Curated category
American men's basketball players
- Kevin DurantKevin Durant was born on the 29th of September 1988, in Washington, D.C., to Wanda and Wayne Pratt. His father left the family when Kevin was an infant…
- Dwyane WadeDwyane Tyrone Wade Jr. was born on the 17th of January, 1982, in Chicago, Illinois. His early years were marked by instability after his parents separated…
- LeBron JamesLeBron Raymone James entered the world on the 30th of December 1984, inside Cleveland Clinic Akron General Hospital. His mother Gloria Marie James was only…
- Clyde DrexlerClyde Austin Drexler was born on the 22nd of June 1962 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He grew up in the South Park area of Houston, Texas.
- Kobe BryantKobe Bean Bryant entered the world on the 23rd of August 1978, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father Joe played eight seasons in the National Basketball…
- Elvin HayesIn the senior year of 1963, Elvin Hayes led his Britton High School team to a state championship in Louisiana. He averaged thirty-five points per game during…
- Jerry WestJerry Alan West was born on the 28th of May, 1938, into a poor household in Chelyan, West Virginia. He grew up as the fifth of six children to Cecil Sue West…
- Karl MaloneKarl Anthony Malone was born on the 24th of July, 1963 in Summerfield, Louisiana. He grew up as the youngest of nine children on a farm run by his single…
- Tim DuncanTimothy Theodore Duncan was born on the 25th of April 1976, and raised in Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. He grew up as the son of Ione, a professional…
- Stephen CurryWardell Stephen Curry II arrived at Akron General Medical Center on the 14th of March 1988. His father Dell played professional basketball for the Charlotte…
- Joel EmbiidJoel Hans Embiid was born on the 16th of March 1994 in Yaoundé, Cameroon. He grew up playing volleyball and soccer before switching to basketball at age 15.
- Larry BirdLarry Joe Bird was born on the 7th of December 1956 in West Baden Springs, Indiana. His father worked as a veteran of World War II and the Korean War before…
- Kawhi LeonardKawhi Leonard was born on the 29th of June 1991 in Los Angeles. His father, Mark Leonard, owned a car wash in Compton where he worked until his death.
- Patrick EwingPatrick Aloysius Ewing Sr. arrived in the world on the 5th of August 1962, just one day before Jamaica declared its independence from Great Britain.
- Hakeem OlajuwonHakeem Olajuwon was born on the 21st of January 1963 in Lagos, Nigeria. He grew up as the third child among eight siblings in a working-class family that…
- Isiah ThomasIsiah Lord Thomas III arrived in Chicago on the 30th of April 1961. He grew up as the youngest of nine children on the city's West Side.
- Bill RussellWilliam Felton Russell was born on the 12th of February 1934, in West Monroe, Louisiana. The town operated under strict segregation laws that dictated every…
- Chuck Cooper (basketball)Charles Henry Cooper entered the world on the 29th of September 1926 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His father Daniel worked as a mailman while his mother Emma…
- Chuck DalyCharles Jerome Daly was born in Kane, Pennsylvania on the 20th of July 1930. He grew up in a small town where basketball became his first love and later his…
- Kevin LoveKevin Love grew up in Lake Oswego, Oregon, where he played basketball from his earliest days. As a child, he practiced bounce passes with a cardboard box and…
- Michael JordanOn a Tuesday in the summer of 1978, Michael Jordan stood on the basketball court at Laney High School in Wilmington, North Carolina.
- Charles BarkleyCharles Wade Barkley was born on the 20th of February, 1963 in Leeds, Alabama. He grew up as the first black baby to be born at a segregated, all-white town…
- Scottie PippenScottie Maurice Pippen Sr. was born on the 25th of September 1965, in Hamburg, Arkansas, to Ethel and Preston Pippen. His father worked at a paper mill while…
- Tony ParkerWilliam Anthony Parker Jr. arrived in the world on the 17th of May 1982, inside a hospital in Bruges, Belgium. His father Tony Parker Sr.
- Magic JohnsonEarvin Johnson Jr. was born on the 14th of August 1959 in Lansing, Michigan. His father worked at General Motors while his mother cleaned homes and prepared…
- Moses MaloneMoses Eugene Malone Sr. was born on the 23rd of March 1955 in Petersburg, Virginia. He grew up as an only child raised primarily by his mother Mary.
- Shaquille O'NealShaquille Rashaun O'Neal entered the world on the 6th of March 1972, in Newark, New Jersey. His biological father was Joe Toney, a high school basketball…
- Chris BoshChristopher Wesson Bosh was born on the 24th of March 1984 in Dallas, Texas. He grew up in Hutchins, a suburb where his father played pick-up games at a…
- Dave CowensDavid William Cowens was born on the 25th of October 1948, in Newport, Kentucky. He grew up as one of six children to Jack and Ruth Cowens.
- Klay ThompsonKlay Alexander Thompson was born on the 8th of February 1990 in Los Angeles to Julie and Mychal Thompson. His father became the first overall pick of the…
- Kyrie IrvingKyrie Andrew Irving entered the world on the 23rd of March 1992, in Melbourne, Australia. His parents were American expatriates named Drederick and Elizabeth…
- Norm DruckerNorm Drucker entered the world on the 4th of July 1920 in New York City. He grew up in Brooklyn and learned basketball from the first generation of…
- Wilt ChamberlainWilton Norman Chamberlain was born on the 21st of August 1936, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He grew up as the sixth of nine children to Olivia Ruth and…
- John StocktonJohn Houston Stockton was born on the 26th of March 1962 in Spokane, Washington. He grew up as the grandson of Hust Stockton, who played professional…
- Al CerviAlfred Nicholas Cervi was born on the 12th of February 1917 in Buffalo, New York. He attended East High School where he captained both the baseball and…
- Paul TagliabuePaul Tagliabue was born on the 24th of November 1940 in Jersey City, New Jersey. He grew up in The Heights neighborhood as the third son of Charles and May…
- Michael CrichtonJohn Michael Crichton was born on the 23rd of October 1942, in Chicago, Illinois. He grew up in Roslyn, New York, where he walked to school and rode his bike…
- Bob CousyBob Cousy fell out of a tree when he was twelve years old. The fall broke his right hand and forced him to play left-handed until it healed.
- George GervinGeorge Gervin was born on the 27th of April 1952 in Detroit, Michigan. He attended Martin Luther King Jr. High School where he struggled until his senior…
- Big Three (Miami Heat)LeBron James entered the National Basketball Association as the first pick in the 2003 NBA draft. He came directly from St. Vincent, St.
- Chauncey BillupsChauncey Ray Billups was born on the 25th of September, 1976 in Denver, Colorado. He grew up in a city that would later become his professional home base for…
- Dan IsselDan Issel grew up in Batavia, Illinois, where his backyard bordered that of Ken Anderson. Anderson would later become a National Football League quarterback…
- Dikembe MutomboDikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo arrived in the United States at age 21 with a specific goal. He intended to study medicine and return…
- Dolph SchayesAdolph Schayes arrived in the world on the 19th of May 1928, within the Bronx borough of New York City. His parents were Romanian-Jewish immigrants who…
- Terry RozierTerry Rozier was born in Youngstown, Ohio, on the 17th of March 1994. His father Terry Rozier Sr. went to prison when the boy was only two months old.
- Walt FrazierWalter Frazier Jr. was born on the 29th of March 1945, in Atlanta, Georgia. He grew up as the eldest of nine children attending David Tobias Howard High…
- Edwin HubbleEdwin Powell Hubble was born on the 20th of November 1889 in Marshfield, Missouri. His early years were defined by physical dominance rather than academic…
- Kareem Abdul-JabbarFerdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr. grew up in the Dyckman Street projects of Inwood, Upper Manhattan, after moving there at age three in 1950.
- George MikanGeorge Mikan stood six feet four inches tall in 1942 when he walked onto the DePaul University campus. He weighed just over two hundred pounds and moved with…
- Phil JacksonPhilip Douglas Jackson was born on the 17th of September, 1945 in Deer Lodge, Montana. His parents Charles and Elisabeth Funk Jackson served as ministers for…