Curated category
Centers (basketball)
- Andrea BargnaniAndrea Bargnani began his professional basketball journey in 2002 with Stella Azzurra Roma. He played in the Italian fourth-tiered league Serie B2 during…
- 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…
- Pau GasolOn the 6th of July 1980, Pau Gasol Sáez entered the world at Sant Pau Hospital in Barcelona. His mother Marisa worked there as a medical doctor while his…
- 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…
- 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.
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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.
- Nikola JokićNikola Jokić was born on the 19th of February 1995 in Sombor, a city in northern Serbia. He grew up in a cramped two-bedroom apartment shared with his…
- 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…
- 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…
- Giannis AntetokounmpoIn the cramped apartment of a Athens neighborhood called Sepolia, five brothers slept on mattresses laid out on the floor.
- 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…
- 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.
- Arvydas SabonisArvydas Romas Sabonis was born on the 19th of December 1964 in Kaunas, Lithuania. He began playing basketball at age 13 while living under Soviet rule.
- 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…
- Yao MingYao Ming entered the world on the 12th of September 1980 in Shanghai. He weighed more than twice the average weight of a Chinese newborn at birth.
- Andrew BogutAndrew Michael Bogut was born on the 28th of November 1984 in Melbourne, Australia. His parents, Michael and Anne, had immigrated to the country from Croatia…
- Artis GilmoreArtis Gilmore Sr. was born on the 21st of September, 1949 in Chipley, Florida. He grew up as one of ten children in a family where his father worked as a…
- Christian LaettnerChristian Donald Laettner was born on the 17th of August 1969 in Angola, New York. This small town sits near Buffalo and Niagara Falls.
- Rik SmitsRik Smits was born on the 23rd of August 1966 in Eindhoven, Netherlands. He began playing basketball at age 14 for a local club called PSV, Almonte.
- Rudy GobertRudy Gobert-Bourgarel was born on the 26th of June 1992 in Saint-Quentin, a town in northern France. His father played college basketball for the Marist Red…
- Joakim NoahJoakim Simon Noah entered the world on the 25th of February 1985, in Manhattan, New York. His father was Yannick Noah, a French singer and former tennis…
- Kosta KoufosOn the 15th of January 2007, Kosta Koufos stood on a basketball court in Canton, Ohio. He scored 32 points and grabbed 19 rebounds during overtime play…
- Luc LongleyLuc Longley was born in Melbourne on the 19th of January 1969, and by the time he was 25 years old he was standing at the Fremantle Port watching a new…
- Vlade DivacVlade Divac began playing basketball in his home town Prijepolje for the team KK Elan. He started his professional career in Yugoslavia with Sloga from…