Curated category
Olympic gold medalists for the United States in basketball
- 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…
- Dwyane WadeDwyane Wade grew up on the South Side of Chicago, where he described his early childhood as "trying." His mother, JoLinda, struggled with drug addiction and…
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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…
- 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 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…
- Bill RussellBill Russell won eleven NBA championships in thirteen seasons, a record in North American professional sports that no team has matched since.
- 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 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- Klay ThompsonKlay Alexander Thompson was born on the 8th of February 1990, the son of Mychal Thompson, the first overall pick of the 1978 NBA draft.
- 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…
- 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…
- 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.