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Curated category

First overall NBA draft picks

  • LeBron JamesLeBron Raymonde James Sr. was born on the 30th of December 1984, at Cleveland Clinic Akron General, to a 16-year-old mother named Gloria Marie James.
  • 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 HayesElvin Ernest Hayes scored 39 points and held Lew Alcindor to just 15 in front of 52,693 fans at the Houston Astrodome on the 20th of January, 1968.
  • Tim DuncanTim Duncan was born on the 25th of April 1976, on the island of Saint Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and he nearly never played basketball at all.
  • Hakeem OlajuwonHakeem Abdul Olajuwon did not pick up a basketball until the age of 15. He was a soccer goalkeeper in Lagos, Nigeria, a city he would later describe as "very…
  • Magic JohnsonMagic Johnson stood at the free throw line on the 7th of November 1991 and told the world he had HIV. He was 32 years old, five-time NBA champion, and…
  • 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…
  • Andrew WigginsAndrew Christian Wiggins arrived in the world on the 23rd of February 1995. He entered life in Toronto, Ontario, before his family settled in Vaughan, a…
  • Kyrie IrvingKyrie Andrew Irving was born on the 23rd of March 1992 in Melbourne, Australia, the son of two American expatriates who had followed basketball to the other…
  • Kareem Abdul-JabbarOn the road against Utah on the 5th of April 1984, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar caught a pass from Magic Johnson and rose into his skyhook from 15 feet.
  • Yao MingYao Ming weighed 11 pounds at birth in Shanghai on the 12th of September 1980 , more than twice the average weight of a Chinese newborn.
  • Andrew BogutAndrew Bogut stood seven feet tall, and on the 28th of November 1984, he was born in Melbourne to Croatian immigrants who had arrived in Australia in the…
  • Ben SimmonsBenjamin David Simmons arrived in the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy on the 20th of July 1996. His mother Julie was a White Australian and his father Dave was…