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20th-century African-American sportsmen

  • Clyde DrexlerClyde Drexler couldn't make his high school basketball team as a sophomore. He later reached the Hall of Fame twice.
  • Kobe BryantKobe Bryant scored 81 points against Toronto in 2006, the second-highest NBA game total ever.
  • Elvin HayesElvin Hayes scored 39 points and ended UCLA's 47-game winning streak in 1968. He held Lew Alcindor to 15 points.
  • Karl MaloneKarl Malone played 193 playoff games without winning a championship. That is more than any player without a ring.
  • Isiah ThomasIsiah Thomas scored 25 points in one Finals quarter on a badly sprained ankle. It was a 1988 NBA Finals record.
  • Bill RussellBill Russell won eleven NBA championships in thirteen seasons. No team has matched that record since.
  • Chuck Cooper (basketball)The Celtics owner ignored other teams and drafted Chuck Cooper anyway. He was the first African American drafted.
  • Scottie PippenScottie Pippen got no college scholarship offers, yet he ended up with six championship rings.
  • Magic JohnsonMagic Johnson told the world he had HIV from the free throw line in 1991. He was 32 and a five-time NBA champion.
  • Chris BoshBlood clots ended Chris Bosh's NBA career after two straight championships with Miami.
  • George GervinGeorge Gervin won a 1978 NBA scoring title by seven-hundredths of a point. He scored 63 to edge David Thompson.
  • Chauncey BillupsChauncey Billups went from a draft bust to NBA Finals MVP. The Pistons guard led a 2004 upset of the Lakers.
  • Walt FrazierWalt Frazier had 36 points and 19 assists in Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals. Willis Reed played two minutes.
  • Kareem Abdul-JabbarKareem Abdul-Jabbar broke Wilt Chamberlain's career scoring record with a skyhook over a 7-foot-4 defender.
  • Artis GilmoreArtis Gilmore played 670 straight pro basketball games without missing one. He entered the Hall of Fame in 2011.
  • Damon JonesDamon Jones hit an overtime shot in 2006 that won Cleveland a playoff series.
  • Earl LloydEarl Lloyd became the first Black player in an NBA game on Halloween night, 1950. He scored six points.
  • Don KingDon King, the American boxing promoter born on the 20th of August 1931, once received a blunt verdict on his career from a man he had promoted. Mike Tyson said of him: "He did more bad to black fighters than any white promoter ever in the…

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