- published: 25 Feb 2012
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- author: thehoopscene
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Tom Gola
Thomas Joseph "Tom" Gola (born January 13, 1933, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a retired American basketball player.
Gola was praised as a great all-around player as a high school student at La Salle College High School, where he led the Explorers to a Philadelphia Catholic League Championship. He entered La Salle a year after another Philadelphia basketball Hall of Famer, Paul Arizin, graduated from Villanova.
Gola was one of the most talented collegiate athletes in Philadelphia sports history. He came to national attention while playing for the hometown La Salle University Explorers men's basketball team in 1954 as an All-American forward. Gola paced the Explorers to the NCAA basketball championship in 1954 and was named Tournament MVP. That same season he was selected as National Player of the Year. As a senior, Gola helped La Salle finish as the runner-up in the 1955 NCAA Tournament. He averaged 20.9 points and 19.0 rebounds during 115 games and holds the NCAA record with 2,201 career rebounds. At 6'6" (198 cm), Gola was clearly a forward who could shoot/score, rebound and defend, but he also had the ballhandling (dribbling, passing) skills of a guard, and with his shooting range and All-Pro defensive skills, could play just as well in the backcourt. He was inducted into the La Salle Hall of Athletes in 1961 and the Big 5 Hall of Fame in 1986. Gola was listed on "ESPN's Countdown to the Greatest" College basketball players as #17.
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Adrian Dantley
Adrian Delano Dantley (born February 28, 1956 in Washington, D.C.) is a retired American basketball player who played 15 seasons in the NBA, including seven as a member of the Utah Jazz. A forward/guard and six-time NBA All-Star, he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008. In 2010, he was appointed acting head coach of the Denver Nuggets in the absence of stricken head coach George Karl.
Dantley attended basketball powerhouse DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Maryland where he played under legendary basketball coach Morgan Wootten.
Dantley was a forward at Notre Dame from 1973-76. He was a consensus first team All-American in 1974-75 and 1975–76 and was named 1976 National Player of the Year. He ranks second on the Notre Dame career scoring list with 2,223 points and holds the school record for free throws made (615) and free throws attempted (769).
Dantley had a stellar collegiate career for the Fighting Irish. As a freshman, he played an important role in one of the biggest games in college basketball history, Notre Dame's stunning 1974 upset to end UCLA's record 88-game winning streak. That UCLA team, coached by the legendary John Wooden, featured Bill Walton, Jamaal Wilkes (then known as Keith Wilkes), and Dave Meyer.
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Akeem Olajuwon
Hakeem Abdul Olajuwon (/ɵˈlaɪdʒəwɒn/; [olaɟuwɔ̃]; born January 21, 1963) is a retired Nigerian-American professional basketball player. From 1984 to 2002, he played the center position in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Houston Rockets and Toronto Raptors. He led the Rockets to back-to-back NBA championships in 1994 and 1995. In 2008, he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Listed at 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) (but closer to 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) by his own admission), Olajuwon is considered one of the greatest centers ever to play the game.
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Al Cervi
Alfred Nicholas Cervi (February 12, 1917 – November 9, 2009) was an American professional basketball player and coach in the National Basketball League (NBL) and National Basketball Association (NBA). One of the strongest backcourt players of the 1940s and 1950s, he was always assigned to defend against the opposing team's best scoring threat. He earned the nickname Digger because of his hard-nosed style of defense.
Born in Buffalo, New York, Cervi attended East High School in his hometown, where he captained the baseball and basketball teams and achieved All-City honors in both sports. He dropped out of school after his junior year when he was recruited by the Buffalo Bisons of the newly formed NBL. He played in all of the Bisons' nine games in 1937–38, the franchise's only season of existence.
He never attended college. Instead, he served five years in the United States Army Air Forces from 1940 through 1945.
After the conclusion of World War II, he joined the Rochester Royals, another NBL franchise entering its first year of operations. He immediately experienced success as the team captured the 1945–46 league title after sweeping the best-of-five championship series from the Sheboygan Red Skins. The Royals returned to the finals the following two seasons, but lost to the Chicago American Gears and Minneapolis Lakers in four games each. Cervi made the All-NBL First Team in 1947 and 1948. In the first of those two campaigns, he was named the circuit's Most Valuable Player as the leading scorer with 632 points.
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Al Horford
Alfred Joel Horford Reynoso (born June 3, 1986) is a Dominican professional basketball player who is a center and power forward for the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Horford played college basketball for the University of Florida, and was the starting center on the Florida Gators teams that won back-to-back NCAA national championships in 2006 and 2007. He also plays for the Dominican Republic national team. On December 24, 2011, he married singer and 2003 Miss Universe Amelia Vega.
Horford was born in the city of Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic, an island more famous for producing baseball players, produced Horford's father Tito Horford. Tito Horford was recruited by Marian Christian High School in Houston out of the Dominican Republic and attended Louisiana State University and the University of Miami. He was drafted in the second round of the 1988 NBA draft, and played three years in the NBA and several more overseas. Horford's mother Arelis Reynoso was a journalist. Horford grew up watching his father play and fell in love with the game. In the summer of 2000, Horford and his family moved to Lansing, Michigan, where he attended Grand Ledge High School in Grand Ledge, Michigan, and was a star player on its basketball team. At Grand Ledge, Horford holds to this day seven school records, including most career points, with 1239. As a senior he was Class A Player of The Year, averaging 21 points, 13 rebounds, and 5 blocks. While at Grand Ledge, Horford played AAU basketball for the Michigan Mustangs, who were runner-ups in the Adidas Big Time National Tournament. He was rated as a four-star recruit by Rivals.com.
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Alex English
Alexander English (born January 5, 1954 in Columbia, South Carolina) is a retired American basketball player who played at the forward position. He is currently an assistant coach with the Sacramento Kings of the National Basketball Association. He played at the University of South Carolina and most notably with the National Basketball Association's Denver Nuggets.
He averaged 21.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per game during his NBA career and was the NBA's most prolific scorer during the 1980s. He was named to eight NBA All-Star teams, his #2 jersey was retired by the Nuggets, and he was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1997.
English spent the majority of his career with the Nuggets, but also played briefly with the Milwaukee Bucks, Indiana Pacers and Dallas Mavericks. He was drafted in 1976 by the Bucks, and was part of a rookie class that includes fellow Hall of Famers Robert Parish, Adrian Dantley and Dennis Johnson.
Most of his time in Milwaukee was spent as a back-up on a rebuilding team that lost Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. However, it was not until he was sent to Indiana in 1978 that he began his reputation as a scorer, averaging 16 points there on another subpar team before being traded to Denver.
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Alex Groza
Alex John Groza (October 7, 1926 – January 21, 1995) was an American professional basketball player from Martins Ferry, Ohio who was banned from the NBA for life in 1951 for point shaving. He had an outstanding college career at the University of Kentucky and was a two-time All-Star for the Indianapolis Olympians before his career came to an abrupt end.
Groza was the captain and center of the "Fabulous Five" that won the 1948 and 1949 NCAA Men's Basketball Championships, as well as the leading scorer on the gold medal-winning 1948 US Olympic basketball team. Groza was three-time All-American and All-SEC, and two-time NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player.
Groza was drafted in the 1st round of the 1949 NBA Draft by the Indianapolis Olympians. Groza averaged 23.4 points per game in his rookie season and was named NBA Rookie of the Year — a designation not currently sanctioned by the NBA for the 1949-50 season. He averaged 22.5 points per game over two seasons before being implicated along with college teammates Ralph Beard and Dale Barnstable in a point shaving scandal during the 1948-49 season at Kentucky. NBA president Maurice Podoloff banned all of the implicated players from the league for life.
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Allen Iverson
Allen Ezail Iverson (born June 7, 1975) is an American professional basketball player, playing both the point guard and shooting guard positions. Iverson attended Bethel High School and was a dual-sport athlete; he earned The Associated Press High School Player of the Year award in both football and basketball, and won the Division AAA Virginia State Championship in both sports. After high school, Iverson attended Georgetown University for two years, where he set the school record for career scoring average (22.9 points per game) and won Big East Defensive Player of the Year awards both years.
Following two successful years at Georgetown, Iverson declared eligibility for the 1996 NBA Draft, and was selected by the Philadelphia 76ers with the number one pick. He was named the NBA Rookie of the Year in the 1996–97 season. Iverson is an eleven-time NBA All-Star which includes winning the All-Star MVP award in 2001 and 2005.
Winning the NBA scoring title during the 1998–99, 2000–01, 2001–02 and 2004–05 seasons, Iverson was one of the most prolific scorers in NBA history, despite his small stature (listed at 6 feet, 0 inches). His regular season career scoring average of 26.7 points per game ranks sixth all-time, and his playoff career scoring average of 29.7 points per game is second only to Michael Jordan. Iverson was also the NBA Most Valuable Player of the 2000–01 season and led his team to the 2001 NBA Finals the same season. Iverson represented the United States at the 2004 Summer Olympics, winning the bronze medal. He also played for the Denver Nuggets, Detroit Pistons and the Memphis Grizzlies, before returning to the 76ers for part of the 2009–10 season.
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Alonzo Mourning
Alonzo Harding Mourning, Jr. (born February 8, 1970) is a former American professional basketball player, who played most of his 15-year NBA career for the Miami Heat.
Nicknamed "Zo", Mourning played at center. His tenacity on defense twice earned him NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award and perennially placed him on the NBA All-Defensive Team. He made a comeback after undergoing a kidney transplant and later won his only NBA Championship with the Heat. He has also played for the Charlotte Hornets and New Jersey Nets. On March 30, 2009, Mourning became the first Miami Heat player to have his number retired.
During his time at Indian River High School in Chesapeake, Virginia, he led the team to 51 straight victories and a state title his junior year (1987). As a senior he averaged 25 points, 15 rebounds and 12 blocked shots a game. He was named Player of the Year by USA Today, Parade, Gatorade, and Naismith. Mourning played college basketball for the Georgetown University Hoyas. He led the nation in blocked shots his freshman year and was an All American his last year there.
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Alvin Robertson
Alvin Cyrrale Robertson (born July 22, 1962 in Barberton, Ohio) is a retired American basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association from 1984 to 1993, and for one final season in 1995–96.
Best known for his defense, the 6'3" Robertson played for ten years after being selected by the San Antonio Spurs with the seventh pick in the 1984 NBA Draft out of Crowder Junior College and the University of Arkansas. After five seasons with the Spurs, He finished out his career with the Milwaukee Bucks, the Detroit Pistons and the Toronto Raptors. He also was a member of 1984 U.S. Olympic gold-medal team.
In 1986, Robertson became the inaugural winner of the NBA Most Improved Player Award. This also marked the first of four National Basketball Association All-Star Game appearances for the guard (the others coming in 1987, 1988, and 1991). He also won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award in 1986, and led the league in steals in 1986, 1987 and 1991. Robertson still holds the top career steals-per-game average in the NBA, with 2.71 per contest over 779 career games.
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Amar'e Stoudemire
Amar'e Carsares Stoudemire Sr. (pronunciation: /əˈmɑreɪ ˈstɒdəmaɪər/; born November 16, 1982) is an American professional basketball player who plays as a power forward and center for the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association.
Stoudemire played high school basketball for six different schools, before graduating from Cypress Creek High School and declaring for the NBA draft as a prep-to-pro player. In high school, Stoudemire won several honors most notably being selected as Mr. Basketball for the state of Florida. He was selected in the first round with the ninth overall pick in the 2002 NBA Draft by the Phoenix Suns and would spend eight seasons with them before signing with the New York Knicks. Stoudemire is listed at 6 feet 11 inches (211 cm) and 260 pounds (120 kg).
Stoudemire is known for having a relatively successful career despite having chronic knee problems and having microfracture surgery on his knees. Stoudemire won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award in 2003, made six appearances in the NBA All-Star Game, was a first-team All-NBA selection in 2007, and won a bronze medal with the United States men's national basketball team at the 2004 Olympic Games.
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Andrew Bogut
Andrew Michael Bogut (born 28 November 1984) is an Australian professional basketball player who plays for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Bogut was selected first overall by the Bucks in the 2005 NBA Draft. The 7-foot (2.13m), 260-pound (118 kg) center was a star at the University of Utah for two years before declaring for the draft. Bogut is the first Australian player to be drafted number one overall. He was also the second Utah player to be drafted number one overall.
Bogut was born to Croatian immigrants Mišo and Ankica (née Jurišić) Bogut in the Melbourne suburb of Endeavour Hills. His father is from Osijek and his mother was a native of Karlovac. Bogut grew up playing Australian rules football and tennis in addition to basketball. In his childhood, he patterned his basketball game after Toni Kukoc. As a 15-year-old, he was cut from the Victoria junior state representative team. That experience apparently drove him to improve; he later went on to attend the Australian Institute of Sport, with whom he would tour the United States in 2001 and 2002. In his last season at AIS, he averaged 29 points, 14.5 rebounds and 2.7 blocks per game while competing in the SEABL. He went on to lead the Australian team that won the 2003 FIBA Junior World Championships, and was named the tournament MVP.
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Andrew Bynum
Andrew Bynum (born October 27, 1987) is an American professional basketball center who plays for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has won two NBA Championships with the Lakers, and he was a first-time All-Star in 2012. Bynum was drafted with the 10th overall pick in the 2005 NBA Draft by the Lakers. He became the youngest player ever to play an NBA game later that year. Amidst the 2007–08 season, he suffered an injury on his left kneecap and eventually missed the rest of the season and all of the playoffs. He made a successful return at the beginning of the 2008–09 season. In January 2009, however, he suffered another injury, this time to his right knee. He was able to come back before the playoffs started and was part of the Lakers squad that won the 2009 NBA championship. In the 2010 post-season, Bynum played in every single playoff game with a torn meniscus and strained Achilles tendon and the Lakers repeated as NBA champions against the Boston Celtics.
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Andy Phillip
Andrew Michael "Handy Andy" Phillip (March 7, 1922 – April 29, 2001) was a guard/forward who had an 11 year career professional basketball career from 1948 to 1958. Born in Granite City, Illinois, Andy Phillip played for the Chicago Stags of the Basketball Association of America and the Philadelphia Warriors, Fort Wayne Pistons and Boston Celtics, all of the National Basketball Association.
Phillip led his high school, Granite City, to the Illinois state championship in 1940. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he earned renown for his talents and for the Fighting Illini's success during war-interrupted, non-consecutive seasons, 1941–1943 and 1946–1947, . He was a member of Delta Tau Delta fraternity. Phillip served as a First Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps in World War II at Iwo Jima.
Phillip played in the first five NBA All-Star Games, and was twice named to the All-NBA Second Team. He was the first player to record 500 assists in a season, and led the NBA in assists during the 1950-51 and 1950-52 seasons. Phillip's teams made it to the NBA Finals during his final four seasons — twice with Fort Wayne and twice with Boston. The 1957 Boston team won the NBA Championship.
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Arnie Risen
Arnold D. Risen (born October 9, 1924 in Williamstown, Kentucky) is a retired American basketball player.
A 6'9" center from the Ohio State University, he led the Buckeyes to two straight Final Four appearances.
Risen played professionally in the NBA for ten seasons (1948–1958) as a member of the Rochester Royals and Boston Celtics. Risen was a four-time All-Star and two-time NBA Champion, and he scored 7,633 points in his career. He was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1998.
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Bailey Howell
Bailey E. Howell (born January 20, 1937 in Middleton, Tennessee) is a former professional basketball player now enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. A 6'7" forward from Mississippi State University, he played 12 seasons (1959–1971) in the NBA as a member of the Detroit Pistons, Baltimore Bullets, Boston Celtics, and Philadelphia 76ers. A six-time All-Star with 17,770 career points, he was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1997. He won two NBA championships with the Boston Celtics. The best years of his career were during his time with the Bullets and the Celtics.
Despite playing at the college level for only three years, Howell set and still holds Mississippi State records for single-game points scored, career scoring average, single-season and career free throws made, single-season and career free throws attempted, single-game free throw percentage, single-game rebounds, single-season rebounds, career rebounds, and single-season and career rebounding average. His scoring records are particularly impressive, since there was no three point line or shot clock at the time that he played. He is considered a legend to the Bulldog basketball faithful, and one of best-known players to have played at MSU. He is probably most known for his hook shot, rebounding ability, and work ethic as a player and person. After his career ended, he went to work with the Converse shoe company, particularly with the Converse All-Star. He resides in Starkville, Mississippi where he is very active in Mississippi State athletics fund-raising, specifically the Bulldog Club, an organized fund to pay for MSU athletic scholarships. He currently serves as an elder for the Starkville Church of Christ.
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Baron Davis
Baron Walter Louis Davis (born April 13, 1979) is an American professional basketball player who currently plays for the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A two-time NBA All-Star, he was drafted as the third pick in the 1999 NBA Draft by the Charlotte Hornets. He went on to play for the Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Clippers and Cleveland Cavaliers before signing with New York as a free agent in 2011. Davis played college basketball at the UCLA, where he was an All-America honoree before turning professional after his sophomore year. He was a star high school player while at Crossroads School.
Davis was born in Los Angeles. His grandmother and guardian, Lela Nicholson, was instrumental in pushing him to play basketball. With her encouragement, he eventually enrolled at Crossroads School, a prestigious private school in Santa Monica, California.
As a senior at Crossroads, Davis led his team to the Championship of The Beach Ball Classic tournament in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina over perennial prep powerhouse Christ The King Regional High School (Queens, New York), while earning MVP honors and a spot on the All-Tournament team along with future St. John's standout Erick Barkley at that prestigious event. That year, Davis was also named Gatorade National Player of the Year and a Parade All-American. He was also selected to play in the prestigious McDonald's All-American High School Basketball Game in Colorado Springs in 1997, playing with future NBA players Elton Brand, Shane Battier, Larry Hughes and Ron Artest, and winning the Sprite Slam Dunk Contest despite being the smallest man in the competition at 6'2."
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Ben Wallace
Ben Camey Wallace (born September 10, 1974) is an American basketball center for the Detroit Pistons of the NBA. A native of Alabama, Wallace attended Cuyahoga Community College and Virginia Union University and signed with the Washington Bullets (later Wizards) as an undrafted free agent in 1996. In his NBA career, Wallace has also played the power forward position and with the Washington Bullets/Wizards, Orlando Magic, Detroit Pistons, Chicago Bulls, and Cleveland Cavaliers teams.
He has won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award four times, a record he shares with Dikembe Mutombo. In six seasons with the Pistons (2000–2006), Wallace made two NBA Finals appearances (2004 and 2005) and won a championship with the Pistons in 2004.
Ben Wallace was born in White Hall, Alabama, a small town in Lowndes County, and is the tenth of eleven children. He later attended Central High School in Hayneville where he received all-state honors in basketball, baseball, and football (as a linebacker). Former basketball player Charles Oakley is Wallace's mentor, having discovered Wallace at a 1991 basketball camp, and later recommended Wallace to his previous college, Virginia Union.
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Bernard King
Bernard King (born December 4, 1956 in Brooklyn, New York) is a retired American professional basketball player at the small forward position in the NBA. He played 14 seasons with the New Jersey Nets, Utah Jazz, Golden State Warriors, New York Knicks and the Washington Bullets.
Bernard King attended college at the University of Tennessee and was selected 7th overall in the 1977 NBA Draft by the New York Nets, who months later relocated from Uniondale, New York to New Jersey and became known as the New Jersey Nets.
At 6'7" and 205 pounds, Bernard King epitomized the NBA small forward of the 1980s. With his long arms and quick release, King was an explosive runner on the fast-break and a tremendous scorer. King led the NBA in scoring in 1985 with 32.9 points per game and was selected twice to the All-NBA First Team and three times to the NBA All-Star Game.
In 1977-78, his rookie season, he set a New Jersey Nets franchise record for most points scored in a season with 1,909, at 24.2 points per game. He would later surpass this record with his 2,027 point season in 1983-84, earning the first of his back-to-back All-NBA First Team selections.
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Bill Russell
William Felton "Bill" Russell (born February 12, 1934) is a retired American professional basketball player who played center for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A five-time winner of the NBA Most Valuable Player Award and a twelve-time All-Star, Russell was the centerpiece of the Celtics dynasty that won eleven NBA Championships during Russell's thirteen-year career. Along with Henri Richard of the National Hockey League's Montreal Canadiens, Russell holds the record for the most championships won by an athlete in a North American sports league. Before his professional career, Russell led the University of San Francisco to two consecutive NCAA championships (1955, 1956). He also won a gold medal at the 1956 Summer Olympics as captain of the U.S. national basketball team.
Russell is widely considered one of the best players in NBA history. Listed as between 6'9" (2.06 m) and 6'10" (2.08 m), Russell's shot-blocking and man-to-man defense were major reasons for the Celtics' success. He also inspired his teammates to elevate their own defensive play. Russell was equally notable for his rebounding abilities. He led the NBA in rebounds four times, and remains second all-time in both total rebounds and rebounds per game. He is one of just two NBA players (the other being prominent rival Wilt Chamberlain) to have grabbed more than fifty rebounds in a game. Though never the focal point of the Celtics' offense, Russell also scored 14,522 career points and provided effective passing.
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Bill Sharman
William Walton "Bill" Sharman (born May 25, 1926 in Abilene, Texas) is a former professional basketball player and coach. Sharman completed high school in the rural city of Porterville, California and is mostly known for his time with the Boston Celtics in the 1950s, partnering with Bob Cousy in what some consider the greatest backcourt duo of all time. While Cousy was primarily the playmaker, Sharman was the shooter.
From 1950 to 1955 Sharman played professional baseball in the Brooklyn Dodgers minor league system. He was called up to the Dodgers late in the 1951 season but did not appear in a game; as a result of a September 27 game in which the entire Brooklyn bench was ejected from the game for arguing with the umpire, Sharman holds the distinction of being the only player to have ever been ejected from a major league game without ever appearing in one.
Sharman was one of the first guards to shoot better than .400 from the field. He led the NBA in free throw percentage seven times, and his mark of 93.2% in the 1958–59 season remained the NBA record until Ernie DiGregorio topped it in 1976–77. Sharman still holds the record for consecutive free throws in the playoffs with 56. Sharman was named to the All-NBA First Team from 1956 through 1959, and was an All-NBA Second Team member in 1953, 1955, and 1960. Sharman played in eight NBA All-Star games, and was named the 1955 NBA All-Star Game MVP. Sharman ended his career after 11 seasons in 1961.
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Bill Walton
William Theodore "Bill" Walton III (born November 5, 1952) is a retired American basketball player and television sportscaster. The "Big Red-Head", as he was called, achieved superstardom playing for John Wooden's powerhouse UCLA Bruins in the early '70s, winning three straight College Player of the Year Awards, while leading the Bruins to two Division I national titles. He then went on to have a prominent career in the National Basketball Association (NBA) where he was a league Most Valuable Player (MVP) and won two NBA championships. His professional career was significantly hampered by multiple foot injuries. Walton was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on May 10, 1993 and the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame that same year. He is the father of current Cleveland Cavaliers forward Luke Walton.
Walton was born in La Mesa, California, the son of Gloria Anne (née Hickey) and William Theodore "Ted" Walton. His listed adult playing height was 6 feet 11 inches; it has been reported that Walton was actually taller (7 feet 2 inches, or more), but did not like being categorized as a seven-footer.
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Billy Cunningham
William John "Billy" Cunningham (born June 3, 1943) is an American former professional basketball player and coach, who was nicknamed the Kangaroo Kid.
Billy Cunningham was born in Brooklyn, New York. His fame began while he was playing at Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, where he was the MVP in the Brooklyn League in 1961. That year, he was the First-Team All-New York City, and a member of the Parade Magazine All-America Team.
Cunningham then went to the University of North Carolina, where he excelled. He once grabbed a record 27 rebounds in a game vs. Clemson on February 16, 1963. Cunningham also set a single-game North Carolina record with 48 points against Tulane on December 10, 1964. In his UNC career, he scored 1,709 points (24.8 points per game), and grabbed 1,062 rebounds (15.4 rebounds per game). Upon graduation, his 1,062 rebounds were the best in North Carolina history and he held seasonal records for most rebounds (379 in 1964) and rebound average (16.1 in 1963).
In 1965, Cunningham joined the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association as a sixth man and played well enough to be named to the NBA All-Rookie Team.
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Blake Griffin
Blake Austin Griffin (born March 16, 1989) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Griffin had a renowned high school career at Oklahoma Christian School, winning state titles each of his four years under his father, Tommy Griffin, who was the head coach. He played college basketball for the University of Oklahoma Sooners and was awarded numerous accolades in his second year including the Naismith College Player of the Year, Oscar Robertson Trophy and the John Wooden Award.
Griffin left college after two seasons to enter the 2009 NBA Draft where he was selected first overall by the Clippers. In his first season, he broke his left kneecap, which he injured during the final pre-season game, and underwent surgery missing the entire 2009–10 season. He made his NBA debut as a rookie the following season and was selected as an All-Star, won the 2011 NBA Slam Dunk Contest and was named the NBA Rookie of the Year. In 2011, Sports Illustrated ranked him as one of the NBA's 15 Greatest Rookies of All Time.
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Bob Cousy
Robert Joseph "Bob" Cousy (born August 9, 1928) is a retired American professional basketball player. Cousy played point guard with the Boston Celtics from 1950 to 1963 and briefly with the Cincinnati Royals in the 1969-70 season. Cousy first demonstrated his basketball abilities while playing for his high school varsity team in his junior year. He obtained a scholarship to the College of the Holy Cross, where he led the Crusaders to berths in the 1948 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament and 1950 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament and was named an NCAA All-American for 3 seasons. Cousy was initially drafted as the third overall pick in the first round of the 1950 NBA Draft by the Tri-Cities Blackhawks, but after he refused to report, he was picked up by Boston. Cousy had a very successful career with the Celtics, playing on six championship teams, being voted into 13 NBA All-Star Games and 12 All-NBA First and Second Teams and winning the NBA Most Valuable Player Award in 1957.
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Bob Davies
Robert Edris Davies (January 15, 1920 – April 22, 1990) was a professional basketball player in the 1950s. Alongside Bobby Wanzer he formed one of the best backcourt duos in the NBAs early years. Davies and Wanzer led the Rochester Royals to the 1951 NBA championship. Davies was also a former basketball coach at the Seton Hall University and was inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on April 11, 1970.
Although Bob Cousy is often considered the originator of the behind-the-back dribble, Davies actually deserves the credit. His Seton Hall coach, "Honey" Russell, once said, "He had such uncanny control of the ball behind his back that it never concerned me. He made it look as easy as the conventional dribble."
Davies entered Seton Hall in 1938 on a baseball scholarship, but Russell persuaded him to concentrate on basketball after seeing him practice once. Never a high scorer—his best college average was 11.8 points a game—Davies was a consummate passer and play-maker.."
Known as the "Harrisburg Houdini," Davies led Seton Hall to 43 consecutive victories from 1939 into 1941. His spectacular skills helped attract the largest crowd in basketball history at the time, 18,403 people, to Madison Square Garden in March 1941, when Seton Hall beat Rhode Island in a quarter-final game of the National Invitation Tournament.
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Bob Feerick
Robert Joseph (Bob) Feerick (January 2, 1920 – June 8, 1976) was an American professional basketball player, coach and general manager. He was born in San Francisco, California.
A 6-3 guard from Santa Clara University, Feerick played for the Washington Capitols from 1946 to 1950, the NBA's first four seasons of existence (the league was known as the Basketball Association of America during the first three). Playing under coach Red Auerbach, he was named to the All NBA First Team during 1947 and 1948 after averaging 16.8 (second behind Joe Fulks's 23.1) and 16.1 points per game respectively. In 1949, the league's first season as the newly formed NBA, the Capitols named Feerick player-coach. In 221 games, he scored 2936 points for an average of 13.3 per game.
After his short pro career, Feerick returned Santa Clara to head-coach its basketball team from 1950 to 1962. In addition to coaching the Capitols while still an active player, Feerick also was Wilt Chamberlain's coach with the San Francisco Warriors during the 1962-63 season. The franchise had just relocated from Philadelphia and hired Feerick, the native San Franciscan, to replace Frank McGuire, who resigned rather than make the move with the team. The Warriors finished 31-49 in their first year in San Francisco after losing to the Boston Celtics in each of the previous three Eastern Division finals. The following season, Alex Hannum replaced Feerick as coach. Ferrick later served the Warriors as General Manager and as Director of Player Personal.
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Bob Love
Robert (Bob) Earl “Butterbean” Love (born December 8, 1942, in Bastrop, Louisiana) is a retired American professional basketball player who spent the prime of his career with the NBA's Chicago Bulls. A versatile forward who could shoot with either his left or right hand, Love now works as the Bulls' Director of Community Affairs.
After starring at Morehouse High School (now defunct) in Louisiana, Love played basketball for Southern University, where he also became a brother of Alpha Phi Omega. He earned All-America honors in 1963, and in 1965, the Cincinnati Royals selected the 6’8” forward in the fourth round of the 1965 NBA Draft. Love failed to make the team, and instead spent the 1965-66 NBA season in the Eastern Basketball League. After averaging over 25 points per game, Love earned the EBL Rookie of the Year Award and gained enough confidence to try out for the Royals once more. He made the team on his second attempt and played two seasons for the Royals, largely in a reserve role. In 1968, the Milwaukee Bucks selected him in the NBA Expansion Draft and traded him to the Chicago Bulls in the middle of the 1968-69 season.
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Bob McAdoo
Robert Allen 'Bob' McAdoo (born September 25, 1951) is a retired American professional basketball player who spent a fourteen-year career playing the center and power forward positions in the National Basketball Association. McAdoo is currently an assistant coach for the Miami Heat.
Drafted in the first round of the 1972 NBA Draft by the Buffalo Braves (now the Los Angeles Clippers) following two seasons at Vincennes Junior College, and one season at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, McAdoo soon became one of the NBA's premier players. McAdoo won the 1973 NBA Rookie of the Year Award in his first season, and earned the first of three consecutive NBA scoring titles in only his second season. His 2nd season (1973–74) remains the last time an NBA player has averaged both 30.0 points per game and 15.0 rebounds per game over the course of a season. McAdoo also led the NBA in field goal percentage in 1973-74, shooting 54.7 percent. That year he enjoyed his first of five All-Star selections. In 1974-75 he was awarded the NBA Most Valuable Player Award, averaging 34.5 points, 14.1 rebounds and 2.12 blocks per game, while shooting 51.2 percent from the field and 80.5 percent from the free throw line. He also led the league in fan voting for the 1975 All-Star Game with 98,325 votes.
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Bob Pettit
Robert Lee "Bob" Pettit Jr. (born December 12, 1932, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S.) is a retired American professional basketball player. He played 11 seasons in the NBA, all with the Milwaukee/St. Louis Hawks (1954-1965). He was the first recipient of the NBA's Most Valuable Player Award. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1970. He also went by the nickname "Dutch" in college. He also won the NBA All-Star MVP award four times.
Pettit's basketball career had humble beginnings. At Baton Rouge High School, he was cut from the varsity basketball team as both a freshman and sophomore. His father, Sheriff of East Baton Rouge Parish (1932-1936), pushed him to practice in the backyard of the Kemmerly house until he improved his skills. It worked: Pettit became a starter as a junior, and led Baton Rouge High to its first State Championship in over 20 years in his senior year.
After high school, Pettit accepted a scholarship to play at Louisiana State University. He was a three-time All-Southeastern Conference selection and a two-time All American as a member of the LSU men's basketball team. (Freshmen were not allowed to play varsity basketball in those days.) During those three years, Pettit averaged 27.8 points per game. He was also a member of the Zeta Zeta Chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon at LSU.
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Bobby Dandridge
Robert L. "Bob" Dandridge (born November 15, 1947 in Richmond, Virginia) is a retired American professional basketball player.
He attended Maggie L. Walker High School in Richmond, Virginia and Norfolk State University, teaming up with Pee Wee Kirkland. His teams had phenomenal years. The Spartans won the CIAA title in 1968 with a 25-2 record; they lost in the second round of the NCAA Division II Men's Tournament. The next year their record was 21-4 and they lost in the first round of the D-II tournament. He was drafted by the Kentucky Colonels in the 1969 American Basketball Association draft and by the Milwaukee Bucks in the fourth round of the 1969 NBA Draft.
Named to the NBA All-Rookie Team in 1970, Dandridge was also an important part of the Milwaukee Bucks team that won the NBA championship in 1971 alongside the Hall-of-Fame duo of Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and Oscar Robertson. Dandridge is usually mentioned as one of the NBA's best forwards in the 1970s. He played a total of 13 seasons in the NBA, nine of them with the Bucks as well as four with the Washington Bullets, with whom he won an NBA championship in 1978 while forming the frontcourt with another future Hall-of-Fame duo: Elvin Hayes and Wes Unseld.
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Bobby Wanzer
Robert Francis (Bobby) Wanzer, also known as "Hooks" Wanzer (born June 4, 1921) is a former basketball player and coach. A 6'0" guard, he played collegiately at Seton Hall University, and was selected by the Rochester Royals in 1947. Royals star Bob Davies was a Seton Hall assistant and steered the star guard to the NBL contender. Initially a reserve behind Al Cervi and Red Holzman, Wanzer later teamed with Davies to form a potent backcourt for the day. The Royals were very successful 1947-1954, and their smaller stars, like Wanzer, were considered their biggest assets. With Wanzer, Rochester won the 1950-51 National Basketball Association (NBA) title.
He played his entire career with the Royals, retiring from play after the end of the 1957 season. Wanzer was a five-time All-Star with the Royals, and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1987. Wanzer was the first player to ever shoot over 90% from the free throw line in a season.
Wanzer would also coach the Royals as well. He was a player-coach for two years, and then (after the franchise moved to Cincinnati, Ohio) coached for another season. His 1957-58 Cincinnati Royals were a NBA contender, but injuries stopped the team short. When star Maurice Stokes was permanently injured, Wanzer moved on early the following NBA season. He later coached St. John Fisher College in Pittsford, New York.
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Bones McKinney
Horace Albert "Bones" McKinney (born January 1, 1919 in Lowlands, North Carolina – May 16, 1997) was an American professional basketball player and coach.
A 6'6" forward-center who played at both North Carolina State University (2 years) and the University of North Carolina (1 year after the war interrupted his playing career), McKinney had a six-year playing career in the NBA, most of them with the now-defunct Washington Capitols. He also played for the Boston Celtics. His final year with the Capitols (in the 1950-1951 season), McKinney was a player-coach; the team folded midway through the season.
McKinney, known for his sideline antics, would later coach the Wake Forest University Demon Deacons, leading them to two Atlantic Coast Conference titles and an appearance in the Final Four in 1962.
McKinney also coached Carolina Cougars of the American Basketball Association from 1969 through 1971. He coached them to a 42-42 record during the 1969-1970 season, good for third place in the East Division. The Cougars then lost in the first round of the 1970 ABA playoffs to the Indiana Pacers, 4 games to 0. As the 1970-71 season got under way, McKinney was named a vice president of the team. After a 17-25 start, halfway through the season McKinney was replaced as head coach by his assistant coach Jerry Steele. Steele also went 17-25 for the remainder of the season for a 34-50 record that failed to get the Cougars into the 1971 ABA playoffs. During the 1970-71 season, McKinney provided color commentary for the television broadcast of the 1971 ABA All Star Game.
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Brandon Roy
Brandon Dawayne Roy (born July 23, 1984) is a retired American professional basketball player who played for the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association. He was selected sixth in the 2006 NBA Draft, having completed four years playing for the Washington Huskies. In 2009, he served as the team's co-captain, along with LaMarcus Aldridge. His nickname was "B-Roy", but he was also referred to as "The Natural" by announcer Brian Wheeler. On December 10, 2011, Roy announced his retirement from basketball due to a degenerative knee condition.
Born in Seattle, Washington, Roy became known for his immediate impact on the Trail Blazers.Zach Randolph, then the team captain, was traded to the New York Knicks at the end of Roy's first season, which cleared the way for Roy to take on a leadership role on the team. Though hampered by an injured ankle, Roy won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award for 2006–07 in a near-unanimous vote. He played 57 games as a rookie and averaged 16.8 points per game in the 2006–07 season. He was selected as a reserve to the 2008 NBA All-Star Game, the 2009 NBA All-Star Game, and the 2010 NBA All-Star Game. Roy played the most minutes of any Western Conference player, and tied for the most points in the West in the 2008 game, and he played the most minutes of any player during the 2009 game.
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Buck Williams
Charles Linwood Williams (born March 8, 1960 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina), better known as "Buck", is a retired American professional basketball player and current assistant coach for the Portland Trail Blazers. He was well known for his rebounding ability and trademark goggles.
Williams, 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m), ranks 13th all-time in NBA career rebounds. His 17-year NBA career was highlighted by three All-Star Game appearances, a Rookie of the Year award, an All-Rookie team selection, an All-NBA second team selection and four selections to the first and second NBA All-Defensive teams. As of 2010, he is still the Nets' all-time leader in points (10,440), total rebounds (7,576), rebounds per game (11.9), and free throws made (2,476).
Williams attended Rocky Mount High School (then called Rocky Mount Senior High) in Rocky Mount before going off to play collegiately at the University of Maryland. Williams had immediate success at Maryland, capturing the ACC Rookie of the Year Award in 1979. He led the ACC in rebounding twice (1979 and 1981), while averaging 15.5 points per game in his sophomore and junior years. He earned All-ACC honors in 1980 and 1981. National recognition of his performances came when he was selected to the 1980 USA Olympic basketball team, alongside such players as later two-time NBA champions Isiah Thomas and Mark Aguirre; he, however, never got to represent the national colors in Moscow due to the United States' boycott. In 2002, Williams was one of eight former Maryland players to be named to the ACC 50th Anniversary men's basketball team. In 2001, he became a member of the University of Maryland’s Athletic Hall of Fame.
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Buddy Jeannette
Harry Edward "Buddy" Jeannette (September 15, 1917 – March 11, 1998) was a professional basketball player and coach.
Jeannette was widely regarded as the premier backcourt player between 1938 and 1948. He was named to the First Team of the NBL four times, and won titles with the NBL's Sheboygan Red Skins (1943) and Fort Wayne Pistons (1944, 1945). Jeannette also won a title with the ABL's Baltimore Bullets in 1947.
Most of his playing career came prior to the formation of the modern NBA or its predecessor leagues; however Jeannette did serve three years as a player-coach for the original Baltimore Bullets of the Basketball Association of America. In the 1948 BAA playoffs, he became the first player-coach to win a professional championship. After his playing career ended, he coached the original Bullets for one more season. He then became the head coach at Georgetown University for four seasons.
Jeannette returned to the ranks of professional coaching to lead the modern Bullets twice, once for a full season and once as an interim coach. He later would coach the ABA's Pittsburgh Pipers.
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Carlos Boozer
Carlos Austin Boozer, Jr. (born November 20, 1981) is an American professional basketball player with the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association. As a member of the Team USA, Boozer won an Olympic bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics and an Olympic gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Although born at a military base in Aschaffenburg, West Germany, Boozer grew up in Juneau, Alaska, in the US. As a child, Boozer and his father practiced outside at his local middle school, throughout the cold Alaska seasons. He attended Juneau-Douglas High School. Boozer was married to his wife CeCe for six years before he filed for divorce in March 2009. Boozer and CeCe have three children together: Carmani (who had a bone marrow transplant in 2007 to treat sickle-cell disease), and twins, Cameron and Cayden. He also has a younger brother, Charles, who previously played basketball for the Iowa State Cyclones. Boozer was reported as having an affair with actress Michelle Money, which Money later confirmed.
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Carmelo Anthony
Carmelo Kiyan Anthony (born May 29, 1984), nicknamed "Melo", is an American professional basketball player who currently plays for the New York Knicks in the National Basketball Association (NBA). After a successful high school career at Towson Catholic High School and Oak Hill Academy, Anthony attended Syracuse University for college where he led the Orangemen to their first National Championship in 2003. He earned the tournament's Most Outstanding Player award and was named the Most Valuable Player of NCAA East Regional. After one season at Syracuse University, Anthony left college to enter the 2003 NBA Draft, where he was selected as the third pick by the Nuggets. He was traded to the Knicks several days prior to the 2011 trade deadline.
Since entering the NBA, Anthony has emerged as one of the most well-known and popular players in the league. He was named to the All-Rookie team, to the All-Star team five times and to the All-NBA team five times. Anthony led the Nuggets to two division titles and to the playoffs every year from 2004 to 2010. In 2009, he helped the Nuggets advance to the Conference Finals for the first time since 1985. As a member of the USA National Team, Anthony won a bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics and a gold medal at the 2008 Olympics.
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Charles Barkley
Charles Wade Barkley (born February 20, 1963) is a former American professional basketball player and current analyst on the television program Inside the NBA. Nicknamed "Sir Charles" and "The Round Mound of Rebound", Barkley established himself as one of the National Basketball Association's (NBA's) most dominating power forwards. He was selected to the All-NBA First Team five times, the All-NBA Second Team five times, and once to the All-NBA Third Team. He earned eleven NBA All-Star Game appearances and was named the All-Star MVP in 1991. In 1993, he was voted the league's Most Valuable Player and during the NBA's 50th anniversary, named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. He competed in the 1992 and 1996 Olympic games and won two gold medals as a member of the United States' Dream Team. In 2006, Barkley was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Barkley was popular with the fans and media and made the NBA's All-Interview Team for his last 13 seasons in the league. He was frequently involved in on- and off-court fights and sometimes stirred national controversy, as in March 1991 when he mistakenly spat on a young girl, and as in 1993 when he declared that sports figures should not be considered role models. Short for a power forward, Barkley used his strength and aggressiveness to become one of the NBA's most dominant rebounders. He was a versatile player who had the ability to score, create plays, and defend. In 2000, he retired as the fourth player in NBA history to achieve 20,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists.
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Chick Halbert
Charles P. "Chick" Halbert (born February 27, 1919) was an American professional basketball player.
A 6'9" center from West Texas A&M University, Halbert played five seasons (1946–1951) in the Basketball Association of America (later known as the National Basketball Association). He was a member of the Chicago Stags, the Philadelphia Warriors, the Boston Celtics, the Providence Steamrollers, the Washington Capitols, and the Baltimore Bullets. He averaged 8.8 points per game and 7.9 rebounds per game in his career and earned All-BAA Second Honors in 1947.
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Chris Bosh
Christopher Wesson Bosh (born March 24, 1984) is an American professional basketball player who plays power forward for the Miami Heat in the National Basketball Association (NBA).
A high school "Mr. Basketball" in Texas, Bosh left college at Georgia Tech after one season with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets men's basketball team to enter the 2003 NBA Draft. He was selected fourth overall by the Toronto Raptors in a very competitive draft class. While at Toronto, Bosh emerged as one of the young stars in the league; he became a five-time NBA All-Star, was named to the All-NBA second team once, appeared for the US national team (with whom he won a gold medal at the 2008 Olympics), and took over former fan-favorite Vince Carter as the face and leader of the Raptors franchise. In the 2006–07 season, Bosh led the Raptors to their first NBA Playoffs berth in five years, and their first ever division title. He left Toronto as its all-time leader in points, rebounds, blocks, double doubles, free throws made and attempted, and minutes played.
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Chris Paul
Christopher Emmanuel Paul Sr. (born May 6, 1985) is an American professional basketball point guard for the Los Angeles Clippers. Paul was born and raised in North Carolina. Despite only playing two varsity basketball seasons in high school, he was a McDonald's All-American and accepted a scholarship with nearby Wake Forest University. After his sophomore year with the Demon Deacons, he declared for the draft. Since being selected 4th overall in the 2005 NBA Draft by the New Orleans Hornets, Paul has been a NBA Rookie of the Year (2006), a five-time All-Star, and a multiple All-NBA and All-Defensive team honoree. He led the Hornets to the second round of the 2008 NBA Playoffs. He has also won an Olympic Gold Medal with the United States national basketball team.
Off the court, Paul has also achieved success in the sport of bowling and is a sponsored spokesperson for the United States Bowling Congress (USBC). He has participated in numerous celebrity and youth bowling events as the head of the CP3 Foundation to benefit programs in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, and charities in Winston-Salem.
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Chris Webber
Mayce Edward Christopher "Chris" Webber III (born March 1, 1973), nicknamed C-Webb, is a retired American professional basketball player. He is a five-time NBA All-Star, a former All-NBA First Teamer, a former NBA Rookie of the Year, and a former #1 overall NBA Draftee. As a collegiate athlete, he was an NCAA Men's Basketball first team All-American and led the University of Michigan Wolverines' 1991 incoming freshman class known as the Fab Five that reached the 1992 & 1993 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship games as freshmen and sophomores. However, Webber was indicted by a federal grand jury and stripped of his All-American honors by the NCAA as a result of his direct involvement in the Ed Martin scandal. He is also a former National High School Basketball Player of the Year who led his high school Detroit Country Day to three Michigan State High School Basketball Championships.
Webber attended Detroit Country Day School and at the time was the most recruited Michigan high school basketball player since Magic Johnson. Webber led Country Day to three MHSAA State championships. As a senior in high school Webber averaged 29.4 points and 13 rebounds per game. He was named Michigan's Mr. Basketball and the 1990–1991 National High School player of the year. He was named MVP in both the McDonald's and Dapper Dan All-Star games.
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Cliff Hagan
Clifford Oldham Hagan (born December 9, 1931, in Owensboro, Kentucky) is an American former professional basketball player. A 6-4 forward who excelled with the hook shot, Hagan, nicknamed "Li'l Abner," played his entire 10-year NBA career (1956–1966) with the St. Louis Hawks. He was also a player-coach for the Dallas Chaparrals in the first two-plus years of the American Basketball Association's existence (1967–1970).
Hagan played college basketball at the University of Kentucky under legendary coach Adolph Rupp. As a sophomore in 1951 he helped Kentucky win the NCAA Championship with a 68-58 victory over Kansas State.
In the fall of 1952, a point shaving scandal involving three Kentucky players (one of whom was a teammate of Hagan on Kentucky’s 1951 NCAA champions) over a four-year period forced Kentucky to forfeit its upcoming season, the senior year of Hagan, Frank Ramsey and Lou Tsioropoulos. The suspension of the season made Kentucky's basketball team, in effect, the first college sports team to get the "death penalty."
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Clyde Drexler
Clyde Austin "The Glide" Drexler (born June 22, 1962) is a former American professional basketball shooting guard and small forward. A ten-time All-Star and member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, the NBA named him one of basketball's fifty greatest players as of 1996. Drexler won an Olympic gold medal in 1992 and an NBA championship in 1995 with the Houston Rockets. He is the color commentator for Rockets home games.
Drexler lived in the South Park area in Houston. Drexler attended Ross Sterling High School in Houston, Texas, where he was a classmate of tennis player Zina Garrison. As a sophomore, he made the varsity baseball team as a first baseman, but soon quit in order to focus on basketball. He didn't try out for the basketball team until his junior year, and was promptly cut during tryouts due to lack of conditioning. Drexler played as a 6'6" center as a senior, and started receiving attention from college coaches following a 34-point, 27-rebound performance against Sharpstown High School during a 1979 Christmas tournament.
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Clyde Lovellette
Clyde Edward Lovellette (born September 7, 1929 in Petersburg, Indiana) is a former professional basketball player; the first basketball player in history to play on an NCAA, Olympics and NBA championship squad. His high school team fell one game short of a state championship.
Lovellette fostered the trend of tall, physical and high-scoring centers. A two-time All-State performer at Garfield High School in Terre Haute, Indiana, the six-foot-nine Lovellette later attended the University of Kansas where he became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. While at the University of Kansas he led Jayhawks to the 1952 NCAA title, capturing MOP honors and scoring a then-NCAA-record 141 points. A three-time All-America at Kansas, Clyde led the Big Seven in scoring in each of his three seasons. Playing for Basketball Hall of Fame Coach Forrest "Phog" Allen, Lovellette led the nation in scoring his senior year (1952, 28.4 ppg) and was named the Helms College Player of the Year. Lovellette played alongside basketball legend Dean Smith at Kansas. He is still the only college player to lead the nation in scoring and win the NCAA title in the same year. Lovellette's dominance in the paint landed him a place on the 1952 Summer Olympics gold medal team in Helsinki, Finland and he was the team's dominating player and leading scorer.
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Connie Hawkins
Cornelius (Connie) L. Hawkins (born July 17, 1942, in Brooklyn, New York) is a former National Basketball Association and American Basketball Association player, Harlem Globetrotter and New York City playground legend. It was on the New York City courts that he earned his nickname The Hawk.
Hawkins was born in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, where he attended Boys High School. Hawkins soon became a fixture at Rucker Park, a legendary outdoor court where he battled against some of the best players in the world.[citation needed]
Hawkins did not play much until his junior year at Boys High. Hawkins was All-City first team as a junior as Boys went undefeated and won New York's Public Schools Athletic League (PSAL) title in 1959. During his senior year he averaged 25.5 ppg, including one game in which he scored 60, and Boys again went undefeated and won the 1960 PSAL title. Hawkins then signed a scholarship offer to play at the University of Iowa.
During Hawkins' freshman year at Iowa, he was a victim of the hysteria surrounding a point-shaving scandal that had started in New York City. Hawkins's name surfaced in an interview conducted with an individual who was involved in the scandal. While some of the conspirators and characters involved were known to or knew Hawkins, none - including the New York attorney at the center of the scandal, Jack Molinas - had ever sought to involve Hawkins in the conspiracy.
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Dan Roundfield
Danny (Dan) Thomas Roundfield (born May 26, 1953 in Detroit, Michigan) is a retired American professional basketball player. The 6'8" forward/center graduated from Chadsey Senior High School in 1971. On the collegiate scene, Roundfield was twice selected to the All-Mid-American Conference Team for Central Michigan University; he was also the 1975 M.A.C. Player of the Year.
Roundfield spent 11 seasons in the National Basketball Association, playing for the Indiana Pacers (1976–1978), Atlanta Hawks (1978–1984), Detroit Pistons (1984–1985), and Washington Bullets (1985–1987). Roundfield earned a reputation as a strong rebounder and tenacious defender, and during his career he was named to five NBA All-Defensive teams and three All-Star teams. His nickname was Dr. Rounds.
Dan Roundfield was selected to the NBA Eastern Conference All-Star team 3 years in a row from 1980-1982. He was not able to play in 1982 due to an injury which prompted being replaced by up and coming power forward Buck Williams of the New Jersey Nets. Roundfield certainly made the most of his 1980 All-Star appearance debut, he scored 18 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in just 27 minutes of play coming off the bench. Perennial All-Star Moses Malone, known for his blue collar style of play, was so impressed that he remarked that he wished the hard working Roundfield could be his teammate on an official basis. Roundfield came close to winning the MVP award for his fine performance being overshadowed by George (Iceman) Gervin's 34 point scoring. This was the big time performance that made Roundfield known to NBA fans outside of the city of Atlanta.
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Dave Bing
David "Dave" Bing (born November 24, 1943) is the mayor of Detroit, Michigan, a businessman, and a retired American professional basketball player who played 12 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), primarily for the Detroit Pistons (1966–75). He was a seven-time All-Star. After retiring, he founded the Bing Group, which was one of the largest steel companies in Michigan.
His #21 was retired by the Detroit Pistons, and in 1996 he was named as one of the NBA's 50 Greatest Players of all time.
He was elected mayor of Detroit in a special election on May 5, 2009 and was sworn in on May 11, 2009. Bing won the full-term mayoral election on November 3, 2009, defeating challenger Tom Barrow.
Bing was born and raised in northeast Washington, D.C., as a son of a bricklayer. At age five, Bing accidentally poked his left eye with a nail of a wooden horse that he improvised. With the family unable to afford an eye operation, the eye healed on its own but left Bing with fuzzy vision since then.
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Dave Cowens
David William Cowens (born October 25, 1948, in Newport, Kentucky) is a retired American professional basketball player and NBA head coach. At 6'9", he played the center and occasionally the power forward position. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1991. He was recently an assistant coach for the Detroit Pistons, and currently serves as a special assistant to Pistons President of Basketball Operations Joe Dumars.
After starring in high school at Newport Catholic High in his hometown of Newport, Kentucky, Cowens played his collegiate basketball at Florida State University from 1967 to 1970. He scored 1,479 points in 78 games at Florida State, at 19.0 points per game, and ranks among Florida State's top 10 all-time scoring leaders.
He is the all-time Florida State leading rebounder with 1,340 rebounds (17.2 rebounds per game). He holds the team record for best seasonal rebound average (17.5 in the 1968-1969 season). He once grabbed 31 rebounds (second best all-time) against LSU in the 1968-69 season.
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Dave DeBusschere
David Albert DeBusschere (October 16, 1940 – May 14, 2003) was an American NBA and major league baseball player and coach in the NBA. In 1996, DeBusschere was named as one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history.
DeBusschere was born in Detroit, Michigan, and attended Austin Catholic Preparatory School, where he founded the "white shirted league" -- the tradition of wearing white shirts to the school's games, so as to make fans more visible. He was named to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame after a twelve-year career (1962–1974), in which he averaged 16.1 points and eleven rebounds while being named to eight NBA All-Star teams; he was renowned for his physical style of play and tenacious defense, as he was named to the NBA All-Defensive first team six times.
DeBusschere was drafted by the Detroit Pistons out of the University of Detroit in 1962 as a territorial draft selection (common at the time). During his rookie season he averaged 12.7 points and 8.7 rebounds per game, and was later named to the NBA All-Rookie Team. However, DeBusschere was injured during his second season and only played in 15 games, resulting in the Pistons finishing with a disappointing record of 23-59.
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Dennis Johnson
Dennis Wayne Johnson (September 18, 1954 – February 22, 2007) nicknamed "DJ", was an American, professional basketball player for the National Basketball Association's (NBA) Seattle SuperSonics, Phoenix Suns and Boston Celtics and coach of the Los Angeles Clippers. He was an alumnus of Dominguez High School, Los Angeles Harbor College and Pepperdine University.
A prototypical late bloomer, Johnson overcame early struggles and had a successful NBA playing career. Drafted 29th overall in 1976 by the Seattle SuperSonics, Johnson began his professional career as a shooting guard. He eventually led the Sonics to their only NBA championship in 1979, winning the Finals MVP Award. After a short stint with the Phoenix Suns, he became the starting point guard for the Boston Celtics, with whom he won two more championships. Johnson was voted into five All-Star Teams, one All-NBA First and one Second Team, and nine consecutive All-Defensive First and Second Teams. Apart from his reputation as a defensive stopper, Johnson was known as a clutch player who made several decisive plays in NBA playoffs history.
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Dennis Rodman
Dennis Keith Rodman (born May 13, 1961) is a retired American Hall of Fame professional basketball player of the National Basketball Association's (NBA) Detroit Pistons, San Antonio Spurs, Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks. Born in Trenton, New Jersey, he was nicknamed "Dennis the Menace" and "The Worm" and was known for his fierce defensive and rebounding abilities. Playing small forward in his early years before becoming a power forward, Rodman earned NBA All-Defensive First Team honors seven times and was voted NBA Defensive Player of the Year twice. He also led the NBA in rebounds per game for a record seven consecutive years and won five NBA championships (1989, 1990, 1996, 1997, 1998). His biography at NBA.com states that he is "arguably the best rebounding forward in NBA history". On April 1, 2011, the Pistons retired Rodman's #10 jersey. Later that same year, Rodman was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Rodman experienced an unhappy childhood and was shy and introverted in his early years. After aborting a suicide attempt in 1993, he reinvented himself as a "bad boy" and became notorious for numerous controversial antics. He dyed his hair in artificial colors, presented himself with many piercings and tattoos and regularly disrupted games by clashing with opposing players and officials. He famously wore a wedding dress to promote his autobiography. Rodman pursued a high-profile affair with singer Madonna and was briefly married to actress Carmen Electra.
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Deron Williams
Deron Michael Williams (
/ˈdɛrən/ DERR-in; born June 26, 1984), is an American basketball player currently with the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Williams has also played for the Utah Jazz of the NBA and Beşiktaş of the Turkish Basketball League. Williams was drafted 3rd overall in the 2005 draft by the Utah Jazz, for whom he played before being traded in the middle of his sixth season to the Nets. He is a three-time All-Star and was a gold medal winner at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Williams played college basketball at the University of Illinois.
In elementary school and middle school, Williams won two state wrestling championships. In 1993, as an eight-year-old, he won the 67 lb. weight class Texas State championship. Four years later in 1997, he won the twelve-year-old 116 lb. weight class championship. Williams attended The Colony High School in The Colony, Texas and averaged 17 points, 9.4 assists, and 2 steals per game as a junior in 2001. That year he led his team, the Cougars, to a 32–2 record and the Class 5A state semifinals against Bryan High. In 2002, as a senior, he averaged 17.6 points, 8.5 assists, 6.1 rebounds, and 2.6 steals per game. His team, the Cougars, went 29–2 that season, losing the 5A Texas State semifinals. Williams was a teammate of Bracey Wright who went on to play for Big Ten rival Indiana University.
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Derrick Coleman
Derrick D. Coleman (born June 21, 1967) is a retired American basketball player in the NBA. Coleman grew up and attended high school in Detroit, Michigan and attended college at Syracuse University. He was selected first overall in the 1990 NBA Draft by the New Jersey Nets.
Throughout his career, the left-handed Coleman was an effective low post scorer with a reliable perimeter shooting touch, averaging 16.5 points and 9.3 rebounds. He enjoyed his best years as a member of the New Jersey Nets, where he averaged 19.8 points and 10.6 rebounds per game. When Coleman entered the NBA, he was compared to elite power forwards such as Karl Malone and Charles Barkley, and expected to put up similar numbers, only with the added ability to shoot from three-point range. Instead, his career was overshadowed by his questionable attitude (lack of work ethic resulting in excessive weight gain, plus alcohol abuse and general disruptive behavior), and his penchant for injury which saw him play 70 or more games in only four of his 15 NBA seasons. Sports Illustrated once remarked that "Coleman could have been the best power forward ever; instead he played just well enough to ensure his next paycheck."
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Detlef Schrempf
Detlef Schrempf (born January 21, 1963, in Leverkusen, West Germany) is a retired German NBA basketball player.
Schrempf moved to the United States his senior year of high school, attending Centralia High School in Centralia, Washington, for one year, leading the Tigers to the state title in his senior year in 1981 by defeating the Blazers of Timberline High School.
He played college basketball at University of Washington, where he was named to the All-Pac-10 Team and The Sporting News All-America Second Team. At college, he was a member of the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity and majored in International Business.
Originally selected eighth overall by the Dallas Mavericks in the 1985 NBA Draft, Schrempf became a regular in NBA rotations after being traded to the Indiana Pacers in exchange for veteran center Herb Williams. With the Pacers, he won consecutive NBA Sixth Man Awards in 1991 and 1992. He finished second in the NBA with a .478 three-point percentage in 1987, and eventually worked his way into the starting lineup. In the 1992-93 season, he was selected to the first of his three National Basketball Association All-Star Games with the others being in 1995 and 1997. He was the only player in the NBA in 1992-93 to finish in the top 25 in scoring (19.1 ppg), rebounding (9.5 rpg) and assists (6.0 apg).
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Dick Garmaker
Richard Eugene "Dick" Garmaker (born October 29, 1932 in Hibbing, Minnesota) is a retired American basketball player who played professionally in the NBA from 1955 to 1961.
Garmaker was a 6'3" guard/forward from the University of Minnesota. He was a 1955 consensus All-America for the Golden Gophers, along with Sihugo Green (Duquesne), Tom Gola (LaSalle), Bill Russell (San Francisco) and Dick Ricketts (Duquesne). He was drafted by the NBA's Minneapolis Lakers twice (in 1954 and again in 1955) and joined the team for the 1955-56 NBA season. In his four-and-a-half seasons with the Lakers, Garmaker appeared as an NBA All-Star four times. He had his finest season in 1956-57, in which he ranked tenth in the league in points per game (16.3) and earned a spot on the All-NBA second team. In 1960, he was traded to the New York Knicks for Ray Felix and a draft pick, and he retired with the Knicks in 1961, having scored 5,597 career points.
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Dick McGuire
Richard Joseph "Dick" McGuire (January 26, 1926 – February 3, 2010) was an American professional basketball player and coach.
One of the premier guards of the 1950s, McGuire spent eleven seasons in the NBA (1949–60), eight with the New York Knicks and three with the Detroit Pistons. McGuire led the league in assists during his rookie season with a then-record 386 assists, and was among the league's top ten playmakers for ten of his eleven seasons. He was an NBA All-Star seven times (1951,'52, '54-'56, '58, '59), and was named to the All-NBA Second Team in 1951.
McGuire became player-coach for the Pistons in his last season (1959-60), and coached them until 1963. He also coached the Knicks for three seasons, beginning in 1965. He compiled a 197-260 coaching record. McGuire was working as a senior consultant for the Knicks when he died on February 3, 2010 of a ruptured aortic aneurysm at age 84.
McGuire's brother Al was also a prominent figure in basketball who coached Marquette University to the 1977 NCAA basketball championship. They are the only pair of brothers inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. His nephew, Allie, also played in the NBA.
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Dikembe Mutombo
Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo (born June 25, 1966), commonly referred to as Dikembe Mutombo, is a retired Congolese American professional basketball player who last played for the Houston Rockets of the NBA. He was the oldest player in the NBA at the time of his most recent season.
The 7 ft 2 in (2.18 m), 260-pound (120 kg; 19 st) center is commonly referred to as one of the greatest shot blockers and defensive players of all time, winning the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award four times. On January 10, 2007, he surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the second most prolific shot blocker, in terms of career blocked shots, in NBA history, behind only Hakeem Olajuwon. He is a member of the Luba ethnic group and speaks English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Tshiluba, Swahili, Lingala and two other Central African varieties. In the second game of the first round of the 2009 NBA playoffs, Mutombo suffered a knee injury that kept him out for the remainder of the postseason. Soon after the injury, Mutombo announced he had played his last games in the NBA.
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Dirk Nowitzki
Dirk Werner Nowitzki (German pronunciation: [ˈdɪʁk ˈvɛʁnɐ noˈvɪtski]) (born June 19, 1978) is a German professional basketball player who plays for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). An alumnus of Röntgen Gymnasium and DJK Würzburg basketball club, Nowitzki was drafted ninth overall by the Milwaukee Bucks in the 1998 NBA Draft, and was immediately traded to the Mavericks, where he has played ever since. Standing 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m), Nowitzki plays the power forward position but also has the athleticism and shooting ability to play the other frontcourt positions, center and small forward.
Nowitzki has led the Mavericks to 12 consecutive NBA Playoffs (2000–01–2011–12), including an NBA Finals appearance in 2006 and the franchise's first championship in 2011, making him one of only 5 players in NBA history to win a championship while being the only NBA All-Star on the team. He is an 11-time All-Star and 12-time member of the All-NBA Teams, and the first European-born player in NBA history to receive the NBA Most Valuable Player Award. He is the first Maverick ever to be voted into an All-NBA Team and also holds several all-time Mavericks franchise records. Only Nowitzki and three other players have ever averaged more than 25 points and 10 rebounds in the NBA playoffs, and only Nowitzki and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar have managed 4 consecutive 30-point, 15-rebound games in the playoffs. Additionally, Nowitzki is the only player in NBA history to get 100 blocks and 150 3-pointers in a single season.
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Dolph Schayes
Adolph "Dolph" Schayes (born May 19, 1928) is a retired American professional basketball player and coach in the NBA. A top scorer and rebounder, he was a member of the 1955 NBA champion Syracuse Nationals and a 12-time All-Star.
Schayes played his entire Hall of Fame career with the Nationals and their successor, the Philadelphia 76ers, from 1948 to 1964. In his 16-year career, he led the team into the post-season 15 times.
Schayes was born in New York, New York, the son of Carl, a truck driver for Consolidated laundries, and his mother Tina, a housewife. Schayes was Jewish, and both his parents were Romanian Jewish immigrants. “Dolph” grew up on Davidson Avenue and 183rd Street, off Fordham.
He is the father of retired NBA center Danny Schayes, who played in the NBA for 18 seasons. He is the grandfather of Abi, Carla, and Rachel Goettsch, who won silver medals for the U.S. volleyball team at the 2001 Maccabiah Games, Mickey Ferri, who won a gold medal in the 4x100 relay at the 2005 Maccabiah Games. Schayes settled in Syracuse in 1948, and still makes his home there, where he is a real estate developer.
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Dražen Petrović
Dražen Petrović (pronounced [drǎʒɛn pɛ̌trɔʋit͡ɕ]) (October 22, 1964 – June 7, 1993) was a Yugoslav and Croatian professional basketball player. A shooting guard, he initially achieved success playing professional basketball in Europe in the 1980s before joining the American NBA in 1989. Petrović died in a car accident at the age of 28.
A star on multiple stages, Petrović earned two silver medals and one bronze in Olympic basketball, a gold and a bronze in the FIBA World Championship, a gold and a bronze in the FIBA European Championship, earned six European Player of the Year awards (four Euroscar Awards, and was named Mr. Europa in basketball twice). In 1985 he received the Golden Badge award for best athlete of Yugoslavia.
Seeking a bigger arena after his career start in Europe, Petrović joined the National Basketball Association in 1989 as a member of the Portland Trail Blazers. After playing mostly off the bench that year, Petrović experienced a break-out following a trade to the New Jersey Nets. While starting for the Nets, he became one of the league's best shooting guards.
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Dwight Howard
Dwight David Howard (born December 8, 1985) is an American basketball player for the Orlando Magic of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Howard, who usually plays center but can also play power forward, had an outstanding high school career at Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy. He chose to forgo college and entered the 2004 NBA Draft, and was selected first overall by the Magic. A six-time All-Star, six-time All-NBA team selection, five-time All-Defensive member, and three-time Defensive Player of the Year, Howard has been ranked consistently as one of the best in the league in rebounds, blocks, field goal percentage and free throw attempts, and has set numerous franchise and league records. He has led the Magic to three division titles and one conference title, and he was the winner of the 2008 NBA Slam Dunk Contest. In the 2008 Olympics, he was the starting center for Team USA, which went on to win the gold medal.
Before he was drafted in 2004, Howard said that he wanted to use his NBA career and Christian faith to "raise the name of God within the league and throughout the world". In November 2009, he was named one of the 10 finalists for the Jefferson Awards for Public Service, which awards athletes for their charitable work.
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Dwyane Wade
Dwyane Tyrone Wade, Jr. (born January 17, 1982), nicknamed Flash or D-Wade, is an American professional basketball player for the Miami Heat. Awarded 2006 Sportsman of the Year by Sports Illustrated, Wade has established himself as one of the most well-known and popular players in the league. He had the top selling jersey in the NBA for nearly two years, as he led the NBA in jersey sales from the 2005 NBA Playoffs, until the mid-point of the 2006–07 season.
After entering the league as the fifth pick in the 2003 NBA Draft, Wade was named to the All-Rookie team and the All-Star team the following eight seasons. In his third season, Wade helped lead the Miami Heat to their first NBA Championship in franchise history. He was named the 2006 NBA Finals MVP as he helped lead the Heat to a 4–2 series win over the Dallas Mavericks. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, Wade led the United States Men's Basketball team, commonly known as the "Redeem Team", in scoring, as they captured gold medal honors in Beijing, China. In the 2008–09 season, Wade led the league in scoring and earned his first NBA scoring title.
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Earl Monroe
Vernon Earl Monroe (born November 21, 1944, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American former professional basketball player known for his flamboyant dribbling, passing, and play-making. He was nicknamed both "Earl the Pearl" and "Jesus".
From an early age, Monroe was a playground legend. His high school teammates at John Bartram High School called him "Thomas Edison" because of the many moves he invented.
Monroe rose to prominence at a national level while playing basketball at then Division II Winston-Salem State University, located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Under the coaching of Hall of Fame coach Clarence "Big House" Gaines, Monroe averaged 7.1 points his freshman year, 23.2 points as a sophomore, 29.8 points as a junior and an amazing 41.5 points his senior year. In 1967, he earned NCAA College Division Player of the Year honors and led the Rams to the NCAA College Division Championship.
In 1967, the two-time All-American was drafted by the Baltimore Bullets (now the Washington Wizards) in the first round of the NBA draft (2nd overall pick). He won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award in a season in which he averaged 24.3 points per game, and scored 56 points in a game against the Los Angeles Lakers. This still stands as the third-highest rookie total in NBA history. It was also a franchise record, later broken by Gilbert Arenas on December 17, 2006.
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Ed Macauley
Charles Edward "Ed" Macauley (March 22, 1928 – November 8, 2011) was a professional basketball player in the NBA. His playing nickname was "Easy Ed."
Macauley spent his prep school days at St. Louis University High School, then went on to Saint Louis University, where his team won the NIT championship in 1948. He was named the AP Player of the Year in 1949.
Macauley played in the NBA with the St. Louis Bombers, Boston Celtics, and St. Louis Hawks. Macauley was named MVP of the first NBA All-Star Game (he played in the first seven), and was named to the NBA's All-NBA First Team three consecutive seasons. He was named to the All-NBA second team once, in 1953–54—the same season he led the league in field goal percentage. Macauley's trade (with Cliff Hagan) to St. Louis brought Bill Russell to the Celtics.
Macauley scored 11,234 points in ten NBA seasons and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1960. At age 32, he still holds the record for being the youngest player to be admitted. His uniform number 22 was retired by the Boston Celtics, and he was also awarded a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.
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Elgin Baylor
Elgin Gay Baylor (born September 16, 1934 in Washington, D.C.) is a retired Hall of Fame American basketball player and former NBA general manager who played 13 seasons as a forward for the NBA's Minneapolis Lakers/Los Angeles Lakers.
Baylor was a gifted shooter, strong rebounder, and an accomplished passer. Renowned for his acrobatic maneuvers on the court, Baylor regularly dazzled Lakers fans with his trademark hanging jump shots. The No. 1 draft pick in 1958, NBA Rookie of the Year in 1959, and an 11-time NBA All-Star, he is regarded as one of the game's all-time greatest players. In 1977, Baylor was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Baylor spent twenty-two years as GM of the Los Angeles Clippers, being named the NBA Executive of the Year in 2006, before being relieved of his duties shortly before the 2008-09 season began.
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Elton Brand
Elton Tyron Brand (born March 11, 1979 in Cortlandt Manor, New York[citation needed]) is an American professional basketball player who currently plays for the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was the 1st overall pick in the 1999 NBA Draft, selected by the Chicago Bulls.
At the age of thirteen, Brand enrolled in Peekskill High School, where he was immediately added to the varsity basketball roster. He averaged 40 points and 20 rebounds per game, played AAU basketball with future NBA players Lamar Odom and Ron Artest, and by his senior year he was consistently ranked among the top high school basketball players in the country and was selected as New York State Mr. Basketball. At the same time, he became something of a cult hero in Peekskill, helping his team win two state championships while demonstrating a humble calm and an articulate intelligence. The former Governor of New York, fellow Peekskill native George Pataki, was once asked about being the town's favorite son, and he answered that Peekskill's favorite son was not the Governor but Elton Brand. Recruited heavily after his successful high school career, Brand decided to enroll at Duke University alongside a cluster of other high school stars, including Shane Battier.
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Ernie Calverley
Ernest A. "Ernie" Calverley (January 30, 1924 – September 20, 2003) was an American basketball guard for the University of Rhode Island. His famous "shot heard round the world," a midcourt shot, as time expired at Madison Square Garden in the National Invitation Tournament moved URI past Bowling Green State University into the semifinal round. The Rams would eventually lose in the NIT final against Adolph Rupp's Kentucky Wildcats.
Calverley led the Basketball Association of America in assists per game in the league's first and second years, while playing for the Providence Steamrollers. In his rookie season, Calverley was selected to the All-BAA Second Team. After playing three seasons in the BAA, Caverley retired. He later returned to URI to coach the Rams and led them to two NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament appearances.
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Frank Baumholtz
Frank Conrad Baumholtz (October 7, 1918 – December 14, 1997) was an American outfielder for Major League Baseball's Cincinnati Reds (1947–49), Chicago Cubs (1949 and 1951–55) and Philadelphia Phillies (1956–57). He was born in Midvale, Ohio.
Baumholtz finished 5th in voting for the 1947 National League Rookie of the Year for playing in 151 Games and having 643 At Bats, 96 Runs, 182 Hits, 32 Doubles, 9 Triples, 5 Home Runs, 45 RBI, 6 Stolen Bases, 56 Walks, .283 Batting Average, .341 On-base percentage, .384 Slugging Percentage, 247 Total Bases and 11 Sacrifice Hits.
Baumholtz finished 17th in voting for the 1952 National League MVP for playing in 103 Games and having 409 At Bats, 59 Runs, 133 Hits, 17 Doubles, 4 Triples, 4 Home Runs, 35 RBI, 5 Stolen Bases, 27 Walks, .325 Batting Average, .371 On-base percentage, .416 Slugging Percentage, 170 Total Bases and 7 Sacrifice Hits.
In 10 seasons he played in 1,019 Games and had 3,477 At Bats, 450 Runs, 1,010 Hits, 165 Doubles, 51 Triples, 25 Home Runs, 272 RBI, 30 Stolen Bases, 258 Walks, .290 Batting Average, .342 On-base percentage, .389 Slugging Percentage, 1,352 Total Bases, 45 Sacrifice Hits, 10 Sacrifice Flies and 2 Intentional Walks.
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Frank Brian
Frank Sands Brian (b. May 1, 1923 in Zachary, Louisiana) is a former professional basketball player.
A 6’1” guard from Louisiana State University, Brian signed with the Anderson Packers of the National Basketball League in 1947. In 1949 the NBL and BAA merged to form the NBA. He scored 2,442 points in three seasons with the Packers, then joined the Chicago Stags of the NBA when the Packers franchise folded following the 1949-1950 season. The Stags quickly traded Brian to the Tri-Cities Blackhawks, whom Brian represented as an NBA All-Star in 1951.
Brian also earned All-NBA Second Teams honors in 1951 after averaging 16.8 points, 3.9 assists and 3.6 rebounds. Frank Led Tri-Cities Blackhawks (now "Atlanta Hawks") in scoring in 1951.Frank was 5th in the League with his 1,144 points for the Blackhawks during 1951-1952 season. In May 1951, the Blackhawks traded Brian to the Fort Wayne Pistons for Howie Schultz and Dick Mehen. Frank led Ft. Wayne Pistons (now "Detroit Pistons") in scoring in 1952 & 1953, ranking 6th in the league with 1,051 points during the 1951-52 season. Brian had five productive seasons with the Pistons, who went to the NBA Championships in 1955 and 1956, and he retired in 1956 with 6,663 combined NBL/NBA career points.
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Fred Schaus
Frederick (Fred) Appleton Schaus (June 30, 1925 – February 10, 2010) was an American basketball player, head coach and athletic director for the West Virginia University Mountaineers, player for the NBA's Fort Wayne Pistons and New York Knicks, general manager and head coach for the Los Angeles Lakers, head coach of Purdue University basketball, and a member of the NCAA Basketball Committee. He was born in Newark, Ohio.
Schaus played basketball at West Virginia, where he earned the record of first to score 1,000 career points (1,009). He was also selected to the All-American team in 1949.
Schaus left West Virginia to join the Fort Wayne Pistons in the 1949–1950 season. He scored 14.3 points a game and a year later scored a career-best 15.3 points a game. He was selected to play in the first NBA All-Star Game and scored eight points for the West. However, he only averaged 14.1 points per game in 1952, and then in 1953 it dropped to 10.1 points per game.
He was traded to the New York Knicks halfway through the 1954 season and ended his NBA career that season with 7.1 points per game average.
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Fred Scolari
Fred J. Scolari (March 1, 1922 in San Francisco, California – October 17, 2002 in San Ramon, California) was an American professional basketball player. At 5'10", he played the guard position.
Though he was blind in one eye, deaf in one ear, and often overweight, Scolari excelled in basketball at Galileo High School and the University of San Francisco. In 1946, he joined the Washington Capitols of the Basketball Association of America (now the NBA), and he went on to have a nine-year (1946–1955) professional career with the Capitols, Syracuse Nationals, Baltimore Bullets, Fort Wayne Pistons, and Boston Celtics. Scolari became known for his unorthodox, yet effective, shooting style, in which he released the ball from his hip. He was also a well-regarded defender, and he received All-BAA honors in 1947 and 1948.
After his basketball career ended, Scolari became a successful insurance salesman. He later served as director of the Salesian Boys and Girls Club in San Francisco. In 1998, he was elected to the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame.
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Gail Goodrich
Gail Charles Goodrich Jr. (born April 23, 1943 in Los Angeles, California) is a retired American professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is best known for scoring a then record 42 points in the 1965 NCAA championship game vs. Michigan, and his part in the Los Angeles Lakers' 1971–72 season. During that season the team won a still-record 33 games consecutively, posted what was at the time the best regular season record in NBA history, and also won the franchise's first NBA championship since relocating to Los Angeles. Goodrich was the leading scorer on that team. He is also acclaimed for leading UCLA to its first two National Championships under the legendary coach John Wooden, the first in 1963-64 being a perfect 30-0 season. In 1996, 17 years after his retirement from professional basketball, Goodrich was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
A native of the Los Angeles area, Goodrich was the captain of the John H. Francis Polytechnic High School basketball team that dominated the 1961 Los Angeles City high school basketball championship.
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Gary Payton
Gary Dwayne Payton (born July 23, 1968) is a former American professional basketball point guard. He is best known for his 13-year tenure with the Seattle SuperSonics, and holds Seattle franchise records in points, assists, and steals. He has also played with the Milwaukee Bucks, Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics and Miami Heat, the last with whom he won an NBA Championship.
The only point guard ever to win the NBA Defensive Player of the Year award, Payton is widely considered one of the greatest of all time at that position. He was selected to the NBA All-Defensive First Team nine times, an NBA record he shares with Michael Jordan, Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant. Payton got his nickname "The Glove" when Payton's cousin called him during the 1993 Western Conference Finals series against Phoenix and told him, "you're holding Kevin Johnson like a baseball in a glove," and the nickname was born.
Considered the "NBA's reigning high scorer among point guards" in his prime, Payton is referred to as "probably as complete a guard as there ever was" by NBA Hall of Famer Gail Goodrich.
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Gene Shue
Eugene William "Gene" Shue (born December 18, 1931 in Baltimore, Maryland) is a retired American professional basketball player and coach in the National Basketball Association (NBA). During his playing days he was a 6'2" (1.88 m) 170 lb (77 kg) guard.
Shue attended Towson Catholic High School and the University of Maryland. After graduation, he was drafted in 1954 by the Philadelphia Warriors. During his ten year playing career in the NBA, he was also a member of the New York Knicks, Fort Wayne/Detroit Pistons, and the Baltimore Bullets. He then served 23 years as a head coach in the league. Shue was an All-Star five consecutive times (1958–62) and was named All-NBA First Team once (1960). As a coach, he guided the Philadelphia 76ers to the 1977 NBA Finals, but eventually lost to the Bill Walton-led Portland Trail Blazers. Gene Shue was twice named NBA Coach of the Year.
Shue, who now lives in Marina del Rey, California, currently is a scout for the 76ers.
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George Gervin
George "The Iceman" Gervin (born April 27, 1952) is a retired American professional basketball player who played in both the American Basketball Association (ABA) and National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Virginia Squires, San Antonio Spurs, and Chicago Bulls. Gervin averaged at least 14 points per game in all 14 of his ABA and NBA seasons, and finished with an NBA career average of 26.2 points per game. Gervin is widely regarded to be one of the greatest shooting guards in NBA history.
Nicknamed Iceman for his cool demeanor on the court, Gervin was primarily known for his scoring talents. He led teams at both Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan and Long Beach State. After leaving college due to an altercation, Gervin was set to try out for the Virginia Squires of the ABA. According to legend, Gervin made 22 of 25 three-point attempts at the tryout; he was immediately signed despite the fact that Virginia officials had never seen him play competitively.
His first scoring crown came in 1978, when he narrowly edged David Thompson for the scoring title by seven hundredths of a point (27.22 to 27.15). Although Thompson came up with a memorable performance for the last game of the regular season, scoring 73 points, Gervin maintained his slight lead by scoring 63 points (including an NBA-record at the time 33 points in the second quarter) in a loss in his last game of the season. With the scoring crown in hand, he sat out some of the third, and all of the fourth quarter. Gervin went on to lead the NBA in scoring average three years in a row from 1978 to 1980 (with a high of 33.1 points per game in 1979-80), and again in 1982. The Spurs drafted high scoring guards Oliver Robinson of UAB and Tony Grier from South Florida to take some offensive pressure off Gervin. Prior to Michael Jordan, Gervin had the most scoring titles of any guard in league history.
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George McGinnis
George F. McGinnis (born August 12, 1950 in Indianapolis, Indiana) is a retired American professional basketball player, most notably with the Indiana Pacers of the American Basketball Association (ABA) (from 1971 to 1975). He was drafted into the ABA from Indiana University in 1971. In the '70-71 season at Indiana, McGinnis became the first sophomore to lead the Big Ten in scoring and rebounding. He averaged 29.9 points per game in his lone season in Bloomington earning All-American and All-Big Ten Honors in 1971.
George McGinnis was one of the marquee players of the ABA, and later teamed with fellow ABA alumni Julius Erving and Caldwell Jones on the Philadelphia 76ers that made the National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals in 1977. McGinnis was traded to the Denver Nuggets in 1978. Two years later, the Pacers reacquired him in a trade for high-scoring forward Alex English. However, McGinnis was only a shadow of his former self, and contributed very little during his two-year return to Indiana. Meanwhile, English went on to become one of the most prolific scorers in NBA history. This transaction is now considered among the worst (if not the worst) trades in Pacers history, as well as one of the most lopsided deals in NBA history.
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George Mikan
George Lawrence Mikan, Jr. (June 18, 1924 – June 1, 2005), nicknamed Mr. Basketball, was an American professional basketball player for the Chicago American Gears of the National Basketball League (NBL) and the Minneapolis Lakers of the NBL, the Basketball Association of America (BAA) and the National Basketball Association (NBA). Invariably playing with thick, round spectacles, the 6 ft 10 in 245 lb. Mikan is seen as one of the pioneers of professional basketball, redefining it as a game of so-called big men with his prolific rebounding, shot blocking and his talent to shoot over smaller defenders with his ambidextrous hook shot, result of his own Mikan Drill.
Mikan had a successful player career, winning seven NBL, BAA and NBA championships, an All-Star MVP trophy, three scoring titles and being member of the first four NBA All-Star and the first six All-BAA and All-NBA Teams. Mikan was so dominant that he caused several rule changes in the NBA, among them widening the foul lane—known as the "Mikan Rule"—and introducing the shot clock.
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George Yardley
George Harry Yardley III (November 3, 1928 in Hollywood, California – August 12, 2004 in Newport Beach, California, USA), best known as simply George Yardley, was an NBA Hall of Fame basketball player. He was the first player in history to score 2,000 points in one season, breaking the 1,932-point record held by fellow Hall of Famer George Mikan. He was nominated (but not selected) into NBA 25th Anniversary Team in 1971.
A two-time All-American at Stanford University, Yardley was a member of Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity, and earned the nickname "Yardbird" due to the chores he was required to complete by his fraternity brothers. [1] The nickname was later shortened to "Bird". After his three year career at Stanford, Yardley played one year of AAU basketball and served in the United States Navy for two years. During his navy stint, Yardley's amateur team won the national A.A.U. championship in 1951, with Yardley being selected the national amateur player-of-the-year. He was drafted by the NBA Fort Wayne Pistons in 1950.
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Gilbert Arenas
Gilbert Jay Arenas, Jr. (pronounced /əˈriːnɨs/; born January 6, 1982) is an American professional basketball player who plays for the Memphis Grizzlies of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He plays as a point guard and shooting guard.
Arenas attended Grant High School in Valley Glen, California, and accepted a scholarship offer to the University of Arizona late in his junior year. He entered the 2001 NBA Draft and was selected in the second round (30th pick) by the Golden State Warriors.
Arenas is a three-time NBA All-Star, three-time member of the All-NBA Teams, and was voted the NBA Most Improved Player in the 2002–03 season. Arenas was most often nicknamed "Agent Zero," due to his former jersey number, but has increasingly been referred to as "Hibachi," a nod to the small Japanese heating device, which literally translates to "bowl of fire." Both names quickly became fan favorites in the Washington area during his time there.
Arenas was suspended for most of the 2009–10 season because of handgun violations stemming from an episode on December 24, 2009, and for subsequent actions that appeared to make light of this episode.
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Glen Rice
Glen Anthony Rice (born May 28, 1967) is a retired American professional basketball player who played in the NBA. The 6'8" tall Rice was a three-time NBA All-Star guard/forward, ranking 11th in NBA history with 1,559 three-point field goals made during his 15-year career. As a player, Rice won an NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship and an NBA Championship. Rice has won both the NBA All-Star Game MVP and the NCAA Basketball Tournament Most Outstanding Player awards. In recent years, Rice has taken up MMA fight promotion as owner and head of G-Force Fights, based out of Miami, Florida.
Rice played college basketball for the University of Michigan Wolverines for four seasons (1985–1989), a starter for three of those seasons. He became the school's all-time leading scorer with 2,442 points. He led Michigan to the 1989 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship, scoring an NCAA-record 184 points in tournament play, a record that still stands. Rice was also voted the tournament's Most Outstanding Player and was part of the Associated Press All-America second-team, after averaging 25.6 points for the season, while shooting 58% from the floor and 52% from three-point range. After Rice's junior year, he was invited to try out for the 1988 United States Olympic basketball team, but was cut before reaching the group of 48. On February 20, 2005, Rice's No. 41 jersey was retired during a ceremony at Michigan's Crisler Arena. Rice made the cover of Sports Illustrated on April 10, 1989.
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Hakeem Olajuwon
Hakeem Abdul Olajuwon (/ɵˈlaɪdʒəwɒn/; [olaɟuwɔ̃]; born January 21, 1963) is a retired Nigerian-American professional basketball player. From 1984 to 2002, he played the center position in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Houston Rockets and Toronto Raptors. He led the Rockets to back-to-back NBA championships in 1994 and 1995. In 2008, he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Listed at 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) (but closer to 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) by his own admission), Olajuwon is considered one of the greatest centers ever to play the game.
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Hal Greer
Harold Everett Greer (born June 26, 1936, in Huntington, West Virginia) is a retired American professional basketball player.
He attended Douglass Junior and Senior High School in Huntington. He played college basketball at Marshall University and was drafted by the Syracuse Nationals of the NBA in 1958. Greer played for Syracuse for five seasons, raising his scoring average to 22.8 points a game in 1961. He was selected for the NBA All-Star team that year. In 1963, the Syracuse Nationals moved to Philadelphia to become the Philadelphia 76ers. There, Greer became well known as a teammate of Wilt Chamberlain, and starred on the powerful 1966-67 team that ended the eight-year championship reign of the Bill Russell-led Boston Celtics. In the 76ers' 15 playoff games that season, Greer averaged a team-best 27.7 points. Greer had an unusual but highly effective free throw technique, shooting a jump shot from the charity stripe. He is usually considered the third-best guard of the 1960s, behind Oscar Robertson and Jerry West.
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Harry Gallatin
Harry J. " The Horse" Gallatin (born April 26, 1927) is a retired American professional basketball player and coach. Gallatin played nine seasons for the New York Knicks in the NBA from 1948 to 1957, as well as one season with the Detroit Pistons in 1958. In 1954 Gallatin led the NBA in rebounding, and was named to the All-NBA First Team. Gallatin was named to the All-NBA Second Team in 1955. For his career, Gallatin played in seven NBA All-Star Games. A member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, he is is also a member of the SIU Edwardsville Athletics Hall of Fame, the Truman State University Athletics Hall of Fame, the Missouri Basketball Hall of Fame, the Illinois Basketball Hall of Fame, the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) Hall of Fame, and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Hall of Fame.
Growing up in Roxana, Illinois, Gallatin had taken interest in all sports and has been quoted as saying, "Competition has always been my cup of tea." His drive for competition was amplified during his first year in high school as he attended Wood River High School from 1940–41. Since Roxana and some other outlying communities like Bethalto did not have high schools of their own at the time, all of the athletes in the area attended Wood River and thus increased the level of competition among the athletes. The following year, Roxana had a high school of its own. He graduated from Roxana High School in 1944 and was granted a basketball scholarship by Northeast Missouri State Teachers' College (now known as Truman State University). However, after graduating from Roxana High School, Gallatin enlisted in the United States Navy and served until the end of World War II.
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Isiah Thomas
Isiah Lord Thomas III ( /aɪˈzeɪ.ə/; born April 30, 1961), nicknamed "Zeke", is a retired American basketball player who played collegiately for the Indiana University Hoosiers. He went on to play professionally as point guard for the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1981 until 1994 and led the "Bad Boys" to the NBA Championship in the 1988–89 and 1989–90 seasons. He was a 12-time NBA All-Star and named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. After his playing career, he was an executive with the Toronto Raptors, a television commentator, an executive with the Continental Basketball Association, head coach of the Indiana Pacers, and an executive and head coach for the New York Knicks. He was later the men's basketball coach for the Florida International University (FIU) Golden Panthers for three seasons from 2009 to 2012.
Thomas was born on April 30, 1961, in Chicago, Illinois. The youngest of nine brothers and sisters, he commuted from the North Lawndale neighborhood on the West Side of Chicago to play high school basketball at St. Joseph High School in Westchester, Illinois for Gene Pingatore. He would wake up at 5 am and commute 90 minutes to attend the private school. During his junior year, he led St. Joseph to the State Finals and was considered one of the top college prospects in the country.
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Jack George
John Edwin George, Jr. (November 13, 1928–January 30, 1989) was an American professional basketball player. He was born in the Pittsburgh suburb of Swissvale, Pennsylvania.
George attended St. John's College High School in Washington, D.C. He played basketball and baseball at La Salle University in the early 1950s. He was selected by the Philadelphia Warriors in the 1953 National Basketball Association Draft and played eight seasons in the league with the Warriors and New York Knicks. Among the highlights of his NBA career were his NBA Championship with the Warriors in 1956 and his NBA All-Star Game appearances in 1956 and 1957. The 6'2" guard ranked within the NBA's top ten in assists per game six times throughout his career and led the league in total minutes played (2,840) in 1955-56.
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Jack Twyman
John Kennedy "Jack" Twyman (May 21, 1934 – May 30, 2012) was an American professional basketball player and sports broadcaster.
A 6'6" forward from the University of Cincinnati, he spent eleven seasons (1955–1966) in the NBA as a member of the Rochester/Cincinnati Royals franchise (now the Sacramento Kings). Along with Wilt Chamberlain, Twyman became the first NBA player to average more than 30 points per game in a single season when he averaged 31.2 points per game during the 1959–60 season. He scored a career high 59 points in a game that same season. Twyman scored 15,840 points in his career, he was named to the All-NBA Second Team in both 1960 and 1962, and he appeared in six NBA All-Star Games.
Twyman was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1983.
Twyman was also known for his humanitarian efforts. He became the legal guardian of his teammate Maurice Stokes, who was paralyzed due to the aftereffects of a head injury suffered during the final game of the 1958 regular season, to help with medical finances. Twyman also organized the NBA's Maurice Stokes Memorial Basketball game, held at Kutsher's Country Club in Monticello, New York, to raise funds for needy former players from the game's early years – first to raise funds for Stokes's care and after his death, for other players. (The fundraising effort later became replaced by a pro-am golf event featuring NBA players.) Twyman also helped Stokes to obtain workers’ compensation and helped him to learn to communicate by blinking his eyes to denote individual letters.
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Jamal Mashburn
Jamal Mashburn (born November 29, 1972 in New York City) is a retired American professional basketball player. A small forward, Mashburn was a prolific scorer in his 12 seasons in the league, with a career scoring average of 19.1 points per game. He is nicknamed "Monster Mash".
After attending Cardinal Hayes High School in The Bronx, Mashburn had a very successful basketball career in college, playing for the University of Kentucky. He was the fourth-leading career scorer for the Wildcats and a consensus First Team All-American by his junior year, prompting him to declare himself eligible for the 1993 NBA Draft. Selected 4th overall by the Dallas Mavericks, he was very successful as a rookie, leading all rookies with 19.2 points per game and breaking seven separate Mavericks rookie records along the way to an All-Rookie Team selection.
In his second year, along with third-year pro Jim Jackson and rookie Jason Kidd (collectively known as 'Triple J'), Mashburn led the Dallas Mavericks to the biggest turnaround in the NBA that year. He is the fourth-youngest player to score 50 points in an NBA game (Brandon Jennings is the youngest). He also broke many franchise records and blossomed into one of the best scoring forwards in the league.
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James Worthy
James Ager Worthy (born February 27, 1961) is a retired Hall of Fame American college and professional basketball player. Named as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History, "Big Game James" was a seven-time NBA All-Star and three-time NBA champion. A standout for the North Carolina Tar Heels, the 6 ft 9 in (2.05 m) small forward was the MOP of the 1982 NCAA Tournament and #1 pick of the 1982 NBA Draft. He was born in Gastonia, North Carolina.
Worthy was an All-American high school basketball player at Ashbrook High School in Gastonia. Worthy averaged 21.5 points, 12.5 rebounds and 5.5 assists during his senior season, for a team that lost in the state championship game. Worthy was also selected to play in the 1979 McDonald's All-American game that also featured future Naismith Hall of Famers Isiaih Thomas, Dominique Wilkins and Ralph Sampson.
After graduating high school, Worthy attended the University of North Carolina (UNC). He quickly became a standout at UNC but saw his freshman year cut short by a broken ankle suffered near mid-season. As a sophomore he was a key member of that school's 1981 NCAA runner-up team, playing with Al Wood and Sam Perkins.
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Jason Kidd
Jason Frederick Kidd (born March 23, 1973) is an American professional basketball point guard who plays for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association. Raised in Oakland, California, Kidd played college basketball at the University of California, Berkeley and was drafted second overall by the Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the 1994 NBA Draft. Then, from 1996 to 2001, Kidd played for the Phoenix Suns and later for the New Jersey Nets from 2001 to 2008. In the middle of the 2007–2008 season, Kidd was traded back to Dallas. Along with his three NBA Finals appearances including a championship win in 2011, Kidd won two Olympic gold medals with the US national team in 2000 and 2008.
He led his former team, the New Jersey Nets to two consecutive NBA Finals appearances (2002 and 2003) before winning in 2011 with Dallas. His on-court versatility also makes him a regular triple-double threat, and he is in third place all-time for regular season triple-doubles in the NBA with a career total of 107 and second in playoffs triple-doubles with a career total of 11.
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Jerry Lucas
Jerry Ray Lucas (born March 30, 1940) is a former basketball player who played from the 1950s to the 1970s. He is now a memory education expert. In 1996, the NBA's 50th anniversary, he was named one of the 50 greatest players in National Basketball Association history. He was named to Sports Illustrated's five-man College All-Century Team in 1999.
Lucas was born in Middletown, Ohio, then a community of 30,000+ halfway between Dayton and Cincinnati, that in the 1940s and 1950s boasted one of the most respected high school basketball programs in the United States. Greatly encouraged, Lucas began pouring hours each day into the town's game during his early teens.
Lucas had become a local playground legend by age 15, in Sunset Park. Sunset Park was then a regional summer hotbed for high school, college and even some pro players. Future Cincinnati Royals teammates Wayne Embry and Oscar Robertson were visitors there. Lucas was already at almost his full-grown height of 6 ft 8 in (2.06 m) by age 15, out-playing college players with his advanced game.
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Jerry West
Jerry Alan West (born May 28, 1938) is a retired American basketball player who played his entire professional career for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). His nicknames include "Mr. Clutch," for his ability to make a big play in a clutch situation, such as his famous buzzer-beating 60-foot shot that tied Game 3 of the 1970 NBA Finals against the New York Knicks; "The Logo," in reference to his silhouette being incorporated into the NBA logo; and "Zeke from Cabin Creek," after the creek near his birthplace of Chelyan, West Virginia. Playing the small forward position early in his career, West was a standout at East Bank High School and at West Virginia University, leading the WVU Mountaineers to the 1959 NCAA championship game, earning Most Valuable Player honors despite the loss. He then embarked on a 14-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers, and was the co-captain of the 1960 U.S. Olympic gold medal team in Rome, a squad that would be inducted as a unit into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.
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Jim Paxson
James Joseph "Jim" Paxson (born July 9, 1957 in Kettering, Ohio) is an American retired professional basketball player. A first round selection (12th overall) of the Portland Trail Blazers in the 1979 NBA Draft, Paxson played for the Portland and the Boston Celtics of the NBA from 1979-1990 and was twice an All-Star. Paxson served as general manager of the Cleveland Cavaliers for six years and now works as a consultant with the Chicago Bulls where his brother John Paxson is an executive.
Paxson, a guard-forward and the son of former NBA player Jim Paxson, Sr., played college basketball at the University of Dayton. When the older Paxson tried out for the Dayton Flyers, he couldn't afford to buy athletic shoes, so athletic director Thomas Frericks loaned him a pair. Paxson was a three-time team MVP and earned All-America honors as a senior after averaging more than 23 points per game. He also averaged 17 points as a junior and 18 points as a sophomore at Dayton.
The 6-foot-6 Paxson was an NBA All-Star in 1983 and 1984. He also earned All-NBA Second Team honors in 1984 after averaging 21 points per game. He spent nine seasons with Portland (1979-1988) and, after being traded to Boston in February 1988, spent two full seasons with Boston (1988-1990). When he was traded from Portland, he left as the team's all-time leading scorer.
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Jim Pollard
James Clifford "Jim" Pollard (July 9, 1922 – January 22, 1993) was an American professional basketball player.
In college, Pollard played for Stanford and was a key member of Stanford's 1942 national championship team (though due to illness, he did not play in the final game). During WWII he starred in Coast Guard teams from Alameda to Honolulu. Following the War, Pollard played for the San Diego Dons and the Oakland Bittners, making four trips to Denver for AAU playoffs. In the NBA, Pollard was considered one of the best forwards in the 1940s and 1950s, and was known for his leaping ability (Pollard would occasionally dunk from the free throw line during warmups) earning him the nickname "The Kangaroo Kid".
In 1952, players who had performed in the NBA since its inception (after the merging of the NBL and the BAA) selected Pollard as the best player of the period. Pollard teamed with George Mikan and Vern Mikkelsen for the Minneapolis Lakers, forming one of the best front courts in basketball history. The Lakers won six professional basketball titles: 1948 (NBL), 1949 (BAA), 1950 (NBA), 1952 (NBA), 1953 (NBA), 1954 (NBA).
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Jo Jo White
Joseph Henry "Jo Jo" White (born November 16, 1946) is an American former professional basketball player.
White was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of a minister. He played college basketball at the University of Kansas, entering the NCAA Tournament and losing a double overtime thriller to UTEP, then known as Texas Western, in the Midwest regional final (UTEP went on to win the championship).
After college, White played on the 1968 USA Olympic basketball team in Mexico, which went undefeated (9-0), beating Yugoslavia 65-50 in the title game.
After the Olympics, White was drafted in 1969 in the first round (9th pick overall) by the NBA's Boston Celtics, who at that time had just won their 11th championship in 13 years. However, before White even reported to training camp, the Celtics' center and player-coach Bill Russell announced his retirement. White would endure a rebuilding season while the Celtics got back on track, drafting Dave Cowens and trading for Paul Silas. Along with these two and veteran John Havlicek, White would be the cornerstone of two Celtic championship teams in the 1970s (1973–74 and 1975–76).
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Joe Dumars
Joe Dumars III (born May 24, 1963), nicknamed Joe D, is a retired American basketball player in the NBA, and currently the Detroit Pistons' President of Basketball Operations. At 6'3" (190 cm) Dumars could play either shooting guard or point guard on offense and was a highly effective defender. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Dumars and Isiah Thomas combined to form one of the best backcourts in NBA history. Initially a shooting guard, Dumars moved over to point guard following Thomas's retirement in 1994, sharing ball-handling duties with Grant Hill. Dumars was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006.
Dumars was born in Shreveport, Louisiana. Dumars' mother, Ophelia, was a custodian at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches while his father, Joe (Big Joe), was a truck driver.
Dumars grew up in an athletic family, but, surprisingly, basketball was not his favorite sport as a child. Football was more popular in the region and all five of his brothers were defensive standouts at Natchitoches Central High School. His brother David later played professional football in the USFL. Dumars followed in his brothers’ footsteps playing defensive back on the football team until junior high school when a big hit on the field directed him toward basketball. Ever the supportive father, Big Joe built a hoop, made of an old bicycle wheel and half of a wooden door, in the Dumars' backyard where Little Joe spent hours practicing his jumper.
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Joe Fulks
Joseph Franklin "Jumping Joe" Fulks (October 26, 1921 - March 21, 1976) was an American professional basketball player, sometimes called "the first of the high-scoring forwards". He was one of the first players, albeit posthumously, enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978. The 63 points Fulks scored on February 10, 1949, was the most in an NBA game (then called the Basketball Association of America) until Elgin Baylor scored 64 points on November 8, 1959. Fulks' 63-point outburst came during a Warriors 108-87 victory over the Indianapolis Jets. Fulks made 27 of 56 field goal attempts and nine of 14 free throws. Along the way he shattered the record for most points in one half (33), field goals, and field goal attempts.
Fulks was born in Birmingham, Kentucky, a small town in the state's far-western Purchase region that was inundated in the 1940s after the Tennessee Valley Authority dammed the Tennessee River to create Kentucky Lake. He played college ball at Murray State University for two years before leaving school to join the Marines.
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John Havlicek
John J. "Hondo" Havlicek (pronounced /ˈhævlɨtʃɛk/ HAV-lə-chek; born April 8, 1940 in Martins Ferry, Ohio) is a retired American professional basketball player who competed for 16 seasons with the Boston Celtics, winning eight NBA titles, half of them coming in his first four seasons.
In the NBA, only teammates Bill Russell and Sam Jones won more championships during their playing careers. Havlicek is considered one of the best NBA players in history, especially on defense, and was inducted as a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1984. He was a three sport star at Bridgeport High School in Bridgeport, Ohio and one of his boyhood friends was Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Phil Niekro. The Bridgeport High School Gymnasium was renamed the "John J Havlicek Gymnasium" in January 2007. He shares the honor with National High School Hall of Fame member Frank Baxter, a long time coach at Bridgeport High School. The court is named after Baxter.
One of the most famous play-by-play calls in NBA history came on April 15, 1965, when Celtics broadcaster Johnny Most exclaimed "Havlicek steals it! Havlicek stole the ball!" after Havlicek intercepted Hal Greer's inbound pass to clinch the Eastern Conference Championship against the Philadelphia 76ers.
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John Stockton
John Houston Stockton (born March 26, 1962) is a former American professional basketball player who spent his entire career as a point guard for the Utah Jazz of the NBA from 1984 to 2003. John Stockton is regarded as one of the best point guards of all time, holding the NBA records for most career assists and steals by considerable margins. Stockton is a former All-Star and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009.
Stockton was born in Spokane, Washington to Clementine Frei and Jack Stockton and had Irish and Swiss German ancestry. He attended grade school at St. Aloysius and moved on to high school at Gonzaga Prep, graduating in 1980. He then played college basketball for Gonzaga University in his hometown where he averaged 20.9 points per game while shooting 57% from the field in his senior year. His grandfather, Houston Stockton had also been a well known athlete at Gonzaga University. John Stockton was selected by the Utah Jazz with the 16th overall pick in the 1984 NBA Draft.
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Julius Erving
Julius Winfield Erving II (born February 22, 1950), commonly known by the nickname Dr. J, is a retired American basketball player who helped launch a modern style of play that emphasizes leaping and play above the rim. Erving helped legitimize the American Basketball Association (ABA). He was the best known player in the ABA when the ABA-NBA merger joined it with the National Basketball Association (NBA) after the 1976 season.
Erving won three championships, four Most Valuable Player Awards, and three scoring titles while playing with the ABA's Virginia Squires and New York Nets, and the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers. He is the fifth-highest scorer in professional basketball history, with 30,026 points (NBA and ABA combined). He was well known for slam dunking from the free throw line in Slam Dunk Contests and was the only player to have been voted Most Valuable Player in both the ABA and the NBA.
Erving was named to the NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time team and in 1993 was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. In 2004, he was inducted into the Nassau County Sports Hall of Fame. Many consider him among the most spectacular basketballers ever, and one of the best dunkers of all time. While players such as Connie Hawkins, "Jumping" Johnny Green, Elgin Baylor, and Gus Johnson were performing spectacular dunks before Erving's time, "Dr. J" is usually the one most people credit with bringing the practice into the mainstream. His signature dunk was the "slam" dunk, since incorporated into the vernacular and basic skill set of the game, in the same manner as the "cross-over" dribble and the "no look" pass.
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Juwan Howard
Juwan Antonio Howard (born February 7, 1973) is an American professional basketball player for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Heat is Howard's eighth different NBA team. He was drafted fifth overall in the 1994 NBA Draft by the Washington Bullets. A former All-Star and All-NBA power forward, he also starred as an All-American on the Michigan Wolverines men's basketball team as part of the Fab Five recruiting class of 1991 (along with Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson) and, earlier, at Chicago Vocational Career Academy where he was an All-American center as well as an honors student. At age 39, Howard is the third oldest active player in the league.
The Fab Five reached the finals of the 1992 and 1993 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Men's Division I Basketball Championship while starting a combined 304 of a possible 350 games during their collective freshman and sophomore years. Howard is the last member of the Fab Five who remains active as a professional basketball player. Despite the sanctions and forfeited accomplishments from 1992 to 1998 by the Michigan Wolverines men's basketball due to the University of Michigan basketball scandal, Howard's 1993–94 All-American season continues to be recognized.
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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Jr., April 16, 1947) is a retired American professional basketball player. He is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, with 38,387 points. During his career with the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers from 1969 to 1989, Abdul-Jabbar won six NBA championships and a record six regular season MVP Awards. In college at UCLA, he played on three consecutive national championship teams, and his high school team won 71 consecutive games. At the time of his retirement, Abdul-Jabbar was the NBA’s all-time leader in points scored, games played, minutes played, field goals made, field goal attempts, blocked shots, defensive rebounds, and personal fouls. Abdul-Jabbar also has been an actor, basketball coach and an author. In 2012, he was selected as a U.S. cultural ambassador.
Abdul-Jabbar was born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Jr., on April 16, 1947, and grew up in Manhattan in New York City, the only child of Cora Lillian, a department store price checker, and Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Sr., a transit police officer and jazz musician. At birth, he weighed 12 pounds, 10 ounces (5.73 kg), and was twenty-two-and-a-half inches (57.2 cm) long. He was raised as a Roman Catholic and attended St. Jude School in the Inwood section of Manhattan. Later in life, he converted to Islam. He initially joined the Nation of Islam in 1968, before retaking the Shahada and converting to Sunni Islam that same summer.
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Karl Malone
Karl Anthony Malone (born July 24, 1963), nicknamed "The Mailman," is a retired American professional basketball power forward. In his basketball career, Malone spent his first 18 seasons (1985–2003) with the Utah Jazz and formed a formidable duo with his teammate John Stockton. He played his final season (2003–04) with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Malone grew up in rural Summerfield, Louisiana and played college basketball at Louisiana Tech University. In his three seasons with Louisiana Tech, he helped the Bulldogs basketball team to its first-ever NCAA tournament in 1984 and to first place in the Southland Conference in 1985. The Jazz drafted Malone in 1985 with the 13th overall pick in the first round.
Having scored 36,298 points in his career, the second most career points in NBA history, and holding the record for most free throws both attempted and made, Malone is generally considered one of the greatest NBA power forwards. In 1997 and 1999, Malone won the NBA Most Valuable Player award. Malone appeared in the playoffs every season in his career, including three NBA Finals: in 1997 and 1998 with the Jazz and in 2004 with the Lakers. Internationally, Malone competed with the United States national team in the Summer Olympic games of 1992 and 1996; in both years he won gold medals. After retiring from the NBA, Malone joined the staff of the Louisiana Tech basketball team in 2007 and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.
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Kevin Durant
Kevin Wayne Durant (born September 29, 1988) is an American professional basketball forward with the Oklahoma City Thunder of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A 6'9" small forward, Durant was the consensus 2007 National College Player of the Year and the 2006–2007 Big 12 Player of the Year, amongst other awards. After a standout freshman season at the University of Texas, Durant opted to enter the NBA Draft, where he was selected second overall by the Seattle SuperSonics. There he went on to win the NBA Rookie of the Year Award after his debut season. In 2007, Durant signed an endorsement contract with Nike. In the 2009–10 season Durant led the NBA in scoring and became the youngest player ever to win the NBA scoring title. He would later be named to the 2010 All NBA First Team.
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Kevin Garnett
Kevin Maurice Garnett (born May 19, 1976) is an American professional basketball player who currently plays power forward for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA). In high school, Garnett was a 1995 McDonald's All-American at Farragut Career Academy and won a national player of the year award. Garnett entered the 1995 NBA Draft, where he was selected with the 5th overall pick by the Minnesota Timberwolves and became the first NBA player drafted directly out of high school in 20 years.
Garnett made an immediate impact with the Minnesota Timberwolves leading them to eight-consecutive playoff appearances. In 2004, Garnett led the Timberwolves to the Western Conference Finals and was voted Most Valuable Player (MVP) in the 2003–04 season. Since his second season in the NBA, Garnett has been named to 14 All-Star Games, winning the All-Star MVP award in 2003, and is currently tied for 3rd-most All-Star selections in NBA history. He was awarded the regular season's NBA Defensive Player of the Year in the 2007–08 season and has been a nine-time member of the All-NBA Teams selection and a twelve-time member of the All-Defensive Teams selection. Garnett currently holds several all-time Timberwolves franchise records.
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Kevin Johnson
Kevin Maurice Johnson (born March 4, 1966) is the current mayor of Sacramento, the capital city of the U.S. state of California. He is Sacramento's first African American mayor. Prior to entering politics, Johnson was a professional basketball player in the NBA, playing point guard for the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Phoenix Suns. As a player, he was a three-time NBA All-Star and five-time All-NBA selection who holds many records for the Phoenix Suns franchise. At University of California, Berkeley, Johnson had been a two-time All-Pac-10 Conference player who was also an honorable-mention All-American by the Associated Press sportswriters. Johnson was a 2000 graduate of the Harvard Divinity School Summer Leadership Institute, a program that prepares students for work in faith-based urban economic revitalization. He also has a B.A. in Political Science from UC Berkeley that he completed after his initial retirement from the NBA.
Johnson, the son of Georgia West and Lawrence Johnson, was born March 4, 1966 in Sacramento. After Johnson's father drowned in an accident in the Sacramento River, he was raised by his grandparents, the Peat family. He attended Sacramento High School, where he starred in both baseball and basketball and led the state of California in scoring (32.5 ppg) during his senior year.
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Kevin Love
Kevin Wesley Love (born September 7, 1988) is an American professional basketball player for the Minnesota Timberwolves of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The two-time All-Star is one of the top rebounders in the NBA, and he holds the longest streak for consecutive games recording double figures in points and rebounds since the merger between the American Basketball Association (ABA) and the NBA. The Associated Press called Love the new face of the Timberwolves franchise. He is also known for his outlet passing, which led to comparisons to Wes Unseld.
A top ranked prospect out of Lake Oswego High School in Oregon, Love played one season of college basketball for the UCLA Bruins and led the team to a Final Four appearance in the 2008 NCAA Tournament. Love was named the Pac-10 Conference Player of the Year and consensus First Team All-American following the season. Love chose not to complete his three remaining years of college eligibility and entered the 2008 NBA Draft. He was taken fifth overall by the Memphis Grizzlies, and was traded to the Timberwolves on draft night for the third overall selection, O. J. Mayo, in an eight-player deal. Love was a member of the gold medal-winning United States men's national basketball team at the 2010 FIBA World Championship.
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Kevin McHale
Kevin Edward McHale (born December 19, 1957) is a retired American professional basketball player and current head coach of the Houston Rockets. After his playing career, he worked for the Minnesota Timberwolves as the team's general manager and later its coach. He was fired as coach in June 2009. McHale then worked as an analyst for NBA TV and Turner Sports. Kevin McHale is of Irish and of Croat origin.
Kevin McHale was born to Paul Austin McHale and Josephine Patricia Starcevich in Hibbing, Minnesota. In his senior season at Hibbing High School, he was named Minnesota's Mr. Basketball of 1976 and led his squad to a runner-up finish in the AA Minnesota State Championship game.
In 1992, McHale was elected to the Minnesota State High School League Hall of Fame.
On June 30, 1982, he married his wife Lynn. They have five children: Kristyn, Michael, Joseph, Alexandra and Thomas.
In 1990 and again in 1991, he appeared as himself in two episodes of Cheers, a television situation comedy set in Boston.
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Kevin Willis
Kevin Alvin Willis (born September 6, 1962) is a retired American professional basketball player who last played for the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA. He is a 7-foot power forward/center. During the 2004-05 season, Willis was the oldest player in the league at age 42, and he would continue to be until his retirement at the conclusion of the 2006-07 season at the age of 44.
Born in Los Angeles, Willis graduated from Pershing High School in Detroit and joined the basketball team in his junior year. Willis played competitively at Jackson Community College for his freshman season and transferred to Michigan State University, where he would play three seasons as a fashion and textiles major. He was selected in the 1984 NBA Draft by the Atlanta Hawks. He played with the Hawks for nine seasons (plus two games of a tenth season) until 1994. Willis teamed with Dominique Wilkins, Spud Webb, and Doc Rivers to often guide the Hawks to Playoffs appearances as well as providing a fierce rebounding presence in the post. Near the end of his stint with the Hawks, he and Wilkins were both made team captains. Willis was traded to the Miami Heat in 1994. Since then he has played with the Golden State Warriors, two separate stints with the Houston Rockets, the Denver Nuggets, the Toronto Raptors and the San Antonio Spurs. It was in 2003 with the Spurs that he finally won an NBA Championship ring. Willis is one of 15 players in NBA history with over 16,000 career points and 11,000 career rebounds. He was named to the NBA Eastern Conference All-Star Team in 1992, when he finished the season with a career-high average of 15.5 rebounds a game.
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Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bean Bryant (born August 23, 1978) is an American professional basketball player who plays shooting guard for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Bryant enjoyed a successful high school basketball career at Lower Merion High School, where he was recognized as the top high school basketball player in the country. He decided to declare his eligibility for the NBA Draft upon graduation, and was selected with the 13th overall pick in the 1996 NBA Draft by the Charlotte Hornets, then traded to the Los Angeles Lakers. As a rookie, Bryant earned himself a reputation as a high-flyer and a fan favorite by winning the 1997 Slam Dunk Contest.
Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal led the Lakers to three consecutive NBA championships from 2000 to 2002. A heated feud between the duo and a loss in the 2004 NBA Finals was followed by O'Neal's trade from the Lakers after the 2003–04 season. Following O'Neal's departure Bryant became the cornerstone of the Los Angeles Lakers franchise. He led the NBA in scoring during the 2005–06 and 2006–07 seasons, setting numerous scoring records in the process. In 2006, Bryant scored a career-high 81 points against the Toronto Raptors, the second most points scored in a single game in NBA history, second only to Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game in 1962. He was awarded the regular season's Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) in 2008. After losing in the 2008 NBA Finals, Bryant led the Lakers to two consecutive championships in 2009 and 2010, earning the NBA Finals MVP Award on both occasions.
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Lafayette Lever
Lafayette "Fat" Lever (born August 18, 1960, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas) is a retired American professional basketball player in the NBA. He is currently the director of player development for the Sacramento Kings. Lever also serves as the color analyst for the Kings radio broadcasts.
Lever was selected by the Portland Trail Blazers as the 11th pick in the 1982 NBA Draft out of Arizona State. While at ASU, his guard-tandem teammate was Byron Scott who left school early (1983) to sign with the San Diego Clippers. He was considered one of the NBA's best point guards in the late 1980s while playing for the Denver Nuggets. Despite his size (6 feet 3 inches) he regularly led the Nuggets in rebounding.
Lever was traded by the Nuggets to the Dallas Mavericks in 1990 for the Mavs' #9 pick in the 1990 NBA Draft plus Dallas' first-round pick in the following one. The Nuggets subsequently traded the #9 pick and their own #15 pick to the Miami Heat for the Heat's #3 pick in the 1990 Draft, with Denver sending the Mavs' 1991 first rounder (which was originally the Detroit Pistons' pick they acquired in the Mark Aguirre/Adrian Dantley trade) to the Washington Bullets along with Michael Adams, for the Bullets' first round pick in the 1991 Draft.
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LaMarcus Aldridge
LaMarcus Nurae Aldridge (born July 19, 1985) is an American professional basketball player with the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is a 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m), 240-pound power forward/center and is the Portland Trail Blazers's team captain.
Aldridge attended Seagoville High School, where he became a Parade All-American and Texas Association of Basketball Coaches (TABC) Class 4A Player of the Year prior to graduating in 2004 and attending the University of Texas at Austin. He declared for the 2004 NBA Draft but ultimately withdrew his name. According to one report, Aldridge's initial decision to attend college rather than entering the pro ranks directly from high school was influenced by Shaquille O'Neal's personal advice that he should go to college and then evaluate his NBA prospects. However, in April 2006, near the end of his second year at UT, Aldridge announced that he would leave college to enter the 2006 NBA Draft.
Aldridge was drafted 2nd overall in the 2006 NBA Draft by the Chicago Bulls, only to have his draft rights traded to the Portland Trail Blazers for their pick, Tyrus Thomas and Viktor Khryapa, shortly after. The Bulls acquired the pick from the New York Knicks in the 2005 Eddy Curry trade.
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Larry Bird
Larry Joe Bird (born December 7, 1956) is a former American NBA basketball player and coach. Drafted into the NBA sixth overall by the Boston Celtics in 1978, Bird started at small forward and power forward for thirteen seasons, spearheading one of the NBA's most formidable frontcourts that included center Robert Parish and forward Kevin McHale. Due to chronic back problems, he retired as a player in 1992. Bird was voted to the NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1996 and inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1998. He served as head coach of the Indiana Pacers from 1997 to 2000. In 2003, he assumed the role of president of basketball operations for the Pacers, which he currently holds. He is the only person in NBA history to be named Most Valuable Player, Coach of the Year, and Executive of the Year.
Larry Bird was born in West Baden, Indiana, the son of Georgia (née Kerns) and Claude Joseph "Joe" Bird. He grew up in both West Baden and the adjacent town French Lick, which earned him the nickname "the Hick from French Lick" in his professional basketball career. Bird recalled how his mother would make do on the family's meager earnings: "If there was a payment to the bank due, and we needed shoes, she'd get the shoes, and then deal with them guys at the bank. I don't mean she wouldn't pay the bank, but the children always came first." According to Bird, his being poor as a child "motivates me to this day". He sometimes was sent to live with his grandmother due to the family's struggles. The Bird family's struggle with poverty was compounded by the alcoholism and personal difficulties of Joe Bird, who likely suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder from serving in the Korean War. Joe Bird committed suicide on February 3, 1975, when Larry was 18 years old.
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Larry Costello
Lawrence Ronald "Larry" Costello (July 2, 1931 in Minoa, New York – December 13, 2001) was an American professional basketball player and coach.
He was known as the National Basketball Association's last two-handed set shooter. After playing at Niagara University, he joined the Philadelphia Warriors in 1954. Two years later he was traded to the Syracuse Nationals. He retired in 1965 from the Philadelphia 76ers (the former Syracuse Nationals), but eventually came back for the 1966-67 NBA season after new head coach Alex Hannum told him he needed a veteran point guard. With 42 games into the season, Costello ripped his Achilles tendon on January 6, 1967 and was replaced by Wali Jones. He did, however, come back to participlate in the 1967 playoffs. Costello ended his career for the second and final time in 1968.
During his NBA career, Costello was selected to six NBA All-Star Games (playing in five). He led the league in free throw percentage in the 1962-63 and 1964-65 seasons.
Costello began his coaching career at East Syracuse-Minoa High School where he coached the boys varsity basketball team to the state championship for the first time in school history. He took over as head coach of the expansion team Milwaukee Bucks in 1968 and coached them to a league-best 66-16 mark in 1970-71 including a then-NBA record 20 game win streak. They won the championship in the post-season with a 4-0 sweep of the Baltimore Bullets. After a 3-15 start into the 1976-77 season, he was fired. He coached the Chicago Bulls for 56 games in 1978-79 before returning to Milwaukee to coach the Milwaukee Does of the Women's Professional Basketball League for part of the 1979-1980 season.
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Larry Foust
Lawrence Michael Foust (June 24, 1928 – October 27, 1984) was an American basketball player who spent 12 seasons in the NBA and was an 8-time All-Star. He attended South Catholic High School in Philadelphia. Pa and was instrumental in winning the city championship against archrival Southern High School by scoring a last second basket.
A 6'9" center from La Salle University, Foust was selected by the Chicago Stags in the 1950 NBA Draft, but the Stags franchise folded before the start of the 1950-51 NBA season, and Foust joined the Fort Wayne Pistons. On November 22, 1950, Foust scored the winning basket in a 19-18 Pistons victory over the Minneapolis Lakers, the lowest scoring game in NBA history. Foust later joined the Lakers in 1957, and he also spent two-and-a-half seasons with the St. Louis Hawks, retiring in 1962 with 11,198 career points and 8,041 career rebounds.
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Latrell Sprewell
Latrell Fontaine Sprewell (born September 8, 1970) is a former American professional basketball player; he played for the Golden State Warriors, the New York Knicks, and the Minnesota Timberwolves. During his time as a professional, Sprewell was named to the annual NBA All-Star game four times; he also helped the Knicks reach the NBA Finals and the Timberwolves the Western Conference finals. Despite his accomplishments, his career was overshadowed by a 1997 incident in which he choked coach P.J. Carlesimo during a practice, which ultimately resulted in a 68-game suspension.
Sprewell's career came to an unexpected end in 2005 when he refused a $21-million three-year contract offer from the Timberwolves, which he implied would not be enough to feed his children. Since that time, he has made headlines for grounding his million dollar yacht, having two of his homes foreclosed upon, and being prohibited from seeing his children.
After attending Washington High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Sprewell played competitively with the Three Rivers Community College Raiders Basketball Team in Poplar Bluff, Missouri from 1988–1990, and from 1990–1992 with the University of Alabama, where he was a teammate of future NBA players Robert Horry, Jason Caffey and James Robinson.
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LeBron James
LeBron Raymone James (/ləˈbrɒn/; born December 30, 1984) is an American professional basketball player for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "King James", he was a three-time "Mr. Basketball" of Ohio in high school, and was highly promoted in the national media as a future NBA superstar while a sophomore at St. Vincent – St. Mary High School. He was selected with the number one pick in the 2003 NBA Draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers. Listed as a small forward, James has set numerous youngest player records since joining the league. He was named the NBA Rookie of the Year in 2003–04, was named the NBA Most Valuable Player in 2009, 2010, and 2012 and has been both an All-NBA selection and an All-Star every season since 2005. In 2010, a much-publicized free agency process ended with James signing with the Miami Heat.
James led the Cleveland Cavaliers to consecutive playoff appearances from 2006 through 2010. In 2007, the Cavaliers advanced to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history, but lost to the San Antonio Spurs. In 2011, James and the Miami Heat advanced to the NBA Finals but lost to the Dallas Mavericks. James has been a member of the USA national team, winning a bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics and gold at the 2008 Olympics.
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Lou Hudson
Louis Clyde Hudson (born July 11, 1944 in Greensboro, North Carolina) is a former NBA basketball player.
Lou Hudson graduated from Dudley High School in Greensboro. After starring at the University of Minnesota, Hudson was selected by the St. Louis Hawks with the 4th pick of the 1966 NBA Draft. He was named to the 1967 NBA All-Rookie Team after averaging 18.4 points per game in his first season. At 6'5", Hudson could play as either a guard or a forward, and he had a long and successful professional career, scoring 17,940 points in 13 seasons (1966–1979). He was a six time All-Star with the Hawks (who moved to Atlanta in 1968), and he earned the nickname "Sweet Lou" for his smooth and effective jump shot. Hudson's jersey number has been retired by both the Atlanta Hawks and the University of Minnesota.
After his NBA career ended in 1979, Hudson sold restaurant equipment in Atlanta and briefly worked as a radio announcer for the Atlanta Hawks. In 1984, Hudson relocated to Park City, Utah, where became a real estate investor and served on the Park City city council in the early 1990s.[1] He created a recreation basketball league where he served as coach for 20 years before suffering a major stroke on a Park City ski slope in February 2005. [2].He now makes public appearances as an "ambassador" for the "Power to End Stroke" organization. [3]
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Magic Johnson
Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. (born August 14, 1959) is a retired American professional basketball player who played point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). After winning championships in high school and college, Johnson was selected first overall in the 1979 NBA Draft by the Lakers. He won a championship and an NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award in his rookie season, and won four more championships with the Lakers during the 1980s. Johnson retired abruptly in 1991 after announcing that he had contracted HIV, but returned to play in the 1992 All-Star Game, winning the All-Star MVP Award. After protests from his fellow players, he retired again for four years, but returned in 1996, at age 36, to play 32 games for the Lakers before retiring for the third and final time.
Johnson's career achievements include three NBA MVP Awards, nine NBA Finals appearances, twelve All-Star games, and ten All-NBA First and Second Team nominations. He led the league in regular-season assists four times, and is the NBA's all-time leader in average assists per game, at 11.2. Johnson was a member of the "Dream Team", the U.S. basketball team that won the Olympic gold medal in 1992.
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Manu Ginóbili
Emanuel David "Manu" Ginóbili (born 28 July 1977) is an Argentine professional basketball player. Coming from a family of professional basketball players, he is a member of the Argentine men's national basketball team and the San Antonio Spurs in the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Ginóbili spent the early part of his basketball career in Argentina and Italy, where he won several individual and team honors. His stint with Italian side Kinder Bologna was particularly productive, earning two Italian League MVP awards, the Euroleague Finals MVP and the 2001 Euroleague and Triple Crown championships. The shooting guard was selected as the 57th overall pick in the 1999 NBA Draft and is considered one of the biggest draft steals of all time. Ginóbili returned to Italy and only joined the Spurs in 2002. He did not take long to establish himself as a key player for the Spurs, and has since earned three NBA championship rings as well as being named an All-Star in 2005 and 2011. In the 2007–08 season, he was named the NBA Sixth Man of the Year.
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Marques Johnson
Marques Kevin Johnson (born February 8, 1956) is an American retired professional basketball player. The small forward played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1977–1989, where was a five-time All-Star. He spent a majority of his career with the Milwaukee Bucks.
Johnson was a Los Angeles City Section player of the year in high school before attending the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He played college basketball for the UCLA Bruins and won a national championship in 1975. In his senior year, he won multiple national player of the year awards. Johnson was the third overall pick in the 1977 NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks. He played seven seasons with Milwaukee before finishing his NBA career with the Los Angeles Clippers and the Golden State Warriors. He is currently a basketball analyst for Fox Sports Net.
Johnson was born in Nachitoches, Louisiana and raised in south Los Angeles, where he played high school basketball at Crenshaw High School, winning the Los Angeles City Section 4-A Division Player of the Year in 1973. He later attended UCLA, and became a star player on its basketball teams, under the guidance of legendary coach John Wooden. In his sophomore season in 1974–75, Johnson helped to lead the Bruins to Coach John Wooden's 10th and final NCAA Men's Division I basketball championship. Wooden retired from coaching after the season, and Gene Bartow became the head coach. Johnson continued to excel, averaging 21.1 points and 11.1 rebounds per game in his senior season and won the inaugural John R. Wooden Award in addition to the USBWA College Player of the Year as the nation's top collegiate basketball player. Johnson also majored in Theater Arts at UCLA. In 1996, UCLA retired his number.
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Maurice Lucas
Maurice Lucas (February 18, 1952 – October 31, 2010) was an American professional basketball player. The first two years of his postcollegiate career were spent in the American Basketball Association (ABA) with the Spirits of St. Louis and Kentucky Colonels. He then played twelve seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the Portland Trail Blazers, New Jersey Nets, New York Knickerbockers, Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Lakers and Seattle SuperSonics. The starting power forward on the Trail Blazers' 1976–77 NBA Championship team, he was nicknamed The Enforcer because of his primary role on the court which was best exemplified in Game 2 of the NBA Finals that season.
Lucas played college basketball for head coach Al McGuire at Marquette University for two years, leading it to the NCAA championship game in 1974. Although Marquette did not win the title, Lucas played the full 40 minutes of the game, leading his team with 21 points and 13 rebounds.
In 1973, the Carolina Cougars of the American Basketball Association (ABA) obtained that league's rights to Lucas in the first round of the ABA draft. In 1974, Lucas was also selected by the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the 14th pick of the NBA draft. Lucas chose the ABA over the NBA, joining the Spirits of St. Louis team, which had since supplanted the Carolina Cougars in the ABA. During his first season, Lucas averaged 13.2 points per game, and 10 rebounds per game, and he was chosen for the 1974–75 ABA All-Rookie second team.
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Maurice Stokes
Maurice Stokes (June 17, 1933 – April 6, 1970) was an American professional basketball player in the 1950s, whose career was cut short by a debilitating injury. He was born in Rankin, Pennsylvania and graduated from Saint Francis University in Pennsylvania in 1955.
Playing for the National Basketball Association's Rochester Royals (which became the Cincinnati Royals in 1957) from 1955 to 1958, Stokes grabbed 38 rebounds in a single game during his rookie season, averaged 16.3 rebounds per game overall, and was named NBA Rookie of the Year. The next season, he set a league record for most rebounds in a single season with 1,256 (17.4 per game). Stokes played in the All-Star Game all three years of his career, and was named to the All-NBA Second Team three times. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in September 2004.
On March 12, 1958 in the last game of the 1957–58 NBA season, in Minneapolis, Stokes drove to the basket, drew contact and fell to the floor, hit his head, and was knocked unconscious. He was revived with smelling salts and returned to the game. Three days later, after a 12-point, 15-rebound performance in an opening-round playoff game at Detroit against the Pistons, Stokes became ill on the team's flight back to Cincinnati; "I feel like I'm going to die," he told a teammate. Stokes reported feeling ill during the flight back to Cincinnati; he later suffered a seizure, fell into a coma and was left permanently paralyzed. In the end, he was diagnosed with "post-traumatic encephalopathy, a brain injury that damaged his motor control center."
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Max Zaslofsky
Max "Slats" Zaslofsky (December 7, 1925 – October 15, 1985) was an American professional basketball player and coach.
Zaslofsky attended Thomas Jefferson High School in Brooklyn, and St. John's University. He was Jewish.
While playing for the Chicago Stags, Zaslofsky was named All-NBA First Team 1946–47 at the age of 21. He held the distinction of being the youngest player named such for near 60 years until he was surpassed by LeBron James (2005–06). The next season, 1947-48, he led the league in scoring. At 22 years, 121 days old, he was the youngest player to lead the league in scoring until 2010, when Kevin Durant broke his mark. In 1949–50 he led the league in free throw percentage.
After the Stags broke up, Zaslofsky joined the New York Knicks. In 1956 he ended his career as 3rd leading scorer all-time (up to that point), behind George Mikan and Joe Fulks. In addition to his 1946–47 All-NBA First Team honors, Zaslofsky was named to the All-NBA First Team in 1947–48, 1948–49, and 1949–50. He also played in the 1952 NBA All-Star Game.
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Michael Jordan
Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963) is a retired American professional basketball player, active entrepreneur, and majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats. His biography on the National Basketball Association (NBA) website states, "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time." Jordan was one of the most effectively marketed athletes of his generation and was considered instrumental in popularizing the NBA around the world in the 1980s and 1990s.
After a three-season career at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a member of the Tar Heels' national championship team in 1982, Jordan joined the NBA's Chicago Bulls in 1984. He quickly emerged as a league star, entertaining crowds with his prolific scoring. His leaping ability, illustrated by performing slam dunks from the free throw line in slam dunk contests, earned him the nicknames "Air Jordan" and "His Airness". He also gained a reputation for being one of the best defensive players in basketball. In 1991, he won his first NBA championship with the Bulls, and followed that achievement with titles in 1992 and 1993, securing a "three-peat". Although Jordan abruptly retired from basketball at the beginning of the 1993–94 NBA season to pursue a career in baseball, he rejoined the Bulls in 1995 and led them to three additional championships (1996, 1997, and 1998) as well as an NBA-record 72 regular-season wins in the 1995–96 NBA season. Jordan retired for a second time in 1999, but returned for two more NBA seasons from 2001 to 2003 as a member of the Washington Wizards.
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Mitch Richmond
Mitchell James "Mitch" Richmond (born June 30, 1965 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida) is a retired American professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played collegiately at Kansas State University. He was a 6-time NBA All-Star, a 5-time All-NBA Team member and a former NBA Rookie of the Year. In 976 NBA games, Richmond averaged 21.0 points per game and 3.5 assists per game. His nicknames include "The Rock." #2 has been retired in his honor by the Sacramento Kings, for whom he played seven seasons. He was on the cover of video game NBA Live 97. Richmond is now a scout for the Golden State Warriors, for whom he played from 1988 to 1991.
Richmond was drafted 5th overall in the 1988 NBA Draft by the Golden State Warriors, following two years at Kansas State, where he averaged 20 points per game, and two years at Moberly Junior College in Missouri.
Richmond captured the NBA Rookie of the Year Award in the 1988–89 season, after averaging 22 points per game for the Warriors. He was a key part of Don Nelson's fast-paced offense, which was dubbed "Run TMC" after the first names of its three main components, Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullin, respectively. The trio were named after the influential rap group Run DMC. In addition to the shooting he provided, he complemented Hardaway's passing and fast break skills and Mullin's shooting skills by slashing to the hoop as part of the Warriors' attack.
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Moses Malone
Moses Eugene Malone (born March 23, 1955 in Petersburg, Virginia) is a retired American Hall of Fame basketball player who starred in both the American Basketball Association and the National Basketball Association. A three-time NBA MVP and one of the NBA's 50 greatest players, Malone was the most successful prep-to-pro player of his era, going straight from Petersburg High to a 21-year career in professional basketball. By the time Malone retired after 19 seasons in the NBA he was the last former ABA player active and held numerous distinctions in both leagues, including a championship ring and NBA finals trophy won with the 1983 Philadelphia 76ers.
Right after graduating from Petersburg High School, Malone signed a letter of intent to play for the University of Maryland. However, Malone was drafted by the ABA's Utah Stars in 1974 and became one of the first basketball players to jump straight from high school into the professional leagues.
Malone began his professional career with the Utah Stars. He later played for the ABA's Spirits of St. Louis. In two seasons in the ABA, Malone averaged 17.2 points and 12.9 rebounds per game. Malone's ABA career ended with the ABA–NBA merger in June 1976, when Malone moved to the NBA.
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Nate Archibald
Nathaniel "Tiny" Archibald (born September 2, 1948, New York City) is a retired American professional basketball player. He spent 14 years playing in the NBA, most notably with the Kansas City Kings and Boston Celtics.
Archibald was a willing passer and an adequate shooter from midrange. However, it was his quickness and speed and shiftiness that made him difficult to guard in the open court, as he would regularly drive past defenders on his way to the basket.
Archibald, a playground legend while growing up in a rough-and-tumble neighborhood in the South Bronx, New York City, only played high school basketball for one-and-a-half seasons, and was cut from the varsity squad at DeWitt Clinton High School as a sophomore. He returned to the team as a junior. During his time without basketball, Archibald briefly flirted with dropping out of school after having been largely truant in past years. But with the help of two mentors, Floyd Layne and Pablo Robertson, Archibald turned it around. Robertson, a former standout at Loyola of Chicago and a Harlem, NY, playground impressario, had seen the gifted, mercurial Archibald in action on the playgrounds and convinced the young man's high school coach to re-instate him on the squad. Despite only playing in blowouts as a junior, the shy, quiet teen managed to blossom into a high-school star, being named team captain and an All-City selection in 1966. Off the court, Archibald began to attend school regularly and worked to improve his poor academic standing, which deterred most colleges from offering him a scholarship. To improve his chances of playing major college basketball, Archibald enrolled at Arizona Western College, transferring to the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) the following year. He had three standout seasons at El Paso, from 1967 to 1970 under the legendary coach Don Haskins.
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Neil Johnston
Donald Neil Johnston (February 4, 1929 – September 28, 1978) was an American Hall of Fame basketball player at the center position who played 8 years in the NBA from 1951 to 1959.
He led the NBA in scoring for three consecutive seasons: 1952-53, 1953–54, and 1954-55. During the 1954-55 season, he also won the league's rebounding title. Johnston played his entire career with the Philadelphia Warriors, playing on their championship team in 1956. He played in six NBA All-Star Games, was an All-NBA First Team selection four times, and was an All-NBA Second Team selection once.
During his career, the 6 foot 8 inch Johnston was well known for his right-handed hook shot, which contributed to his leading the league in field goal shooting three times. Johnston was forced to retire after a serious knee injury in the 1958-59 season.
After his playing career, he coached the Warriors to a 95-59 winning record for the first two seasons of Wilt Chamberlain's NBA career.
Johnston also coached the Pittsburgh Rens, with Connie Hawkins, of the American Basketball League.
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Norm Van Lier
Norman Allen Van Lier III (April 1, 1947 – February 26, 2009) was an NBA basketball player and television broadcaster who spent the majority of his career with the Chicago Bulls.
Norman Van Lier was born in East Liverpool, Ohio to Helen and Norm Sr., who worked in a steel mill for 31 years. He was raised, along with three brothers and a sister, in Midland, Pennsylvania. Van Lier had three other brothers who died after birth; he named one of them Elgin Baylor Van Lier I. Van Lier would look back fondly to his childhood playing tackle football with a taped coffee can for a ball due to their circumstances. He would later credit this upbringing in forming his famed work ethic later in life.
Van Lier was a member of the 1965 Midland High School Leopards, considered by many to be one of the greatest high school basketball teams of all time[citation needed], finishing 28-0 and easily winning the Pennsylvania State Championship. One of Van Lier's teammates was future NBA player Simmie Hill. During weekends, Van Lier would hitchhike to the playgrounds in Harlem, once even playing with Billy Cunningham.
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Oscar Robertson
Oscar Palmer Robertson (born November 24, 1938 in Charlotte, Tennessee), nicknamed "The Big O", is a former American National Basketball Association player with the Cincinnati Royals and Milwaukee Bucks. The 6-foot-5, 220-pound Robertson played the shooting guard/point guard position, and was a twelve-time All-Star, eleven-time member of the All-NBA Team, and one-time winner of the MVP award in fourteen professional seasons. He is the only player in NBA history to average a triple-double for a season. He was a key player on the team which brought the Bucks their only NBA title in the 1970-71 NBA season. His playing career, especially during high school and college, was plagued by racism.
For his outstanding achievements, Robertson was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1980, and was voted one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996. The United States Basketball Writers Association renamed their college Player of the Year Award the Oscar Robertson Trophy in his honor in 1998, and he was one of five people chosen to represent the inaugural National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame class in 2006.
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Otis Birdsong
Otis Lee Birdsong (born December 9, 1955 in Winter Haven, Florida) is an American former professional basketball player. He spent twelve seasons (1977–1989) in the NBA and appeared in four NBA All-Star Games.
A 6'3" guard who attended Winter Haven High School and the University of Houston, Birdsong was selected by the Kansas City Kings with the second pick of the 1977 NBA Draft. He would spend four seasons with the Kings, averaging a career high 24.6 points per game during the 1980-81 NBA season. He also played seven seasons with the New Jersey Nets and one with the Boston Celtics, and he ended his NBA career in 1989 with 12,544 career points.
When Birdsong was named a 1977 consensus All-American after leading the Houston Cougars to the finals of the National Invitational Tournament, it was the perfect ending to a historic career. As a college freshman, Birdsong finished third among the team’s scoring leaders with 14.3 points per game. The following year, Birdsong etched his name in the University of Houston’s record books by becoming the first sophomore in the school’s history to register 1,000 career points. When the Cougars began playing in the Southwest Conference, Birdsong soon established himself as the dominant scorer in the league’s history. In his first year as an SWC player, Birdsong led the league in scoring, finishing eighth nationally with a 26.1 average. During his All-American season in 1976-77, Birdsong was named Southwest Conference Player of the Year, after leading the Cougars to a 29-8 record and in the NIT’S championship game against St. Bonaventure. Birdsong scored 38 points and made 18 free throws against the Bonnies. He ranked fourth nationally and set an SWC scoring record with 30.3 points per game. These accomplishments resulted in Birdsong being named SWC player of the Decade.
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Patrick Ewing
Patrick Aloysius Ewing, Sr. (born August 5, 1962) is a Jamaican-American retired Hall of Fame basketball player and current assistant coach for the National Basketball Association's Orlando Magic. He played most of his career with the NBA's New York Knicks as their starting center and played briefly with the Seattle SuperSonics and Orlando Magic. Ewing was named as the 16th greatest college player of all time by ESPN. He won Olympic Gold Medals as a member of the 1984 and 1992 US Men's National Basketball teams. In a 1996 poll celebrating the 50th anniversary of the NBA, Ewing was selected as one of the 50 Greatest Basketball Players of All Time. On April 7, 2008 he was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame on September 5, 2008 along with former NBA coach Pat Riley and former Houston Rockets center, Hakeem Olajuwon. His number 33 was retired by the Knicks in 2003.
Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Ewing excelled at cricket and soccer. He was 11 years old when he arrived in the United States with his family, settling in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He learned to play basketball at Cambridge Rindge and Latin. In order to prepare for college, Ewing joined the MIT-Wellesley Upward Bound Program. Upward Bound is a federally-funded TRIO college-prep program for disadvantaged high school students. He went to Georgetown University in Washington, D.C..
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Pau Gasol
Pau Gasol i Sáez (Catalan pronunciation: [ˈpaw ɡəˈzɔɫ]) (born July 6, 1980) is a Spanish professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was born to Marisa Sáez and Agustí Gasol, and he spent his childhood in Spain. Gasol was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks in the 2001 NBA Draft, but his rights were traded to the Memphis Grizzlies, with whom he won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award. He currently holds the Memphis Grizzlies franchise records for career games played, minutes played, field goals made and attempted, free throws made and attempted, offensive, defensive, and total rebounds, blocked shots, turnovers, and points. After seven seasons with the team, Gasol was traded to the Lakers on February 1, 2008. His younger brother, Marc Gasol, who was involved in that trade, is also a professional basketball player for the Memphis Grizzlies of the NBA.
Pau Gasol was born in Barcelona. He began playing basketball with his school team called Alvirne, and he eventually signed with Cornellà. When he was sixteen, he began playing for Barcelona's junior team. He also won both the 1998 Albert Schweitzer Tournament and the 1998 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship. After moving to the senior team of Barcelona, Gasol played just 25 total minutes in the Spanish ACB League 1998–99 season, and averaged 13.7 minutes per game in the ACB the next year. However, in his final season in the ACB, Gasol averaged 12.4 points and 5.8 rebounds in 24.7 minutes per game. Barcelona was victorious in the Spanish National Cup championship game in 2001, and Gasol was named Most Valuable Player. After entering the NBA Draft, Gasol was selected third overall in the first round in the 2001 NBA Draft by the Atlanta Hawks, who traded his draft rights to the Memphis Grizzlies in exchange for Shareef Abdur-Rahim.
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Paul Arizin
Paul Joseph Arizin (April 9, 1928 – December 12, 2006), nicknamed "Pitchin' Paul," was an American basketball player who spent his entire National Basketball Association career with the Philadelphia Warriors from 1950 to 1962. He retired with the third highest career point total (16,266) in NBA history, and was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History upon its 50th anniversary in 1996. He was a high-scoring forward at Villanova University before being drafted by the Warriors of the fledgling NBA.
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Arizin did not play basketball at La Salle College High School, failing to make the team in his only tryout as a senior. Arizin graduated just a year before another NBA hall of famer, Tom Gola, entered La Salle College High School as a freshman.
During his freshmen year at Villanova, Arizin played CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) basketball in Philadelphia. Late in that season, Al Severance, the then Villanova varsity basketball coach, attended one of Arizin's CYO games. Afterwards, Severance approached Arizin and asked, "How would you like to go to Villanova?" His answer: "I go to Villanova."
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Paul Pierce
Paul Anthony Pierce (born October 13, 1977), nicknamed The Truth, is an American professional basketball forward with the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Pierce was a high school McDonald's All-American and earned First Team All-America honors in his junior year at Kansas. Pierce has been a starter every season since being selected by the Celtics with the 10th overall pick in the 1998 NBA Draft. He is a ten-time All-Star and four-time All-NBA team selection, and also led Boston to the NBA Finals in 2008 and 2010, winning the 2008 NBA Finals. He was named the 2008 NBA Finals MVP in his first trip to the NBA Finals. Pierce also is one of only three Celtics, alongside Larry Bird and John Havlicek, who have scored over 20,000 points in their career with the Celtics alone. He holds the Celtics' record for most three-point field goals made. He also ranks third in team history in games played, second in points scored, seventh in total rebounds, fifth in total assists, and second in total steals. His nickname "The Truth" was given to him by Shaquille O'Neal on March 15, 2001.
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Paul Westphal
Paul Westphal (born November 30, 1950) is a retired American basketball player and a former head coach with several National Basketball Association (NBA) and college teams. Westphal has had a storied career in the NBA, both as a player and as a coach. As a player, he won an NBA championship with the Boston Celtics in the 1974 NBA Finals. In addition to being a five-time All-Star selection, from 1977 to 1981, Westphal earned three All-NBA First Team selections and one Second Team honor. Later, returned to the Finals in 1993 as head coach of the Phoenix Suns. He returned to his home state of California when he was the men's basketball head coach at Pepperdine University from 2001 to 2006.
Westphal was born in Torrance, California. He went to Aviation High School and then USC. He was the 10th overall pick in the 1972 NBA Draft by the Boston Celtics. After three seasons in Boston, including a championship ring in 1974, he was traded to the Phoenix Suns. In 1976, Westphal helped the Suns reach their first-ever Finals appearance. In Game 5 of that series, called by many[who?] the greatest game ever played in basketball, Westphal made several memorable plays:
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Peja Stojaković
Predrag Stojaković (Serbian Cyrillic: Предраг Стојаковић, Serbo-Croatian pronunciation: [predraːg stojaːkoʋitɕ]; born June 9, 1977), also known by his nickname Peja (Пеђа), is a Serbian former professional basketball player who last played for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Standing at 6 ft 10 (2.08 m), Stojaković played the small forward position. Known for his shooting abilities, he was the winner of the NBA All-Star Weekend Three-Point Shootout twice, and the first European-born player to win one of the All-Star Weekend competitions. Stojaković is sixth all-time in regular season three-point field goals made in the NBA.
After playing for KK Crvena zvezda and PAOK BC basketball club, Stojaković was drafted fourteenth overall by the Sacramento Kings in the 1996 NBA Draft. After two seasons on the bench, he had a breakthrough season in 2000–01, averaging 20.4 points and 5.8 rebounds while shooting .400 from three-point range in his first season as a starter. He finished second in voting for the 2001 Most Improved Player Award. A three-time All-star and a member of 2004 All-NBA Second Team, Stojaković enjoyed success with the Kings reaching 2002 Western Conference Finals. He also played for the Indiana Pacers, New Orleans Hornets and Toronto Raptors. Stojaković won an NBA Championship in 2011 as a member of the Dallas Mavericks.
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Penny Hardaway
Anfernee Deon "Penny" Hardaway (born July 18, 1971) is a former American professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA), specializing as an unconventionally tall point guard. His most productive years came in his days as a member of the Orlando Magic as well as the early portion of his stint with the Phoenix Suns. Hardaway was an All-NBA player early in his career, but was plagued by constant injuries which gradually reduced his effectiveness. He played for New York Knicks from 2004 to 2006 and last played for the Miami Heat, who released him December 12, 2007.
Hardaway's nickname came as a result of his grandmother's calling him "Pretty" with a southern drawl, thus sounding like "Penny." Hardaway was raised by his grandmother while his mother was away working. His first love was football but his grandmother did not want him to get hurt. He grew up in the Binghampton neighborhood of shotgun houses in Memphis, Tennessee. As a teenager, despite his rising popularity around the city, in high school, and the nation, Penny continued to work as a referee of youth sports at the Memphis YMCA and played on the Memphis Y.M.C.A. Jr. Olympic basketball teams as a youth.
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Pete Maravich
Peter "Pistol Pete" Press Maravich (June 22, 1947 – January 5, 1988) was an American professional basketball player. Born and raised in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, Maravich starred in college at Louisiana State University (LSU) and played for three NBA teams until injuries induced him to retire in 1980. He is still the all-time leading NCAA Division I scorer with 3,667 points scored and an average of 44.2 points per game. (All of his accomplishments were achieved before the three-point line was introduced to NCAA basketball, and despite being unable to play varsity as a freshman under then-NCAA rules.) Maravich died suddenly at age 40 during a pick-up game as a consequence of a previously undetected congenital heart defect. One of the youngest players ever inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Maravich was cited by the Hall as "perhaps the greatest creative offensive talent in history". In an April 2010 interview, Hall of Fame player John Havlicek said "the best ball-handler of all time was (Pete) Maravich."
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Phil Chenier
Philip Chenier (born October 30, 1950 in Berkeley, California) is a former professional basketball player. He is presently a television sports broadcaster for the NBA's Washington Wizards.
After playing for Berkeley High School and briefly University of California at Berkeley, Chenier, who was selected fourth in the 1971 NBA Hardship Draft by the then Baltimore Bullets, would play professionally for the Bullets in the National Basketball Association from 1971 to 1979.
Chenier was one of the better shooting guards in the NBA for the first six seasons in his career, but he suffered a back injury early in the 1977-78 season and had season-ending surgery. The Bullets would go on to win the NBA title with Kevin Grevey as the shooting guard. Chenier was never the same player after that; he came back from his surgery late the next season, but never could crack the Bullets' starting lineup again.
Chenier was released by the Bullets after the 1978-79 season, he would later play briefly for the Indiana Pacers and Golden State Warriors before finally retiring after the 1980-81 season.
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Phil Smith
Philip (Phil) Arnold Smith (April 22, 1952 – July 30, 2002) was an American professional basketball player who played for 9 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA).
A 6'4" All-American guard from the University of San Francisco, Smith was not heavily recruited out of George Washington High School (San Francisco). After graduating from high school a semester early, Smith followed his older brother and enrolled in night classes at the University of San Francisco. Having been seen playing in a pickup game on campus, he was recruited by coach Bob Gaillard, who enlisted him on the freshman squad (the NCAA did not allow freshmen to play on varsity at this time) where he averaged 16.7 ppg. He went on to lead the team in scoring in each of his three varsity seasons, 15.0, 18.7, and 20.7 ppg, for a career average of 18.1 ppg and was an all-West Coast Conference selection all three years. The Dons made appearances in the 1972 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament placing 4th in the Western Regional after losing to Weber State, and finished in the elite eight in the 1973 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament and 1974 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, where they lost both times to UCLA under John Wooden. As a result he was drafted #1 in the 1973 ABA draft by the Virginia Squires, but declined leaving college early. He was named to the All-American team his senior year. Scoring 1,523 career points, he excelled at USF becoming the ninth-leading scorer in school history. On February 17, 2001 his number 20 was retired at halftime during a home game against the University of San Diego. He is one of only five players to have his number retired by the University of San Francisco. He was named one of the Top-50 WCC athletes of all-time in 2001.
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Rajon Rondo
Rajon Pierre Rondo (born February 22, 1986) is an American professional basketball point guard with the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Rondo attended Eastern High School and Oak Hill Academy for his high-school basketball career, before receiving a scholarship from the University of Kentucky. He played for two years at Kentucky before declaring for the 2006 NBA Draft, represented by agent Bill Duffy.
During the draft, Rondo was selected 21st overall by the Phoenix Suns, and was subsequently traded to the Boston Celtics, where he made his NBA debut as a rookie during the 2006–07 season. He played a supporting role before he established himself as the starting point guard for the Celtics during the 2007–08 season. That season, Rondo earned his first NBA Championship, playing alongside All-Stars Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce. His breakout performance came during the 2009 NBA Playoffs, where he nearly averaged a triple-double, and helped his team take the eventual Eastern-conference champion Orlando Magic seven games in the Eastern semi-finals. He ranks eighth in Celtics history in assists and fifth in steals.
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Ralph Beard
Ralph Milton Beard Jr. (December 2, 1927 – November 29, 2007) was an American collegiate and professional basketball player. He was born in Hardinsburg, Kentucky. Beard was a member of Adolph Rupp's "Fabulous Five" University of Kentucky basketball team. Taken in the second round of the 1949 NBA draft, Beard played two seasons with the Indianapolis Olympians and averaged 15.9 points and 4.4 assists per game. Following the 1951 season, Beard and teammate Alex Groza were banned from the NBA for life by then-commissioner Maurice Podoloff after the players admitted to point shaving during their college careers. Beard died at his Louisville, Kentucky home in 2007.
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Ralph Sampson
Ralph Lee Sampson, Jr. (born July 7, 1960) is a retired American college and professional basketball player.
A 7-foot-4 phenom, three-time College Player of the Year, and No. 1 pick in the 1983 NBA Draft, Sampson brought heavy expectations with him to the NBA.
The NBA Rookie of the Year, Sampson averaged 20.7 points and 10.9 rebounds for his first three seasons with the Houston Rockets before injuries began to take their toll. Three knee surgeries later he retired a four-time All-Star whose career highlight ended up being a buzzer-beating shot to dethrone the Los Angeles Lakers as Western Conference champions, derailing their hopes for coveted back-to-back NBA titles and sending the Rockets to their second NBA Finals in the team's history to that point.
Sampson was already 6-foot-7 inches tall by the ninth grade, reaching 7-foot-3 in high school in Harrisonburg, Virginia. He averaged nearly 30 points, 19 rebounds, and 7 blocked shots as a senior (after averaging 14 points and 11 rebounds as a sophomore, and 19 points and 17 rebounds as a junior), at Harrisonburg High, leading the team to state AA basketball championships in 1978 and 1979. His senior year he lost the high school player of the year award to another talented center, Sam Bowie. However, he did get a form of revenge against Bowie, outplaying him in the Capital Classic, getting 23 points and 21 rebounds with 4 blocks in a game styled "Battle of the Giants".
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Ray Allen
Walter Ray Allen (born July 20, 1975) is an American professional basketball player who is currently playing for the Boston Celtics in the National Basketball Association. He has played professionally for the Milwaukee Bucks, Seattle SuperSonics, and the Boston Celtics; and collegiately for the University of Connecticut Huskies. One of the most accurate 3-point and free throw shooters in NBA history, he is a ten-time NBA All-Star and won an Olympic gold medal as a member of the 2000 United States Men's Basketball Team. Allen has acted in two films, including a lead role in the 1998 Spike Lee film He Got Game. On 02011-02-10February 10, 2011, Allen became the NBA's all-time leader in regular season 3-point field goals made, surpassing Reggie Miller's mark of 2,560. On 02011-03-11March 11, 2011, Allen surpassed Miller's career total of 6,486 3-point field goal attempts.
The third of five children, Ray Allen was born at Castle Air Force Base near Merced, California, the son of Flora and Walter Allen. A military child, he spent time growing up in Saxmundham in England, Altus in Oklahoma, Edwards Air Force Base in California, and Germany. He attended high school in Dalzell, South Carolina, where he led Hillcrest High School to a basketball state championship.
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Reggie Miller
Reginald Wayne "Reggie" Miller (born August 24, 1965) is a retired American professional basketball player who played his entire 18-year National Basketball Association (NBA) career with the Indiana Pacers. Miller was known for his precision three-point shooting, especially in clutch situations and most notably against the New York Knicks for which he earned the nickname "Knick Killer". When he retired, he held the record for most career 3-point field goals made. He is currently second on the list behind Ray Allen. A five-time All-Star selection, he led the league in free throw accuracy five times and won a gold medal in the 1996 Summer Olympics.
Miller is one of five Pacers to have his jersey (#31) retired by the team (the others are Roger Brown, Mel Daniels, Bobby "Slick" Leonard and George McGinnis). Miller was also selected for the Pacers' 40th anniversary team in 2007. Currently, he works as an NBA commentator for TNT. Miller has been announced as a 2012 inductee of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and will formally enter the Hall on September 7.
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Richie Guerin
Richard Vincent "Richie" Guerin (born May 29, 1932, in The Bronx, New York City, New York) is a retired American professional basketball player and coach. The 6'4" (1.93 m) Guerin played with the National Basketball Association's (NBA) New York Knicks from 1956 to 1963 and was a player-coach of the St. Louis/Atlanta Hawks franchise where he spent nine years.
He served in the Marine Corps Reserve from 1947 to 1954. While a reservist, Guerin attended Iona College from 1950 to 1954 where he scored 1,375 points in 67 games. After graduation, Guerin served on active duty at Marine Corps Schools, Quantico, Virginia for two years.
The Knicks drafted Guerin with the 8th pick in the second round of the 1954 NBA Draft while still on active duty. After leaving the Marine Corps, Guerin would begin his professional basketball career in 1956.
As a high-scoring point guard in the late 50s and early 60s, Richie Guerin was one of the most talented and best-loved players ever to wear a New York Knicks jersey. His feisty on-court style and wisecracking off-court demeanor played well to Madison Square Garden crowds.
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Rick Barry
Richard Francis Dennis Barry III (born March 28, 1944), better known as Rick Barry, is a retired American professional basketball player. He is considered by many veteran basketball observers[who?] to be one of the greatest pure small forwards of all time as a result of his very precise outside shot, uncanny court vision, knowledge and execution of team defense principles, tenacious and ofttimes demanding will to win, and unorthodox but accurate underhanded free throw shooting. Barry is one of the few elite players who altered their games without losing effectiveness; he broke into the professional ranks as a rebounder and all-purpose scorer before he became a primary ball distributor and lethal perimeter threat.
Named one of the 50 Greatest Players in history by the NBA in 1996, Barry is the only player to lead the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), ABA and NBA in scoring for an individual season. In 1987, Barry was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
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Robert Parish
Robert Lee Parish (born August 30, 1953) is a retired American basketball center. He was known for his strong defense and jump shooting, and was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003. In 1996, Parish was also named as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. His nickname was The Chief, after the fictitious Chief Bromden, a silent, giant Native American character in the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. According to Parish, former Celtics forward Cedric Maxwell gave him this nickname because of his stoic nature.
Although Parish had a successful college career at Centenary College of Louisiana from 1972–1976, he received virtually no notice because of one of the most severe penalties ever levied by the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
In 1965, the NCAA adopted the so-called "1.6 rule" to determine academic eligibility of incoming freshmen. Under its provisions, freshmen would academically qualify if their high school grades and standardized test scores predicted a minimum college grade point average of 1.6 on a 4-point scale.
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Rod Strickland
Rodney "Rod" Strickland (born July 11, 1966, in The Bronx, New York) is a retired American professional basketball player and currently in an administrative role for the University of Kentucky basketball team under head coach John Calipari. Strickland was formerly the director of basketball operations at the University of Memphis. He is also the godfather of 2011 NBA Draft first overall pick Kyrie Irving.
A native of the Bronx, Strickland played for the New York Gauchos. While a junior he led Truman High School in Co-Op City to the state championship and was ranked as one of the top 10 high school recruits in the nation. As a senior he transferred to Oak Hill Academy in Virginia.
Strickland became a college star at DePaul University where he appeared in 87 games. As a junior, he was a First Team All-American after averaging 20.0 points and 7.8 assists. A 1987 and 1988 All-America pick, Strickland helped lead the Blue Demons to four-straight NCAA Tournament appearances from 1985–88, including Sweet Sixteen showings in 1986 and 1987. The four-time Blue Demon letterwinner ranks among the program's career leaders in scoring average (8th; 16.6 ppg), assists (3rd; 557) and steals (2nd; 204). He also averaged 3.4 rebounds while shooting 53.4% during his college career.
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Ron Artest
Metta World Peace (born Ronald William Artest, Jr., November 13, 1979) is an American professional basketball player who plays for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was known as Ron Artest before legally changing his name in September 2011.
World Peace gained a reputation as one of the league's premier defenders as he won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award in 2004. He was a participant in several controversial on-court incidents, most notably the Pacers–Pistons brawl and is known for his sometimes eccentric and outspoken behavior.
Metta World Peace was born Ronald William Artest, Jr., and raised in the Queensbridge projects in Queens, New York. He has two younger brothers, Isaiah and Daniel. He played high school basketball at La Salle Academy and college basketball at St. John's University from 1997–1999. In 1999, he helped the Red Storm to the Elite Eight, losing to Ohio State. He gained fame playing in some of New York City's high profile summer basketball tournaments at Nike Pro City, Hoops in the Sun at Orchard Beach, Bronx, New York and Dyckman Park at Washington Heights, earning himself nicknames such as Tru Warier and The New World Order, a name he received from Randy Cruz (one of the co-founders of the Hoops In The Sun basketball league at Orchard Beach in the Bronx, New York).
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Russell Westbrook
Russell Westbrook (born November 12, 1988) is an American professional basketball player currently playing for the Oklahoma City Thunder of the NBA. Westbrook played high school basketball for Leuzinger High School, before heading to play for UCLA. Westbrook played two years at UCLA before declaring for the 2008 NBA Draft. He was drafted by the Thunder's former incarnation, the Seattle SuperSonics, which relocated from Seattle to Oklahoma City six days after the draft. Westbrook was also a member of the 2010 United States national team. Over his career, Westbrook has been a two-time All-Star, a two-time member of the All-NBA Second Team, and a member of the NBA All-Rookie First Team. Westbrook represented the United States in the 2010 FIBA World Championships in Turkey where he won a gold medal.
Westbrook was born in Long Beach, California to parents Russell and Shannon Horton. He has one younger brother, Raynard, and has said that he admires former Los Angeles Lakers great Earvin "Magic" Johnson. Westbrook was a childhood friend of Khelcey Barrs, a talented young small forward who had been attracting interest from major college basketball schools as a 6-foot-6, 200 pound high school sophomore. However, Barrs collapsed and died after playing a series of late night basketball games in 2004.
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Sam Cassell
Samuel James "Sam" Cassell (born November 18, 1969), is a retired American professional basketball player and current assistant coach for the Washington Wizards. The 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m), 185 lb (84 kg; 13.2 st) point guard was selected out of Florida State University by the Houston Rockets with the 24th overall pick in the 1993 NBA Draft. He won two NBA Championships in his first two seasons in the league as a member of the Rockets, and his third with the Boston Celtics in 2008. He was selected to the NBA All-Star Game and All-NBA Team once, both in the 2003–04 season. He played for the Rockets, Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks, New Jersey Nets, Milwaukee Bucks, Minnesota Timberwolves, Los Angeles Clippers, and Boston Celtics.
After graduating from Dunbar High School in Baltimore, Maryland, Cassell spent a post graduate year at Maine Central Institute in Pittsfield, Maine under coach Max Good. From MCI, Cassell was successfully recruited to attend DePaul University. He was declared academically ineligible based on National Collegiate Athletic Association Proposition 48 standards, and ended up starting his college career at San Jacinto College in Texas, where he was known as a big scorer. He moved on to Florida State University for his junior and senior years. In his senior year in 1992–93, he averaged 18.3 points, 4.9 assists, and 4.3 rebounds per game and led the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) in steals. Cassell and teammate Bob Sura formed the highest scoring and rebounding backcourt in the nation with 38.2 points and 10.4 rebounds per game. Cassell's 1992–93 Seminoles team finished with a 25–10 record and advanced to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament, where they lost to the Kentucky Wildcats.
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Scottie Pippen
Scottie Pippen (born September 25, 1965) is a retired American professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association. He is most remembered for his time with the Chicago Bulls, with whom he was instrumental in 6 NBA titles and their record 1995–96 season of 72 wins. Pippen, along with Michael Jordan, played an important role in transforming the Bulls team into a vehicle for popularizing the NBA around the world during the 1990s.
Considered one of the best small forwards of all time, Pippen was named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team 8 straight times and the All-NBA First Team three times. He was a seven-time NBA All-Star and was the NBA All-Star Game MVP in 1994. He was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History during the 1996–97 season, and is one of four players to have his jersey retired by the Chicago Bulls (the others being Jerry Sloan, Bob Love, and Michael Jordan). During his seventeen-year career, he played twelve seasons with the Bulls, one with the Houston Rockets and four with the Portland Trail Blazers, making the postseason sixteen straight times. Pippen is also the only person to have won an NBA title and Olympic gold medal in the same year twice (1992, 1996). Pippen was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame on August 13, 2010.
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Shaquille O'Neal
Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal ( /ʃəˈkiːl/ shə-KEEL; born March 6, 1972), nicknamed "Shaq" ( /ˈʃæk/ SHAK), is a retired American basketball player and current analyst on the television program Inside the NBA. Standing 7 ft 1 in (2.16 m) tall and weighing 325 pounds (147 kg), he was one of the heaviest players ever to play in the NBA. Throughout his 19-year career, O'Neal used his size and strength to overpower opponents for points and rebounds.
Following his career at Louisiana State University, O'Neal was drafted by the Orlando Magic with the first overall pick in the 1992 NBA Draft. He quickly became one of the top centers in the league, winning Rookie of the Year in 1992–93 and later leading his team to the 1995 NBA Finals. After four years with the Magic, O'Neal signed as a free agent with the Los Angeles Lakers. He won three consecutive championships in 2000, 2001, and 2002. Amid tension between O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, O'Neal was traded to the Miami Heat in 2004, and his fourth NBA championship followed in 2006. Midway through the 2007–2008 season he was traded to the Phoenix Suns. After a season-and-a-half with the Suns, O'Neal was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2009–10 season. O'Neal played for the Boston Celtics in the 2010–11 season before retiring.
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Shawn Kemp
Shawn T. Kemp (born November 26, 1969) is a former American professional basketball player, who played in the National Basketball Association for 14 seasons. He was a six-time NBA All-Star and a three-time All-NBA Second Team member.
Kemp attended Concord High School in Elkhart, Indiana. He was considered to be one of the top four or five players nationally his senior year, and led his team to the state championship finals. Kemp finished third for the state's coveted Mr. Basketball award (behind Woody Austin and Chandler Thompson). During his senior year, Kemp signed a national letter-of-intent to play basketball at the University of Kentucky. However, he left the team in November 1988 after he was accused of pawning two gold chains that had been reported stolen from his teammate Sean Sutton, the son of then Kentucky head coach Eddie Sutton. Sean Sutton did not press charges, but Kemp transferred to Trinity Valley Community College in Texas. After a semester at TVCC, where he did not play, 19-year-old Shawn Kemp declared himself eligible for the 1989 NBA Draft.
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Shawn Marion
Shawn Dwayne Marion (born May 7, 1978) is an American professional basketball player currently with the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association. Born in Waukegan, Illinois, Marion attended high school in Clarksville, Tennessee. Before transferring to the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, Marion attended the junior college Vincennes University for two years. In 1999, the Phoenix Suns drafted Marion, who was the ninth overall pick and would remain with the Suns until midway through the 2007-2008 season. The Suns traded Marion to the Miami Heat, and Marion joined the Toronto Raptors for the 2008-2009 season. Marion joined the Dallas Mavericks in 2009 and was the team's starting small forward when the Mavericks won the NBA Championship in June, 2011.
Nicknamed "The Matrix" by TNT analyst Kenny Smith during the pre-season of his rookie year for his seemingly bionic athleticism, he is widely regarded as one of the most versatile players in the league thanks to his athleticism and ability to play and defend many positions.
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Sidney Moncrief
Sidney A. Moncrief (born September 21, 1957 in Little Rock, Arkansas) is a retired American professional basketball player. As an NCAA college basketball player from 1975–1979, Moncrief led the University of Arkansas Razorbacks trio known as "The Triplets" to the 1978 Final Four, which ended in a win in the NCAA Consolation Game versus #6 Notre Dame. Nicknamed Sid the Squid, Sir Sid, and El Sid, Moncrief went on to play 11 seasons in the NBA.
Moncrief, Marvin Delph of Conway, Arkansas, and Ron Brewer of Fort Smith, Arkansas ("The Triplets"), along with head coach Eddie Sutton and assistant coach Gene Keady, resurrected the University of Arkansas basketball program in the 1970s from decades of modest success and disinterest, and helped lay the foundation for what became one of the country's premier college basketball programs through the mid-1990s. Moncrief's leadership on the court and electrifying play renewed interest in the Razorback program, and ushered in the winning tradition in the Arkansas basketball program. His jersey was retired not long after he graduated from school and went on to the NBA, and is still the only one. Moncrief was the school's all-time leading scorer until Todd Day broke his record in 1992.
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Slater Martin
Slater Nelson "Dugie" Martin Jr. (born October 22, 1925) is an American retired professional basketball player and coach who played the guard position for 11 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was born in El Mina, Texas and played in seven NBA All-Star Games.
Martin was one of the NBA's best defensive players in the 1950s while playing for the George Mikan-led Minneapolis Lakers that won four NBA championships between 1950 and 1954. In 1956 he joined Bob Pettit's St. Louis Hawks and won another NBA title in 1958.
Martin is an alumnus of Jefferson Davis High School in Houston, where he led his school to two state basketball championships in 1942 and 1943.[1] He is also a graduate of University of Texas at Austin, where he set a record in 1949 for putting up 49 points playing for the Texas Longhorns against the opposing Texas Christian University team. Throughout his career with the Longhorns, Martin averaged 12.7 points per game.[2] His former high school now holds an annual funder raiser in his name, the "Slater Martin Golf Tournament", which successfully raises tens of thousands of dollars each year as an aid to high school student clubs and sports teams.
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Spencer Haywood
Spencer Haywood (born April 22, 1949) is a retired American professional basketball player.
In 1964, Haywood moved to Detroit, Michigan. In 1967, while attending Pershing High School, Haywood led the school's basketball team to the state championship.
Haywood attended Trinidad State Junior College in Trinidad, Colorado during the 1967-68 college season, where he averaged 28.2 points and 22.1 rebounds per game. Due to his exceptional performance and talent, Haywood made the USA Olympic Basketball team in 1968. Haywood was the leading scorer on the USA's gold medal winning basketball team during the 1968 Olympics at 16.1 points per game, and he set a USA field goal percentage record of .719.
Haywood transferred to the University of Detroit later that year, and led the NCAA in rebounding with a 21.5 average per game while scoring 32.1 points per game during the 1968-69 season. He decided to turn pro after his sophomore year, but National Basketball Association (NBA) rules, which then required a player to wait until his class graduated, prohibited him from entering the league. As a result, he joined the Denver Rockets of the American Basketball Association (ABA).
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Stan Miasek
Stanley Miasek (August 8, 1924–October 18, 1989) was an American professional basketball player.
A 6'5" forward/center, Miasek played six seasons (1946–1950; 1951–1953) in the National Basketball Association as a member of the Detroit Falcons, Chicago Stags, Baltimore Bullets, and Milwaukee Hawks. He averaged 10.6 points per game and 7.6 rebounds per game in his career.
Miasek was one of the early stars of the NBA (known as the Basketball Association of America until 1949). He ranked third in total points (895) and fifth in total assists (93) during the league's inaugural season.
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Steve Nash
Stephen John "Steve" Nash, OC, OBC (born 7 February 1974) is a South African-born Canadian professional basketball player who plays point guard for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nash enjoyed a successful high-school basketball career, and he was eventually given a scholarship by Santa Clara University. In his four seasons with the Broncos, the team made three NCAA Tournament appearances, and Nash was twice named the West Coast Conference Player of the Year.
After graduating from Santa Clara as the team's all-time leader in assists, Nash entered the 1996 NBA Draft and was selected as the 15th pick by the Phoenix Suns. He made a minimal impact, and was traded to the Dallas Mavericks in 1998. By his third season with the Mavericks, he was voted into his first NBA All-Star Game and had earned his first All-NBA selection. Together with Dirk Nowitzki and Michael Finley, Nash led the Mavericks to the Western Conference Finals the following season. However, he became a free agent after the 2003–04 season and returned to the Phoenix Suns.
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Terry Cummings
Robert Terrell "Terry" Cummings (born March 15, 1961 in Chicago, Illinois) is a retired American professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association for 18 seasons as a power forward and occasional center.
A graduate of Carver High School, in Chicago, Cummings attended DePaul University from 1979 to 1982. He averaged 16.4 points per game over 85 games and entered the 1982 NBA Draft after departing from school. He was selected in the first round by the San Diego Clippers, and in his inaugural 1982-83 season, he won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award after putting up 23.7 points and 10.4 rebounds per game. These figures would turn out to be the highest of his career in those categories.
After the next season (1983–84), he was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks, where he would continue to post above 20 point and 8 rebound averages for four out of his five years on the team. As a Buck, Cummings was selected to play in the 1984-85 and 1988-89 NBA All-Star Games.
He was traded to the San Antonio Spurs where he would remain for six years. His scoring and rebounding averages for the 1989-90 through 1991-92 seasons were close to 20 and 8, respectively, and he helped his team to consecutive 50-win seasons and playoff appearances. By this time, he was recognized a reliable power forward in the league.
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Tim Duncan
Timothy Theodore "Tim" Duncan (born April 25, 1976) is an American professional basketball player for the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The 6-foot 11-inch (2.11 m), 255-pound (116 kg)power forward/center is a four-time NBA champion, two-time NBA MVP, three-time NBA Finals MVP, and NBA Rookie of the Year. The Spurs' team captain, he is a 13 time NBA All-Star and the only player in NBA history to be selected to both All-NBA and All-Defensive Teams during each of his first 13 seasons.
Duncan started out as a swimmer and only began playing basketball in ninth grade after Hurricane Hugo destroyed the only Olympic-sized pool on his home of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. He soon became a standout for St. Dunstan's Episcopal High School, and had an illustrious college career with the Wake Forest University Demon Deacons, winning the Naismith College Player of the Year, USBWA College Player of the Year and John Wooden awards in his final year. Duncan graduated from college before entering the 1997 NBA Draft as the number one pick. His list of accomplishments, remarkable consistency, and leadership in the Spurs' NBA championship runs in 1999, 2003, 2005, and 2007 have led basketball experts to consider him to be one of the greatest power forwards in NBA history.
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Tom Gola
Thomas Joseph "Tom" Gola (born January 13, 1933, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a retired American basketball player.
Gola was praised as a great all-around player as a high school student at La Salle College High School, where he led the Explorers to a Philadelphia Catholic League Championship. He entered La Salle a year after another Philadelphia basketball Hall of Famer, Paul Arizin, graduated from Villanova.
Gola was one of the most talented collegiate athletes in Philadelphia sports history. He came to national attention while playing for the hometown La Salle University Explorers men's basketball team in 1954 as an All-American forward. Gola paced the Explorers to the NCAA basketball championship in 1954 and was named Tournament MVP. That same season he was selected as National Player of the Year. As a senior, Gola helped La Salle finish as the runner-up in the 1955 NCAA Tournament. He averaged 20.9 points and 19.0 rebounds during 115 games and holds the NCAA record with 2,201 career rebounds. At 6'6" (198 cm), Gola was clearly a forward who could shoot/score, rebound and defend, but he also had the ballhandling (dribbling, passing) skills of a guard, and with his shooting range and All-Pro defensive skills, could play just as well in the backcourt. He was inducted into the La Salle Hall of Athletes in 1961 and the Big 5 Hall of Fame in 1986. Gola was listed on "ESPN's Countdown to the Greatest" College basketball players as #17.
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Tom Heinsohn
Thomas William "Tom" Heinsohn (born August 26, 1934) is a retired American professional basketball player. He has been associated with the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) for six decades as a player, coach and broadcaster. He played for the Celtics from 1956 to 1965, and also coached the team from 1969 to 1978. He has been granted Hall of Fame Status for his success as both a player and a coach. He helped form the NBA players union. He is the only person to have the distinction of being involved in an official team capacity in each of the Celtics' 17 championships, as well as each of their 21 NBA Finals appearances. He is currently the color commentator on the Celtics' television broadcasts on CSN New England.
Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, Heinsohn was a standout at St. Michael's High School in nearby Union City. He accepted a scholarship to Holy Cross and became the school's all-time leading scorer with 1,789 points, an average of 22.1 points per game. During his senior year, Heinsohn scored a school record 51 points in a game against Boston College.
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Tony Parker
William Anthony "Tony" Parker Jr. (born 17 May 1982) is a French professional basketball player with the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
The son of a professional basketball player, Parker played for two years in the French basketball league before entering the 2001 NBA Draft. He was selected by the San Antonio Spurs with the 28th overall pick in the draft and quickly became their starting point guard, helping the Spurs win three NBA Championships in 2003, 2005 and 2007. Employing his pace and high field goal percentage to great effect, Parker has been named to four NBA All-Star games, an All-NBA Second Team, and an All-NBA Third Team. He was the 2007 NBA Finals MVP.
Parker is also a music artist with his own music album TP. He married actress Eva Longoria, best known for her role in the ABC television series Desperate Housewives, on 7 July 2007. In November 2010, both parties filed for divorce.
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Tracy McGrady
Tracy Lamar McGrady, Jr. (born May 24, 1979) is an American professional basketball player with the Atlanta Hawks of the NBA.
Entering the league after graduating from high school, McGrady eventually became a seven-time All-Star. He led the league in scoring in 2003 and 2004. He has also played for the Toronto Raptors, Orlando Magic, Houston Rockets, New York Knicks, and Detroit Pistons. McGrady was ranked on SLAM Magazine's "Top 75 Players of All-Time" in 2003. McGrady's style of play has been compared to that of George Gervin.
Tracy McGrady played high school basketball at Auburndale High School in Auburndale, Florida for three years. He then transferred to Mount Zion Christian Academy, in Durham, North Carolina. McGrady created a national buzz after his performance in the Adidas ABCD Camp, where the best high school players in the U.S. are invited annually. He was named High School Player of the Year by USA Today. McGrady has stated that if he had not gone straight to the NBA from high school, he would have attended Kentucky.
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Truck Robinson
Leonard Eugene Robinson (born October 4, 1951 in Jacksonville, Florida) was a power forward for the Washington Bullets (1974–77), Atlanta Hawks (1977), New Orleans Jazz (1977–79), Phoenix Suns (1979–82), and New York Knicks (1982–85).
He helped the Bullets win the 1975 NBA Eastern Conference and the Suns win the 1981 NBA Pacific Division.
Robinson was named to the 1978 East All-Star Team and the 1981 West All-Star Team.
He was named to the 1978 All-NBA First Team.
Robinson led the NBA in minutes played (3,638), defensive rebounds (990), total rebounds (1,288) and rebounds per game (15.7) during the 1977-78 season.
He ranks 86th on the NBA/ABA career offensive rebounds list (1,985), 43rd on the career defensive rebounds list (5,282), 81st on the total rebounds list (7,267) and 73rd on the career rebounds per game list (9.4).
In 11 seasons Robinson played in 772 games, stayed 25,141 minutes on the court and had a .483 field goal percentage (4,816 for 9,971), .662 free throw percentage (2,355 for 3,556), 7,267 total rebounds (1,985 offensive and 5,282 defensive), 1,348 assists, 533 steals, 510 blocks, 2,253 personal fouls and 11,988 points.
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Tyson Chandler
Tyson Cleotis Chandler (born October 2, 1982) is an American professional basketball center who currently plays for the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association. Chandler was the second overall pick of the 2001 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Clippers, then was immediately traded to the Chicago Bulls. He has also played for the New Orleans Hornets, Charlotte Bobcats, and Dallas Mavericks. As starting center for Dallas, he helped win the franchise's first NBA championship in 2011. He was also a member of the United States men's national basketball team's gold medal run in the 2010 FIBA Basketball World Cup.
Chandler was born to a single mother. He and his two brothers, Terrell and Tervon, grew up in their family's farm in Hanford, California, just south of Fresno, California. Chandler began playing basketball at three years old on a basket Chandler's grandfather, Cleotis, fixed on a tree. Chandler grew up doing farm work such as milking cows, slopping pigs, and cultivating crops. At nine years old Chandler and his mother moved to San Bernadino, California; he was already nearly six feet tall. As a child Chandler was teased because of his height; children on his school basketball team joked that he was older than he really was, and that he had been left back several times in school.
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Vern Mikkelsen
Arild Verner Agerskov "Vern" Mikkelsen (born October 21, 1928) is an American former professional basketball player. He was one of the NBA's first power forwards in the 1950s and was known for his tenacious defense.
Mikkelsen was born in Fresno, California and was raised in Askov, Minnesota in a town of primarily Danish-Americans. He entered Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota on a basketball scholarship at the age of 16. In his senior year at Hamline, Mikkelsen was voted an All-American. He would later receive a masters degree in psychology from the University of Minnesota.
Mikkelsen played with George Mikan and Jim Pollard in the frontcourt of the Minneapolis Lakers. The Lakers won four NBA titles during Mikkelsen's career. Mikkelsen played in six NBA All-Star Games and was named to the All-NBA Second Team four times in his career.
Mikkelsen ended his career after ten seasons in the NBA in 1959, having played in 798 of a possible 800 games. He finished his career with 10,063 points scored and led the NBA in both personal fouls and disqualifications for three straight seasons. Mikkelsen still holds the league record for career disqualifications with 127.
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Vin Baker
Vincent (Vin) Lamont Baker (born November 23, 1971, in Lake Wales, Florida) is a former American professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He appeared in four consecutive All-Star Games before his career was ended due to alcoholism.
Baker played for Old Saybrook High School in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. Baker was passed over by the bigger Division I schools and signed a scholarship offer from the University of Hartford Hawks.
During Baker's inaugural season in 1989, he averaged on 4.7 points and 2.9 rebounds per game, which earned him a place on the North Atlantic Conference All-Rookie Team. Named a starter for his sophomore season, Baker averaged 19.7ppg and 10.4rpg and a first team All-NAC spot. As a junior, Baker averaged 27.6 ppg (2nd in the country), 9.9 rpg, and 3.7 blocks per game (5th in the country), though the team finished with an abysmal 6-21 record. Entering his final season, Baker was called "America's Best-Kept Secret" by Sports Illustrated.[citation needed] Baker averaged 28.3ppg (4th in the country) and finished with 792 points in only 28 games, a conference record that still remains in the NAC (now America East Conference). He finished with 2,238 points, a school record that still stands. However, Baker was not able to translate his immense scoring abilities into team success, as none of his teams ever made the NCAA tournament, and the best his Hartford teams ever finished in a season was .500 (14-14).
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Vince Carter
Vincent Lamar "Vince" Carter (born January 26, 1977) is an American professional basketball player with the Dallas Mavericks. He is a shooting guard who can also play small forward.
A high school McDonald's All-American, Carter played three years at the University of North Carolina, where he twice reached the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament before being selected as the fifth overall pick in the 1998 NBA Draft by the Golden State Warriors, who traded him to the Toronto Raptors. He won the 1999 NBA Rookie of the Year Award and won the Slam Dunk Contest at the 2000 NBA All-Star Game the following season. That summer, he represented the United States in the Summer Olympics, winning a gold medal.
He quickly emerged as a league star, entertaining crowds with his leaping ability and slam dunks, earning him nicknames such as "Vinsanity," "Air Canada," and "Half-Man, Half-Amazing."
He led the Raptors to their first three playoff appearances. In 2004, he was traded to the New Jersey Nets, and he helped lead them to three playoff berths. In July 2009, Carter was traded to the Orlando Magic, helping them to advance to the Eastern Conference finals before being traded to the Phoenix Suns in December, 2010.
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Walt Frazier
Walter "Clyde" Frazier (born March 29, 1945, in Atlanta, Georgia) is a retired American basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was blessed with a unique combination of court vision, quickness, and size (he stands 6'4") for a guard. As their floor general, he led the New York Knicks to the franchise's only two NBA Championships (1970 & 1973), and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1987. Upon his retirement from basketball, Frazier went into broadcasting; he is currently a color commentator for telecasts of Knicks games on the MSG Network.
The eldest of nine children, Frazier attended Atlanta's David Tobias Howard High School. He quarterbacked the football team and played catcher on the baseball team. He learned basketball on a rutted and dirt playground, the only facility available at his all-black school in the racially segregated South of the 1950s. After having a great career at Howard, Frazier attended Southern Illinois University. Although he was offered other scholarships for his football skills, Frazier accepted a basketball offer from Southern Illinois University.
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Wes Unseld
Westley Sissel "Wes" Unseld (born March 14, 1946 in Louisville, Kentucky) is an American former basketball player. He spent his entire NBA career with the Baltimore/Capital/Washington Bullets, and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1988.
Unseld starred on a Seneca High School team that won two state championships. In 1965, Unseld began playing center for the University of Louisville, where he averaged 35.8 points per game and 23.6 rebounds per game in 14 games with a freshman team. He was a 3-year letter winner, scored 1,686 points in 82 games (20.6 points per game), grabbed 1,551 rebounds (18.9 rebounds per game), led the conference in rebounding in 1966, 1967 and 1968, and led Louisville to a 60-22 record with two trips to the NCAA tournament and one trip to the NIT tournament. Unseld is also a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.
Unseld was drafted by the Kentucky Colonels in the 1968 American Basketball Association draft and was drafted second overall in the first round by the Baltimore Bullets in 1968, and helped lead the Bullets (who had finished in last place in the Eastern division the previous year) to a 57-25 record and a division title. Unseld averaged 18.2 rebounds per game that year, and became only the second player ever to win both Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player in the same season (Wilt Chamberlain being the first). Unseld was also named the Sporting News MVP that year. He was one of the best defensive players of his era, and in 1975, he led the NBA in rebounding. The following season, he led the NBA in field goal percentage with a .561 percentage.
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Willis Reed
Willis Reed, Jr. (born June 25, 1942) is a retired American basketball player, coach and general manager. He spent his entire professional playing career (1964–1974) with the New York Knicks. In 1982, his outstanding record and achievements were recognized by his induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. In 1997, he was voted one of the "50 Greatest Players in NBA History".
After retiring as a player, Reed served as assistant and head coach with several teams for nearly a decade, then was promoted to General Manager and Vice President of Basketball Operations (1989 to 1996) for the New Jersey Nets. As Senior Vice President of Basketball, he led them to the NBA Finals in 2002 and 2003.
Reed was born in 1942 in Hico, Louisiana and named after his father, Willis Reed. He grew up on a farm in nearby Bernice, a lumber town in an area of pine woods. His parents worked to ensure Reed got an education in the segregated South. Reed showed athletic ability at an early age and played basketball at West Side High School in nearby Lillie.
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Wilt Chamberlain
Wilton Norman "Wilt" Chamberlain (August 21, 1936 – October 12, 1999) was an American basketball player. He played for the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA; he played for the University of Kansas and also for the Harlem Globetrotters before playing in the NBA. The 7 foot 1 inch Chamberlain weighed 250 pounds as a rookie before bulking up to 275 and eventually to over 300 pounds with the Lakers. He played the center position and is widely considered one of the greatest and most dominant players in NBA history.
Chamberlain holds numerous NBA all-time records in scoring, rebounding and durability categories. He is the only player to score 100 points in a single NBA game or average more than 40 and 50 points in a season. He also won seven scoring, nine field goal percentage, and eleven rebounding titles, and once even led the league in assists. Although he suffered a long string of professional losses, Chamberlain had a successful career, winning two NBA championships, earning four regular-season Most Valuable Player awards, the Rookie of the Year award, one NBA Finals MVP award, and being selected to 13 All-Star Games and ten All-NBA First and Second teams. Chamberlain was subsequently enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978, elected into the NBA's 35th Anniversary Team of 1980, and chosen as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History of 1996.
wn.com/Wilt_Chamberlain -
Yao Ming
Yao Ming (born September 12, 1980) is a retired Chinese professional basketball player who last played for the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). At the time of his final season, he was the tallest active player in the NBA, at 2.29 m (7 ft 6 in).
Yao, who was born in Shanghai, started playing for the Shanghai Sharks as a teenager, and played on their senior team for five years in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), winning a championship in his final year. After negotiating with the CBA and the Sharks to secure his release, Yao was selected by the Houston Rockets as the first overall pick in the 2002 NBA Draft. Yao was selected to start for the Western Conference in the NBA All-Star Game eight times, and was named to the All-NBA Team five times. He reached the NBA Playoffs four times, and the Rockets won a first-round series in the 2009 postseason, their first playoff series victory since 1997. However, Yao missed 250 regular-season games due to foot and ankle injuries in his final six seasons.
wn.com/Yao_Ming -
Zach Randolph
Zachary Randolph (born July 16, 1981), nicknamed Z-Bo, is an American professional basketball player who plays for the Memphis Grizzlies of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball at Michigan State University and was drafted in the 2001 NBA Draft by the Portland Trail Blazers.
Randolph grew up in Marion, Indiana and attended Marion High School, where his coach was Moe Smedley. As a sophomore, he helped lead the Marion Giants to the 1998 Indiana Class 4A Championship Game. As a senior, he again led his team to the state championship game in which Marion High School won its seventh state basketball championship. He finished second in Indiana's 'Mr. Basketball' voting that year, closely behind Jared Jeffries, who played for the team that the Giants beat in the state championship game that year and would later become Randolph's teammate with the Knicks.
After high school, Randolph attended and played basketball for the Michigan State University Spartans, coached by Tom Izzo. His teammates at MSU included Jason Richardson and Charlie Bell. In his single season at Michigan State, he averaged 10.8 points and 6.7 rebounds per game over 33 games, with a team that finished with a 28–5 record and went to the NCAA Final Four. After his freshman season he entered the 2001 NBA Draft.
wn.com/Zach_Randolph
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NBA All-Star 2012 Rising Stars game highlights: Team Chuck vs. Team Shaq (Feb 24, 2012)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:38
- Updated: 25 Nov 2012
www.thehoopscene.com -- Pretty entertaining rookie game...Rubio dropping dimes, Kyrie Irving lighting it up from three, John Wall throwing down ridiculous dunks, and Greg Monroe messing it all up at the end lol. Only the sickest plays in basketball - www.thehoopscene.com
http://wn.com/NBA_All-Star_2012_Rising_Stars_game_highlights_Team_Chuck_vs_Team_Shaq_Feb_24,_2012
The Best NBA Team of All Time: Rd 1 - 71-72 Lakers vs. 95-96 Bulls
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:39
- Updated: 09 Nov 2012
Geoff and Jack use NBA 2K12 to determine who the best NBA Team of all time is. This second game of Round One pits the 1971-1972 LA Lakers against the 1995-1996 Chicago Bulls. The winner will advance to the second round to play the 1970-1971 Milwaukee Bucks.
http://wn.com/The_Best_NBA_Team_of_All_Time_Rd_1_71-72_Lakers_vs_95-96_Bulls
The Best NBA Team of All Time: Rd 2 - 84-85 Sixers vs. 85-86 Celtics
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:24
- Updated: 17 Nov 2012
Geoff and Jack use NBA 2K12 to determine who the best NBA Team of all time is. This first game of Round Two pits the 1984-1985 Philadelphia 76ers against the 1985-1986 Boston Celtics. The winner will advance to the finals!
http://wn.com/The_Best_NBA_Team_of_All_Time_Rd_2_84-85_Sixers_vs_85-86_Celtics
The Best NBA Team of All Time: Rd 1 - 86-87 Lakers vs. 85-86 Celtics
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:55
- Updated: 23 Nov 2012
Geoff and Jack use NBA 2K12 to determine who the best NBA Team of all time is. This fourth game of Round One pits the 1986-1987 Los Angeles Lakers against the 1985-1986 Boston Celtics. The winner will advance to the second round to play the 1984-85 Philadelphia 76ers.
http://wn.com/The_Best_NBA_Team_of_All_Time_Rd_1_86-87_Lakers_vs_85-86_Celtics
The Best NBA Team of All Time: Rd 2 - 70-71 Bucks vs. 95-96 Bulls
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:30
- Updated: 26 Oct 2012
Geoff and Jack use NBA 2K12 to determine who the best NBA Team of all time is. This first game of Round Two pits the 1970-1971 Milwaukee Bucks against the 1995-1996 Chicago Bulls. The winner will advance to the finals!
http://wn.com/The_Best_NBA_Team_of_All_Time_Rd_2_70-71_Bucks_vs_95-96_Bulls
The Best NBA Team of All Time: Finals - 70-71 Bucks vs. 85-86 Celtics
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:45
- Updated: 13 Nov 2012
Who is THE best NBA team of all time? It's been a long contest but it comes down to this: the 1970-71 Bucks vs. the 1985-86 Celtics. The winner gets the crown and all the digital bragging rights.
http://wn.com/The_Best_NBA_Team_of_All_Time_Finals_70-71_Bucks_vs_85-86_Celtics
The Best NBA Team of All Time: Rd 1 - 84-85 Sixers vs. 88-89 Pistons
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:07
- Updated: 26 Nov 2012
Geoff and Jack use NBA 2K12 to determine who the best NBA Team of all time is. This third game of Round One pits the 1984-1985 Philadelphia 76ers against the 1988-1989 Detroit Pistons. The winner will advance to the second round to play the winner between the 1986-87 Lakers vs. the 1985-86 Celtics.
http://wn.com/The_Best_NBA_Team_of_All_Time_Rd_1_84-85_Sixers_vs_88-89_Pistons
Mod Review - Ultimate Base Roster for NBA 2K12 - 256 Teams!
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 17:02
- Updated: 21 Nov 2012
New Overview Video, ABA, Decade Rosters - www.youtube.com This roster adds all NBA Champions since the 1970's plus many more teams [257 total teams]. All teams work in season/association mode. For PC only. forums.nba-live.com - HAWK23 This thing is insane, so I say it a lot. Let me know what you think about the video quality too, new technique.
http://wn.com/Mod_Review_Ultimate_Base_Roster_for_NBA_2K12_256_Teams!
The Best NBA Team of All Time: Rd 1 - 97-98 Bulls vs. 70-71 Bucks
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:22
- Updated: 24 Nov 2012
Geoff and Jack use NBA2K12 to determine who the best NBA Team of all time is. Round one pits the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls vs. the 1970-71 Milwaukee Bucks. It's Jordan and Pippen vs. Robertson and Abdul Jabbar in an epic showdown. The winner of this game plays the winner of the 71-72 Lakers vs. 95-96 Bulls in Round Two.
http://wn.com/The_Best_NBA_Team_of_All_Time_Rd_1_97-98_Bulls_vs_70-71_Bucks
NBA 2K13 USA Basketball Trailer
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:41
- Updated: 26 Nov 2012
An all-new trailer for NBA 2K13 featuring the 1992 'Dream Team' matched up against the 2012 USA Basketball Men's National Team. The footage features matchups between Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, as well as highlights from other past and present stars including Scottie Pippen, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Kevin Durant, Kevin Love, and Carmelo Anthony. The video highlights the opportunity the settle the debate over which USAB would come out on top, fully realized in this year's game. Pre-order NBA 2K13 and lock up the NBA 2K13 All-Star add-on content here: 2kgam.es ESRB Rating: EVERYONE with Mild Lyrics
http://wn.com/NBA_2K13_USA_Basketball_Trailer
NBA 2K13 All Star Dunk Contest: Legend Showdown! | Jordan, Wilkins, Drexler and Bryant
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 12:22
- Updated: 26 Nov 2012
www.youtube.com Click here to watch NBA 2K13 MyCareer: My Player, Marc Alexander's 5 Signature Skills | LeBron James Playstyle ? NBA 2K13 All Star Dunk Contest: Legend Showdown! | Jordan, Wilkins, Drexler and Bryant This is the All Star DLC you get for pre ordering NBA 2K13. This is my...
http://wn.com/NBA_2K13_All_Star_Dunk_Contest_Legend_Showdown!_|_Jordan,_Wilkins,_Drexler_and_Bryant
NBA 2K13 - MyTeam | Starting Pack & Silver Booster Pack Opening
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:41
- Updated: 24 Nov 2012
Don't forget to give this video a "like" ;D Twitter: twitter.com Facebook: www.facebook.com
http://wn.com/NBA_2K13_MyTeam_|_Starting_Pack_Silver_Booster_Pack_Opening
NBA 2K13 - MyTeam | How to Get the Best Starting Squad
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:11
- Updated: 25 Nov 2012
Don't forget to give this video a "like" ;D Don't like the starting players you got in MyTeam for NBA 2K13? In this video I show you how to swap your bronze cards for ANY bronze players on the market and build the best bronze squad you can start with. You can have a starting lineup of the best bronze players in the game for no extra cost. Twitter: twitter.com Facebook: www.facebook.com
http://wn.com/NBA_2K13_MyTeam_|_How_to_Get_the_Best_Starting_Squad
FIBA 2K12 - How To Install FIBA 2K12 Mod | Preview Of All Rosters & Teams | Play 2012 London Teams
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 10:04
- Updated: 24 Nov 2012
NEW Updates available ! Mod Update 1.9 : youtube.com Mod Update 2.0 : youtube.com My new Twitter account: twitter.com Join me on facebook: www.facebook.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Walk-through on how to install the FIBA 2K12 add-on which will enable you to play all of the Men's Basketball teams (and many more former Olympic teams) on NBA 2K12. This add-on is currently only available for PC users. 1. For clarity: - 2K12 Main Folder = C: / Program Files (x86) / 2K Sports / NBA 2K12 - Saves Game Folder = C: / Users / Your Name / AppData / Roaming / 2K Sports / NBA 2K12 / Saves For Save Game folder you have to activate "Hidden Folders" so you'll see AppData. 2. Make a back-up of all your NBA 2K12 save game files (something you should always do when installing a mod) and maybe even backup the whole 2K12 Main Folder too (never hurts). By backup I mean copy the entire folder(s) and paste them to a new location. Best is always on a different hard drive. 3. Download all of the neccessary files (you'll need all of them) : FIBA 2K12 Mod 1.0 : moddingway.com FIBA 2K12 Mod Update 1.5 : moddingway.com FIBA 2K12 Mod Update 1.6 : moddingway.com FIBA 2K12 Mod Update 1.7 : moddingway.com FIBA 2K12 Mod Update 1.8 : moddingway.com FIBA 2K12 Mod Update 1.9 : youtube.com (Download link in the description) FIBA 2K12 Mod Update 2.0 : youtube.com (Download link in the description) 4. First install "FIBA 2K12 Mod ...
http://wn.com/FIBA_2K12_How_To_Install_FIBA_2K12_Mod_|_Preview_Of_All_Rosters_Teams_|_Play_2012_London_Teams
Download NBA 2K13 All-Star Team DLC Code For Free!!
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:33
- Updated: 25 Nov 2012
www.nba2k13allstardlcfree.blogspot.com In this Video your going to learn how to get NBA 2K13 All-Star DLC for free on Xbox 360, PS3. If you need to get this NBA 2K13 All-Star DLC for free on xbox 360 and ps3 visit following web site and get the unlock code for free! www.nba2k13allstardlcfree.bl...
http://wn.com/Download_NBA_2K13_All-Star_Team_DLC_Code_For_Free!!
FIBA 2K12 - USA vs FRANCE - Men's National Basketball Teams - London 2012 Olympics
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 10:02
- Updated: 24 Nov 2012
Make sure to subscribe so you won't miss a single game, like and leave a comment or question you may have. I'll try my best to answer them all! :) ------------------------------------------ INFO BELOW! ------------------------------------------ My new Twitter account: twitter.com Join me on facebook: www.facebook.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Walk-through on how to install the FIBA 2K12 add-on which will enable you to play all of the 2012 London Olympics Men's Basketball teams (and many more former Olympic teams) on NBA 2K12. This add-on is currently only available for PC users. Check out this video for all the instructions and to see all available rosters: youtube.com How to install New York arena and ESPN Scoreboard: 1. Download files from the links below 2. Extract the files 3. Copy files into your 2K12 folder 4. Thats it ! Easy right? :) New York Men's Basketball arena: moddingway.com (Madison Square Garden USAB 2012) ESPN Scoreboard: moddingway.com (ESPN Scoreboard Accurate Update) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This video features gameplay between the USA and France Men's Basketball teams from the 2012 London Olympics. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For further information about the mods and updates click on the above links and read ...
http://wn.com/FIBA_2K12_USA_vs_FRANCE_Men's_National_Basketball_Teams_London_2012_Olympics
FIBA 2K12 - THE DREAM TEAM vs USA '12 - USA Men's Basketball | The Ultimate Showdown !
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 11:45
- Updated: 24 Nov 2012
Make sure to subscribe so you won't miss a single game, like and leave a comment or question you may have. I'll try my best to answer them all! :) ------------------------------------------ INFO BELOW! ------------------------------------------ My new Twitter account: twitter.com Join me on facebook: www.facebook.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Want this mod ? For further information about the mods and updates click through my other episodes of the FIBA 2K12 series and read the description. You will find the following information in the episodes below: Episode 1 features an installation guide: youtube.com Episode 2 shows how to install ESPN scoreboard: youtube.com Episode 5 provides Mod update 1.9 : youtube.com Episode 13 provides Mod update 2.0 : youtube.com If you enjoy the FIBA 2K12 add-on make sure to send out a donation to the creator. His paypal information etc. can be found in the above links as well. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This video features gameplay between the USA Men's Basketball Team from today and of course their biggest rival in terms of legagy ... the 1992 Dream Team ! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For further information about the mods and updates click on the above link and read through the page. All of the extra ...
http://wn.com/FIBA_2K12_THE_DREAM_TEAM_vs_USA_'12_USA_Men's_Basketball_|_The_Ultimate_Showdown_!
FIBA 2K12 - USA vs NIGERIA - USA Team Sets Numerous Olympic Records ! - London 2012 Olympics
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 10:22
- Updated: 24 Nov 2012
Make sure to subscribe so you won't miss a single game, like and leave a comment or question you may have. I'll try my best to answer them all! :) ------------------------------------------ INFO BELOW! ------------------------------------------ This was my neighbour André Davis #11 :D youtube.com My new Twitter account: twitter.com Join me on facebook: www.facebook.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Walk-through on how to install the FIBA 2K12 add-on which will enable you to play all of the 2012 London Olympics Men's Basketball teams (and many more former Olympic teams) on NBA 2K12. This add-on is currently only available for PC users. Check out this video for all the instructions and to see all available rosters: youtube.com How to install ESPN Scoreboard: 1. Download files from the links below 2. Extract the files 3. Copy files into your 2K12 folder 4. Thats it ! Easy right? :) ESPN Scoreboard: moddingway.com (ESPN Scoreboard Accurate Update) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This video features gameplay between the USA and Nigeria Men's Basketball teams from the 2012 London Olympics. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Want this mod ? For further information about the mods and updates click through my other episodes of the FIBA 2K12 series and read ...
http://wn.com/FIBA_2K12_USA_vs_NIGERIA_USA_Team_Sets_Numerous_Olympic_Records_!_London_2012_Olympics
1972 NBA vs ABA All-Star Game
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 90:36
- Updated: 25 Nov 2012
In 1971 and 1972, two ABA All-Star teams comprised mostly of unheralded players nearly beat NBA All-Star teams whose rosters contained some of basketball's most legendary figures. Supergame II: May 25, 1972, Nassau Coliseum The NBA threatened to fine and/or suspend any NBA player who participated in Supergame II, but this did not stop the NBA Players Association from assembling another powerhouse team: seven Hall of Famers, six of whom are on the Top 50 List. Hall of Famer and Top 50 player Jerry West was unable to play because his kids were sick and his spot was filled by his Los Angeles Lakers' teammate, fellow Hall of Famer Gail Goodrich. Paul Silas replaced injured Hall of Famer Dave DeBusschere. The 1972 ABA team featured three Hall of Famers—Barry, Erving and Dan Issel. Before the game Larry Fleischer, NBA Players' Association counsel, said the two teams were "the finest collection of basketball talent ever assembled on one floor." Elgin Baylor coached the NBA and Wilt Chamberlain was the team captain; Al Bianchi and Daniels filled those roles for the ABA. Erving was not fazed by the prospect of competing against the NBA: "For me, coming off my rookie season, I was kind of feeling my oats and feeling like I could play against anybody, anywhere, at any time. I had played in and around New York in the pro summer leagues, so I had a lot of confidence in my ability." The only existing tape of the 1972 game consists of 90 minutes of black and white footage from the TVS ...
http://wn.com/1972_NBA_vs_ABA_All-Star_Game
Road To NBA 2K13 - NBA 2K13 My Career Mode - 24 Assists, Team Chemistry, Signature Skills!
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:07
- Updated: 24 Nov 2012
In this game vs the Jazz, You notice my points right off but looks at my assists, at this rate i may break the all time assists record in the NBA that stood for years held by Scott Skiles. Also my chemistry with the team is pretty solid and im purchasing the signature skill Finisher. My Channel: www.youtube.com Sponsored By: www.youtube.com Join The Group: www.facebook.com All Games Are One Join The Group: www.facebook.com Click "Like" if you like this video. Helps me make more!
http://wn.com/Road_To_NBA_2K13_NBA_2K13_My_Career_Mode_24_Assists,_Team_Chemistry,_Signature_Skills!
NBA 2K13 My Team | Why I Haven't Been Posting Videos
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 10:32
- Updated: 26 Nov 2012
Don't forget to give this video a "like" ;D Once again, I'm really sorry guys. Twitter: twitter.com Facebook: www.facebook.com
http://wn.com/NBA_2K13_My_Team_|_Why_I_Haven't_Been_Posting_Videos
Road To NBA 2K13 - NBA 2K13 - Five Not So Obvious Teams To Look Forward To
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:00
- Updated: 24 Nov 2012
There are teams in NBA 2K13 that we all are obviously looking forward to, and there are teams that we are not obvious teams to look forward too. Here they are: Phoenix Suns Golden State Warriors Minnesota Timberwolves Brooklyn Nets Washington Wizards Click "Like" and "Favorite" if you like this video. Tell us what you think in the comments below. My Channel: www.youtube.com Sponsored By: www.youtube.com www.facebook.com All Games Are One www.facebook.com Gamers United Click "Like" if you like this video. Helps us make more!
http://wn.com/Road_To_NBA_2K13_NBA_2K13_Five_Not_So_Obvious_Teams_To_Look_Forward_To
NBA 2K12 My Player - 2K13 Community Team-Up Program
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 11:24
- Updated: 26 Nov 2012
Click here to watch my last video playing with McGee www.youtube.com 2K is going to fly me out to California to play 2K13 6 weeks before it's release! I'll also get to meet the development team! Big thanks to all my subscribers for making this possible. Click here if you want to read the official announcement from 2K Sports. 2ksports.tumblr.com Let me give a shoutout to Shady who was also invited to play the game early. He's been making some of the best highlight/montage 2K videos I've seen in the last few years. Check him out! www.youtube.com 1:08 Shot clock cheese 2:28 Shot clock cheese again 3:33 Dancing on the defense 3:45 Smoove 2 Smoove starts 4:15 Kidd should retire after that post move 5:45 Aminu gets the lob 6:25 I'm always reversing 8:00 Taking a charge 8:21 Chuck Hayes spotting 9:35 I help Chuck Hayes get a steal 10:43 Press conference Intro music produced by Johnny Juliano
http://wn.com/NBA_2K12_My_Player_2K13_Community_Team-Up_Program
photo: AP
23 Nov 2012
Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling. I was fortunate to have been raised near an American Indian archaeological spot located on the Great Plains. In elementary school, a fellow classmate would periodically bring and show grinding stones, arrow- and spearheads, stone farming implements, and pictures of what the excavated site may have...(size: 7.1Kb)
photo: AP / Mohammed Asad
24 Nov 2012
Cairo. President Mohamed Morsi insisted on Friday that Egypt is on the path to “freedom and democracy” after granting himself sweeping powers, which sparked clashes between his supporters and foes and raised concerns abroad. “Political stability, social stability and economic stability are what I want and that is what I am working for,” he told a...(size: 4.8Kb)
photo: AP / Jerome Delay
25 Nov 2012
Joseph Kabila, president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, has held direct talks with the leader of the M23 rebels in Uganda, hours after a regional summit called on them to end their offensive in the east of the country. Jean-Marie Runiga Lugerero, the political leader of the eastern DR Congo rebel group, said on Sunday he had an initial...(size: 20.0Kb)
photo: AP / Sang Tan
23 Nov 2012
RAFA Benitez takes charge of Chelsea for the first time on Sunday with a big decision to make over whether to restore striker Fernando Torres to the starting lineup against Premier League leader Manchester City. The Spain striker was dropped by Roberto Di Matteo for Tuesday's Champions League loss to Juventus, which proved to be the last straw for...(size: 3.6Kb)
photo: AP / Polash Khan
25 Nov 2012
The death toll from a fire in a clothes factory in Bangladesh has leapt to at least 120, officials say. The fire broke out late on Saturday in the nine-floor Tazreen Fashion factory in the Ashulia district on the outskirts of...(size: 1.5Kb)
Springfield News-Sun
25 May 2012
NEW YORK — LeBron James was the leading vote-getter for the All-NBA team, while Kobe Bryant earned his 10th first-team selection, tied for second on the career...(size: 1.1Kb)
TSN Canada
25 May 2012
NEW YORK -- LeBron James was the leading vote-getter for the All-NBA team, while Kobe Bryant earned his 10th first-team...(size: 0.9Kb)
Seattle Post
25 May 2012
NEW YORK (AP) — LeBron James was the leading vote-getter for the All-NBA team, while Kobe Bryant earned his 10th first-team...(size: 0.8Kb)
The Los Angeles Times
25 May 2012
Clippers Chris Paul and Blake Griffin were named to the All-NBA team when the league announced its selections on Thursday. Paul was named to the first-team All-NBA and Griffin was named to the second team. It was the second time in Paul’s career that he has been named to the first team. He was joined on the All-NBA first team by Miami’s...(size: 29.2Kb)
Austin American Statesman
25 May 2012
NEW YORK — LeBron James was the leading vote-getter for the All-NBA team, while Kobe Bryant earned his 10th first-team selection, tied for second on the career list. Bryant, a first-team pick for the seventh straight season, joined Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Elgin Baylor, Bob Cousy, Michael Jordan, Bob Pettit, and Jerry West with 10 selections to...(size: 5.7Kb)
The Los Angeles Times
25 May 2012
This hardly provides any solace to the Lakers after losing in five games to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference semifinals. It might even frustrate them even more, considering they had the talent to go farther in the playoffs despite an aging roster. Kobe Bryant made the All-NBA first team for the 10th time in his career and seventh...(size: 32.1Kb)
ESPN
24 May 2012
All-NBA First Team AnnouncedScott Van Pelt and Ryen Russillo discuss the All-NBA First Team and question how LeBron...(size: 0.8Kb)
Tulsa World
24 May 2012
OKLAHOMA CITY - Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant was named to the All-NBA First Team and guard Russell Westbrook was named to the All-NBA Second Team, it was announced Thursday. Durant was named to the All-NBA First Team for a third consecutive season after...(size: 1.8Kb)
Toronto Sun
24 May 2012
James, Durant headline All-NBA team Superstars LeBron James of the Miami Heat and Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder...(size: 0.8Kb)
The Source
24 May 2012
The 2011-12 All-NBA teams have been announced and they’re not too much of surprise. Of course the league MVP Lebron James leads the way followed by runner up Kevin Durant. The All-NBA Teams were chosen by a panel of 120 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada. The media voted for All-NBA First, Second and...(size: 2.9Kb)
Buffalo News
24 May 2012
(Voting on a 5-3-1 basis; first-place votes in parentheses)First Team Pos. Player, Team Pts F LeBron James, Mia (118) 596 F Kevin Durant, OKC (117) 591 C Dwight Howard, Orl (75) 476 G Kobe Bryant, LAL (104) 568...(size: 1.4Kb)
Bloomberg
24 May 2012
Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers was selected to the All-National Basketball Association first team for the 10th time, the most among active players and second in league history behind Karl Malone. Bryant, 33, who is fifth on the NBA’s career scoring list, is joined on the first team by LeBron...(size: 2.0Kb)
Tulsa World
24 May 2012
Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant was named to the All-NBA first team and guard Russell Westbrook was named to the second team and L.A. Clippers forward Blake Griffin was named to the second team for the 2011-12 season, it was announced by the NBA. Durant was named to the All-NBA first team for a third consecutive season after becoming...(size: 3.6Kb)
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The All-NBA Team is an annual National Basketball Association (NBA) honor bestowed on the best players in the league following every NBA season. The voting is conducted by a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada.[1] The team has been selected in every season of the league's existence, dating back to its inaugural season in 1946.[2] The All-NBA Team originally had two teams, but since 1988 it is composed of three five-man lineups—a first, second, and third team, typically comprising a total of 15 roster spots.
Players receive five points for a first team vote, three points for a second team vote, and one point for a third team vote. The five players with the highest point totals make the first team, with the next five making the second team and so forth. In the case of a tie at the fifth position of any team, the roster is expanded. If the first team consists of six players due to a tie, the second team will still consist of five players with the potential for more expansion in the event of additional ties. A tie has occurred only once, in 1952, when Bob Davies and Dolph Schayes tied in votes received.[1] From 1946 to 1955, players were selected without regard to position; however, each team has consisted of two forwards, one center, and two guards beginning with the 1956 teams.[2]
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar holds the record for the most total selections with fifteen.[3] Karl Malone, Shaquille O'Neal, and Kobe Bryant follow with fourteen total honors, Tim Duncan with thirteen total honors,[3] and Dolph Schayes, Bob Cousy, Jerry West, Hakeem Olajuwon, and Dirk Nowitzki with twelve selections.[3] Malone has the most All-NBA first team honors with eleven, while Cousy, Bob Pettit, Elgin Baylor, West, Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan and Bryant are all tied for second-most with ten.[3]
Contents |
Selections[link]
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http://es.wn.com/Mejor Quinteto de la NBA
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This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
Dream Team in sport, often only as a nickname, may refer to:
- The roster of the 1992 United States men's Olympic basketball team in Barcelona
- Brazil men's national volleyball team under coach Bernardo Rezende since 2002
- FIFA Dream Team, an all-time all-star football team published by FIFA in 2004
- The Puerto Rico national baseball team in the 1995 Caribbean Series
- An era (1991–1994), in the history of FC Barcelona, a Spanish football club
- The Philippines national basketball team in the 1990 Asian Games
- The Dream Team (professional wrestling), professional wrestling tag-team in the World Wrestling Federation 1985–1987
- Dramatic Dream Team, Japanese professional wrestling promotion
- Super League Dream Team, award for players in the European rugby Super League
- Dream Team Australian rules football team, that represented the States and territories of Australia other than Victoria in the AFL Hall of Fame Tribute Match
- AFL Dream Team, a notable online competition for supporters run by the Australian Football League
Dream Team in television and film may refer to:
- Dream Team (TV series), a British television series
- The Dream Team (film), a 1989 American comedy film
- Dream Team (The Office) an episode of the American television series The Office
- The Dream Team (Entourage Episode), an episode of Entourage
- Let's Go Dream Team! Season 2, a Korean television series
Dream Team may also refer to:
- Dream Team (theater), a Stage Management Team located in Terre Haute, IN that worked on shows including Real Girls Can't Win, 1,001 Arabian Nights, and Bad Dates
- Dream Team (comics), a fictional group of Marvel Comics superheroes
- The Dream Team (warez), a cracking/releasing warez group for the IBM PC active 1989–1996
- LA Dream Team, American hip-hop act
- Nickname for the defense legal team in the O. J. Simpson murder case
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http://wn.com/Dream_Team
Related pages:
http://nl.wn.com/Dream Team
http://fr.wn.com/Dream Team (homonymie)
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_Team
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
