseason. In seven games, he saw action, scoring 8.9 points and grabbing 3.7 boards each.
With 220 points at Miami and 1,197 at Stony Brook (the eighth-most in school history), Olaniyi finished his collegiate career with 1,417 points.
Elijah Olaniyi Expertise in field
In his first game after graduating from college, a 98-69 triumph against Soleuvre, Olaniyi scored 21 points, grabbed five rebounds, and dished out six assists for the Sparta of the Luxembourgish Basketball League on September 24, 2022. Elijah Olaniyi announced his retirement from professional basketball on December 7, 2023, on his Instagram page. He cited unanticipated health concerns as the reason behind his decision. Olaniyi disclosed his 2021 brain cancer diagnosis and subsequent three operations to remove 95% of the tumor in a December 2023 interview with The Statesman.
Elijah Olaniyi: Death and one’s own life
A total of five siblings were born to Festus and Ruth Olaniyi. The Olaniyi family made history when Olaniyi became the first of his parents’ generations to become U.S. citizens upon their immigration from Nigeria. Two players who impacted Olaniyi’s basketball career were Jimmy Butler and Kobe Bryant. His mother Ruth passed away only two days after Olaniyi enrolled in college in July 2017.
After receiving a brain cancer diagnosis in 2021, Olaniyi had three operations to remove the tumor. A few weeks later, he started chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Although Olaniyi declared himself cancer-free in February 2024, he was readmitted to the hospital later that year due to a recurrence of the illness. At the age of 26, Olaniyi passed away on February 27, 2025.