Family and friends gathered Friday in Brooklyn to say a final goodbye to Syracuse basketball legend Dwayne "Pearl" Washington.
His funeral was held Friday morning at the Christian Cultural Center in East New York.
A viewing took place Thursday at the Cornerstone Baptist Church in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Family and friends, as well as former teammates and coaches, including Syracuse men's basketball head coach Jim Boeheim, were on-hand for the service.
Washington was a Brooklyn native who attended Boys and Girls High School.
One of Washington's former teammates said he inspired young people: "A lot of kids looked up to him. You know, we're all from the ghetto part of Brooklyn, but just because you're from the ghetto doesn't mean that you have to be living like you in the ghetto. And his talents, along with his smarts, got him up out of here. And when the Big East formed, he was a focal part of that and from that moment on everything went uphill."
Washington scored nearly 1,500 points for Syracuse during the 1980s before the New Jersey Nets drafted him.
"The closer I got, the more emotional I started to feel," said former Syracuse University basketball star Gene Waldron. "After being around Pearl for some time, and I've known him for years, having that one year to play with him at Syracuse was one of the best times of my career — so it's going to be a little emotional for me when I go inside. I just got to let it out."
Washington was diagnosed with a brain tumor last summer.
Dwayne "Pearl" Washington died April 20 at the age of 52.