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Curated category

NBA players with retired numbers

  • 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 Nowitzki stood in the visiting locker room in Miami in June 2011, carrying a 101-degree fever, his left middle finger held together by a surgically…
  • Kobe BryantKobe Bean Bryant scored 81 points on the 22nd of January, 2006, the second-highest total in a single NBA game in the history of the sport.
  • 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.
  • Jerry WestJerry West died in Los Angeles on the 12th of June, 2024, at the age of 86. That same night, before game 3 of the NBA Finals between the Celtics and the…
  • Karl MaloneKarl Anthony Malone grew up on a farm in Summerfield, Louisiana, the youngest of nine children raised by a single mother named Shirley.
  • 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…
  • 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.
  • Manu GinóbiliManu Ginóbili stood on the court in Athens on the opening day of the 2004 Summer Olympics with 0.7 seconds left on the clock.
  • Larry BirdLarry Bird walked into the locker room at the inaugural Three-Point Shootout during the 1986 NBA All-Star Weekend and asked who was going to finish second.
  • Patrick EwingPatrick Aloysius Ewing Sr. was born on the 5th of August, 1962, in Kingston, Jamaica, one day before his home country declared independence.
  • 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…
  • Isiah ThomasIsiah Lord Thomas III grew up on the West Side of Chicago, the youngest of nine children, in a household that would eventually be without his father.
  • Bill RussellBill Russell won eleven NBA championships in thirteen seasons, a record in North American professional sports that no team has matched since.
  • Michael JordanMichael Jeffrey Jordan was born on the 17th of February 1963, in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn, and before he was done, he would hold every…
  • Charles BarkleyCharles Wade Barkley was born on the 20th of February 1963 in Leeds, Alabama, a small town 17 miles east of Birmingham. He was the first Black baby born at…
  • 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 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…
  • Moses MaloneMoses Eugene Malone Sr. grew up in Petersburg, Virginia as an only child, raised almost entirely by his mother Mary, who had left school after the fifth…
  • 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…
  • 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 CowensDave Cowens stood six feet nine inches tall, which made him one of the shortest centers in the NBA during the 1970s. In an era when rivals like Kareem…
  • Wilt ChamberlainWilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a single game. Not in a pickup game, not in some forgotten exhibition. On the 2nd of March 1962, on a neutral court in…
  • John StocktonJohn Stockton walked off the court for the last time on the 2nd of May 2003, not at a press conference surrounded by cameras and microphones, but through a…
  • Bob CousyBob Cousy fell out of a tree as a teenager in Queens, New York, broke his right hand, and spent months forced to use his left.
  • George GervinGeorge Gervin scored 63 points in a single regular-season game while protecting a scoring title by the slimmest margin in NBA history: seven-hundredths of a…
  • Steve NashSteve Nash told his mother something remarkable in grade eight: that one day he would play in the NBA and become a star.
  • 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, with a backyard that touched his friend Ken Anderson's backyard. Anderson went on to become an NFL quarterback and…
  • Dikembe MutomboDikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo arrived in Washington, D.C. in 1987 speaking almost no English. He had grown up in Kinshasa, attended…
  • 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 FrazierWalt Frazier posted 36 points, 19 assists, and six steals in the seventh game of the 1970 NBA Finals, while his teammate Willis Reed limped through just two…
  • 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.
  • Rick BarryRick Barry holds a record that no other basketball player in history can claim. He is the only person ever to lead the NCAA, the ABA, and the NBA in scoring…
  • 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…
  • Julius ErvingJulius Winfield Erving II was born on the 22nd of February, 1950, in East Meadow, Long Island, and by the time he retired in 1987, he had scored more than…
  • Pete MaravichPete Maravich died on the 5th of January 1988, midway through a pickup basketball game at a church gym in Pasadena, California. He was 40 years old.
  • Peja StojakovićPredrag Stojaković was born on the 9th of June 1977 in Požega, SR Croatia. His family belonged to an ethnic Serb community within the Socialist Federal…
  • 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…