Curated category
NBA All-Stars
- 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.
- Dirk NowitzkiDirk Werner Nowitzki was born on the 19th of June 1978 in Würzburg, West Germany. He grew up as a very tall child who stood above his peers by a foot or more…
- 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…
- Luka DončićLuka Dončić first touched a basketball when he was seven months old. By age one, he played with a miniature hoop in his room every day.
- 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…
- 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…
- Manu GinóbiliEmanuel David Ginóbili arrived into the world on the 28th of July 1977 in Bahía Blanca, a city located in the southwest region of Buenos Aires Province.
- 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…
- 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.
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- Luol DengLuol Deng was born on the 16th of April 1985 in Wau, Sudan. His family belonged to the Dinka ethnic group and lived through the Second Sudanese Civil War.
- Pascal SiakamPascal Siakam was born on the 2nd of April 1994 in Douala, Cameroon. He grew up as the youngest of four brothers in a family where his father worked for 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.
- 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…
- 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…
- Steve NashStephen John Nash entered the world on the 7th of February 1974 in Johannesburg, South Africa. His mother was Welsh and his father was English.
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…