CHICAGO (CBS) – The Bulls are giving the ball from Game 6 of the NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals to the family of Daryl Hawks, the local sports anchor who died suddenly last week while covering the series.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports since Hawks, a sports anchor at WMAQ-TV, NBC 5, was such a big Bulls fan, it would be appropriate and fitting to give his family the ball from the game that clinched the series.

The NBA also held a moment of silence for Hawks before Game 6 against the Atlanta Hawks last week, and on Sunday at the United Center for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Miami Heat, the Sun-Times reported.

Hawks was found dead this past Thursday morning in his Atlanta hotel room. The cause remains under investigation by the Fulton County, Ga., Medical Examiner’s office.

Hawks grew up in Buffalo, N.Y., and has worked at TV stations in the San Francisco Bay Area; Raleigh, N.C.; Jacksonville, Fla.; and Palm Springs, Calif.

He was married and has three children.

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