Former Oklahoma college basketball star and NBA player Wayman Tisdale died Friday (May 14) in Oklahoma after a two year battle with cancer.

He was just 44 years old.

According to reports, Tisdale died at the St. John Medical Center in Tulsa on Friday.

He learned he had cancer after slipping on a staircase at his home in Los Angeles in 2007, and the ease with which a leg bone shattered alarmed doctors.

Doctors told him he had a cancerous cyst below his right knee. His leg was amputated last August, but he had made several public appearances since.

"He was so positive, he almost made you feel he was OK when you knew he wasn't. It's a shock," said former Oklahoma coach Billy Tubbs. "I don't know of any athlete at Oklahoma or any place else who was more loved by the fans who knew him than Wayman Tisdale."

In 1997, Tisdale retired from basketball and switched focus to music. Two years prior, he dropped his debut Power Forward, via Motown. Primarily a bass player, he went on to record eight albums, with the 2001 release, Face to Face, hitting no. 1 on Billboard's contemporary jazz chart.

In 2002, he was awarded the Legacy Tribute Award by the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame. In an ESPN internet chat, Tisdale said his musical influences include funk bands of the 1970s.His most recent release, Rebound, was written and released after he had been diagnosed with cancer.

"Wayman Tisdale was much more than a superb basketball player and gifted musician. He was an incredible human being who touched the lives of everyone he met," said NBA commissioner David Stern. "He was always smiling and his love for life, even as he battled a terrible illness, inspired countless people. Basketball has lost a great ambassador."

The former NBA forward was a three-time All-American for Oklahoma, and spent 12 seasons in the NBA with the Indiana Pacers, Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns.

Tisdale is survived by his wife, Regina, and four children.