I was just telling my wife that I don't think anybody in sports has ever gotten more mileage out of being dead.
Edit: I don't mean that to be a shot at Valvano at all; I just mean that he gets by far more play now than he ever did during his career. He was not exactly a household name, and yet here a decade and a half later he's still all over ESPN all the time.
Everybody in the basketball world knew him, but we are witnessing the marketing muscle of ESPN. When the network wants to get behind someone or something, it can make a huge difference in the sports landscape.