Curated playlist
FIBA World Championship–winning players
- Kevin DurantKevin Durant was born on the 29th of September 1988 in Washington, D.C., and grew up dreaming of one day playing for his favorite team, the Toronto Raptors, and his favorite player, Vince Carter. Few childhood sports fantasies have…
- Pau GasolPau Gasol Sáez was born on the 6th of July, 1980, in Barcelona, at Sant Pau Hospital, where both of his parents worked. He was 11 years old when Magic Johnson announced his HIV-positive status in 1991, and that news, heard at school,…
- Stephen CurryStephen Curry was born on the 14th of March, 1988, at Akron General Medical Center in Ohio, and grew up shooting baskets on a backyard court in Charlotte with his younger brother Seth. Nobody could have predicted that the slender kid who…
- Kevin LoveKevin Love's uncle is Mike Love, a co-founder of the Beach Boys. His cousins Brian Wilson, Carl Wilson, and Dennis Wilson were also founding members of the same group. Love was born on the 7th of September 1988, in Santa Monica,…
- Shaquille O'NealShaquille Rashaun O'Neal was born on the 6th of March, 1972, in Newark, New Jersey, to a mother named Lucille and a biological father, Joe Toney, who would vanish from his life before it had barely begun. Toney was imprisoned for drug…
- Chauncey BillupsChauncey Ray Billups was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2024. The honor capped a 17-year playing career that included five All-Star selections, an NBA championship, and a Finals MVP award. Less than fourteen…
- Toni KukočToni Kukoč was born on the 18th of September, 1968, in Split, Croatia, and he grew up playing table tennis well enough to win youth category titles in the sport. Basketball was not even his first serious game. His father had spent years as…
- Arvydas SabonisArvydas Sabonis was selected by the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round of the 1986 NBA draft, but he would not step onto an NBA court until 1995 - nine years later, at the age of 30. By then, he had already won a gold medal at the…
- Dražen PetrovićDražen Petrović scored 112 points in a single basketball game. Not in a pickup game, not in a fantasy league. In a real, professional match, against a club fielding youth players, on the 5th of October 1985, Petrović stood in Zagreb and…
- Peja StojakovićPeja Stojaković once opened a game by scoring 20 consecutive points before any teammate had touched the ball. That moment, on the 14th of November 2006 against the Charlotte Bobcats, was the first time any player in NBA history had done…
- Vlade DivacVlade Divac arrived at the Los Angeles Lakers in 1989 speaking no English, carrying a style of play that most American fans had never seen from a seven-foot center. He could pass like a point guard. He could fake a fall with the subtlety…