Useful Notes / Notable NBA Players A Through F

There have been a number of famous NBA players to put on basketball jerseys throughout the years, many of which have been referenced or featured prominently in various forms of media themselves. The most notable—those who have been featured prominently in media outside of the game or have set records that have made them likely to be referenced in other works—are listed here, in alphabetical order by family name. For more, see Notable NBA Players G Through M and Notable NBA Players N Through Z.

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A

• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the NBA's all-time leader in wins and minutes played, holds a record six MVP awards and 19 All-Star selections, and is another player in serious contention for "the best ever". He started out his pro career with the Milwaukee Bucks, leading them to their first title, before playing the bulk of his career (1975-89) with the Los Angeles Lakers, which he helped lead to five championships. For more on his legendary career in and out of basketball, see his own page.
• Alvan Adams was a power foward/center drafted by the Phoenix Suns #4 overall in 1975 out of Oklahoma. He had one of the best premieres in NBA history, winning Rookie of the Year while taking the Suns on their Cinderella run to their first playoff series wins and Finals appearance. This proved to be his best season by almost every statistical measure, and he was never named an All-Star again, but he remained a reliable contributor with the Suns for the next twelve years. He remains the franchise leader in games, minutes, rebounds, and steals, and the Suns retired his #33.
• Edrice Femi "Bam" Adebayo, a power forward drafted #14 overall in 2017 out of Kentucky by the Miami Heat, emerged in 2019–20 as a consistent double-double threat and regular All-Star. He's also emerged as a top-tier defender and something of a younger, larger version of Draymond Green, complete with trash-talk, though his off-court persona is much more subdued. He won Olympic Gold in the 2020/21 Tokyo Olympics.
• Danny Ainge has had one of the more unique NBA careers ever. While a star shooting guard at BYU, Ainge simultaneously played Major League Baseball with the Toronto Blue Jays. His rare dual-sport ability caused his draft stock to drop to the second round in 1981, where the Boston Celtics scooped him up. After somewhat struggling to see the field in his first three seasons, he emerged as a regular contributor known for getting under opponents' skins and claimed two rings with the franchise. After his sole All-Star year in 1988, the Celtics traded him to the Kings, where he had his best individual performances as the feature player but won far fewer games. Ainge continued to bounce around the league to Portland and Phoenix (visiting the Finals with both teams and losing to Michael Jordan both times). After retiring from play in 1995, Ainge became the Suns' HC for 3.5 successful seasons before abruptly retiring. After a few years in broadcasting, he returned to Boston in 2003 to serve as the Celtics' GM. While initially something of a controversial figure for his propensity for swing-and-miss trades (leading to the "Trader Danny" moniker), he largely turned that reputation around in 2008 after assembling the "Big 3" by joining Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen with Paul Pierce. This helped the Celtics to win the 2008 title, breaking a long drought and earning him Executive of the Year honors. He served many more years in Boston before "retiring" in 2021, only to immediately take a similar role with the Utah Jazz, where he quickly proceeded to disassemble the existing roster in pursuit of new draft picks.
• LaMarcus Aldridge was a power forward selected #2 overall in 2006 out of Texas by the Portland Trail Blazers (via the Bulls), where he developed as the team's second star behind fellow first round selection Brandon Roy (below). Despite being diagnosed with a congenital heart condition, Aldridge managed to put together an excellent NBA career. After chronic injuries brought a premature end to Roy's career, Aldridge broke out, making his first of seven All-Star appearances the year after Roy was amnestied. After nine seasons in Portland and becoming the franchise's all-time leading rebounder, Aldridge moved onto the Spurs as a free agent on a max deal and continued his stellar play for six seasons. After a final stint with the Nets, he retired in 2023.
• Ray Allen is a Hall of Fame shooting guard regularly considered the best pure shooter of his era who played exceptionally well for a number of teams. A Military Brat, Allen was drafted #5 overall out of UConn by the Milwaukee Bucks (via the Timberwolves) in 1996, where he broke out and spent the longest stretch of his career. After winning gold in the 2000 Sydney Olympics and leading the Bucks to a Conference Finals appearance in 2001, he was traded to the Seattle SuperSonics in 2003. Allen saw his greatest individual success on that roster, but it didn't translate to many wins. He was sent to the Boston Celtics in 2007, where he won his first championship after no longer needing to carry the rest of his team. After surpassing Reggie Miller in career three-pointers (since passed by Steph Curry), he signed with the Miami Heat in 2012; while he was hot-and-cold that season, a clutch game-tying three in Game 6 of the Finals kept the Heat alive and helped get him a second ring. After 2014, the ten-time All-Star became a free agent but didn't catch on with any team and never played in the league again, although he didn't announce his retirement until November 2016. He is also remembered for an impressive performance (for an athlete) as lead character Jesus Shuttlesworth in the Spike Lee movie He Got Game.
• Chris Andersen, nicknamed "Birdman", was a power forward who spent 16 seasons in the NBA, primarily with the Denver Nuggets, known for his unique look, defensive prowess, and issues with the league's substance abuse policy. Undrafted in 1999 out of Blinn Junior College^note A school made famous a decade later by Cam Newton, the Danish-American spent a few years in China and some now-defunct smaller North American leagues before landing in the D League in its first year of existence in 2001. He was called up to the Nuggets later that season, becoming the first D League player in history to make the jump, where he developed into an energetic and high-flying defensive specialist from the bench (frequently among the league leaders in "per-minute" blocks and rebounds) as well as a fan favorite thanks to his trademark blonde mohawk, vivid "head-to-toe" tattoos, and, later in his career, a thick viking beard. However, he struggled with multiple substance abuse suspensions, culminating in his expulsion from the league for two years while with the Hornets, one of the longest for a player who actually returned to play after.^note Several players have technically been suspended even longer because they never sought reinstatement. He was reinstated, returned to the Nuggets for another stint, then joined the "Big Three"-led Heat as part of their 2013 championship-winning team where, during the playoffs, he set the NBA postseason record with an 80.7% FG percentage. He bounced around the NBA until 2017 and then joined BIG3 where he continues to play into his mid-40s.
• Nick Anderson was the Orlando Magic's first ever draft pick, going #11 overall in 1989. The Illinois shooting guard was never an All-Star but was a steady presence for the young team, playing there until 1999 and remaining the franchise leader in games and steals. He retired in 2002 after brief stints with the Kings and Grizzlies and has since worked for the Magic in various roles.
• Giannis Antetokounmpo^note Rough pronunciation: YAH-nis ah-day-toh-KOON-boh. In the standard Greek-to-English transliteration system, "nt" represents the "d" sound, and "mp" represents the "b" sound. In 2013, he and his family legally changed their last names to Antetokounmpo after becoming official citizens of Greece that year., also known as the "Greek Freak", is one of the biggest stars of the current NBA and arguably the greatest player in Milwaukee Bucks history, holding the franchise records for points, games, minutes, assists, and blocks. The son of Nigerian immigrants was born and raised in Athens and was drafted #15 overall by the Bucks in 2013 while still a teenager after working his way up through Greek clubs. His flashy and extremely versatile style allowed him to play well at almost every position, and his life story and winning personality soon made him a fan favorite even when the team was losing. His star continued to rise once the Bucks started winning the following year as his game and body steadily developed, and during the 2016–17 season, the now-7 foot Giannis took a quantum leap into the league's elite, winning Most Improved Player after becoming the first player in NBA history to finish a season in the league's top 20 in total points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks, and one of only five (at the time) to lead his team in the same statistics in a single season. He didn't stop there, going on to win MVP in '19 and following it up with being named MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in '20, joining the rarefied club of NBA players instantly identifiable by their first names despite his physical playstyle and lack of long-range shooting ability flying in the face of many of his contemporaries. In 2020, Giannis signed a 5-year, $228 million "supermax" contract extension that then ranked as the richest in NBA history in terms of total salary at the time, agreeing to stay with the small-market team rather than join a star-studded "super team" in a bigger market. This choice paid off for both him and the Bucks: while Giannis did not win season MVP the following season, he did win Finals MVP after leading the Bucks to their first championship title in half a century. The following year, he became the youngest player named to the league's 75th Anniversary Team. Giannis was also featured on the cover of NBA 2K 19, and his life story was adapted into the Disney+ Biopic Rise. Giannis' brothers Thanasis, Kostas, and Alex all play in the NBA or G League, though none has approached their brother's on-court success.
• Carmelo Anthony was a highly talented small forward. After spending one season at Syracuse, where he led the then-Orangemen to their first national title, he went #3 overall in the 2003 Draft to the Denver Nuggets. Anthony was largely seen as The Rival to LeBron James, and not just for their frequent, physical on-court duels during game. They parallel one another rather eerily - both were drafted (among the top three) in the same year, garnered controversy regarding trade deals, and propelled their rookie-year mediocre teams into playoff contenders that couldn't win actual championships. After coming into conflict with his coaches in Denver (in part due to his admittedly poor defensive play), he was traded to the New York Knicks in the middle of the 2010-11 season. He continued his prolific scoring in New York, earning the league scoring title in 2013. The Knicks unloaded him to OKC in 2017 to attempt a rebuild around a younger core. Melo subsequently bounced around to the Hawks and Blazers before signing with the Lakers in 2021, uniting him with LeBron, though he only lasted a season and officially retired in 2023. Despite all of his individual accolades (10x All-Star, 6x All-NBA, and cover spots on NBA Steet Homecourt and NBA Live 2005), he was never successful in the playoffs, only getting out of the first round twice. On a more positive note, Anthony was named the NBA's inaugural Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Champion in 2021 for his activism in that sphere. Also, despite his struggles in the NBA playoffs, Anthony has won the most Olympic medals of any men's basketball player, winning bronze in 2004 and gold in the next three Games.
• Nate "Tiny" Archibald was a Hall of Fame point guard who got his start with the then-Cincinnati Royals drafted him in the second round in 1970. As his nickname implied, the 6-foot UTEP product was smaller than many of his peers, but he quickly broke out as a star. In 1973, the year the Royals moved to Kansas City and became the Kings, Archibald became the first and only player in NBA history to lead the league in total points and assists, with his average of 34 points per game still standing as a record for point guards. Despite his talents, the Kings only had one winning season with Archibald, and they traded him to the Nets in 1976. This turned out to be a bad trade for the Nets, as Archibald immediately struggled with injuries, and they shipped him out to the Braves after just one season; that proved to be an even more lopsided trade for Buffalo, as Archibald missed the entire season and never played for the team. Once they traded him to Boston, however, he experienced a great Career Resurrection, winning a championship and All-Star MVP in 1981. The six-time All-Star retired in 1984 after a year with the Bucks, and his #1 was later retired by the Kings.
• Gilbert Arenas was the Washington Wizards' main star during their run of success in the mid 2000s. Originally a second round pick by the Warriors in 1999 out of Arizona, Arenas quickly gained the nickname "Agent Zero" for his jersey number (which was chosen to reflect the number of minutes his critics thought he would play) and his clutch performances. He won Most Improved Player in his second year, after which his low draft position allowed him to leave the Warriors for a more lucrative contract in Washington. Arenas racked up three All-Star nods with the Wizards and put up some excellent performances, including a 60-point game (he and Tom Chambers are the only Hall of Fame-elligible players with that accomplishment not enshrined in Springfield). However, Gibby's career was soon derailed, first by injuries and then by a lengthy suspension for firearm violations; he left the Wizards in 2010 after being traded to Orlandothen spent some time with the Grizzlies and in the CBA before retiring in 2013. He was featured on the cover of NBA Live 08.
• Paul Arizin was a Hall of Fame small forward for the Philadelphia Warriors. A Philly native who didn't even make the cut for his high school team, Arizin managed to make the team at Villanova and emerged as a dominant scoring force renowned for his jump shots. "Pitchin' Paul" was picked up as the Warriors' territorial pick in 1950, won Rookie of the Year, and led the league in scoring and minutes played in his second season. He then proceeded to serve with the Marines in the Korean War for the next two years. When he came back to the Warriors, his play hadn't regressed one bit; he led the team to a championship in 1956, still leading the league in minutes, and led the league in scoring again the next year. Arizin was named an All-Star every season he played in the NBA, with his career only ending in 1962 when the Warriors moved across the country and he wanted to remain in his hometown. He still loved basketball and was happy to play another three years for the minor league Camden Bullets based right across the river; he won their league MVP and a championship as well. Arizin passed away in 2006.
• Ron Artest is a rather controversial figure who spent the peak of his individual career with the Indiana Pacers. Originally drafted #16 overall in 1999 out of St. John's by the Bulls, the defensive-oriented small forward was traded to Indiana in the middle of the 2001-02 season. While successful on the court, winning Defensive Player of the Year and his sole All-Star nod in 2004, he quickly became infamous for his tendency towards profanity and violence and being a general Cloud Cuckoo Lander, most especially in the infamous "Malice at the Palace" in which he jumped onto the stands and sucker-punched a Pistons fan, leading to a massive fight. In the aftermath, he was suspended for the whole season and became an unapologetic loudmouth while out of action. He became a pariah in Detroit and was traded around to the Kings, Rockets, and Lakers, winning a ring in the final spot with a game-winning three-pointer in 2010. He eventually got into anger management therapy, which helped mellow him out somewhat and led to him renaming himself Metta World Peace, but he kept his temper and tendancy for dirty play. Amnestied by the Lakers after 2013 to clear his salary from the books, he then signed with the Knicks for a year, couldn't catch on with an NBA team, and left for stints in China and Italy. He returned to the Lakers in 2015 and played for another two years before retiring. Now going by the name Metta Sandiford-Artest, he has become one of the NBA's most vocal advocates of mental health awareness, which might end up being his most lasting legacy in the sport.
• Al Attles is a Hall of Fame point guard who has been on the Golden State Warriors' payroll for over six decades, stretching back to their time in Philadelphia when he was drafted in the fifth round out of North Carolina A&T in 1960. Despite being overshadowed by the scoring proficiency of his fellow Warriors through the next decade, Attles quickly gained the reputation as one of the NBA's most feared defenders, gaining the nickname "The Destroyer". Attles transitioned into a coaching role later in his playing career, becoming the Warriors' HC one year before hanging up his jersey in 1971. One of the NBA's first Black head coaches, Attles held onto the position until 1983, guiding the team to three Conference Finals and a championship in 1975; he remains their longest-tenured coach. After coaching, he moved into the team's front office and remains an ambassador for the franchise, which retired his #16.
• Deandre Ayton is a very skilled center who, while drafted as the Phoenix Suns' first ever #1 overall pick out of Arizona in 2018, has had to deal with being Overshadowed by Awesome from later selections Luka Dončić and Trae Young. Despite that, the Bahamian big man (who has lived in Arizona since his high school years) was a consistent element in Phoenix's system that helped them escape their Audience-Alienating Era of the 2010s by being a sneaky, dominant presence that stops small-ball dominant line-ups and competes well against the more talented centers of the game. Ayton grew his name during the 2021 Playoffs, where he and Booker were the most dominant players of the team that got them into their third NBA Finals appearance. However, Ayton was traded to Portland in 2023.

B

• LaMelo Ball, currently the Charlotte Hornets' most popular player, had a very unique path into the NBA as the youngest of the Ball Brothers. The brothers (Lonzo, LiAngelo, and LaMelo) first gained popularity when they starred on an undefeated Chino Hills High School team in California when LaMelo was a freshman. They received nearly unprecedented media coverage for high school players in part to their success and in part to their very apt name, though the biggest contribution to their fame likely was the incessent and grandiose (self-)promotion of their father LaVar, whose constant boasting about his family and "Big Baller" brand made him the face of the Sports Dad trope on shows like Saturday Night Live. While Lonzo went on to success at UCLA, LaMelo dropped out of Chino Hills in 2018 to be homeschooled by his father after LiAngelo attracted international controversy for shoplifting while in China. The two began to play professionally, first in Lithuania and then his father's own basketball league for young talents, the Junior Basketball Association. While LiAngelo went undrafted that year, LaMelo returned to high school in Ohio for his senior year before going back to the pros a year later in Australia. His previously fluctuating draft status solidified back into a top caliber player, and he was drafted #3 overall in 2020 (one spot lower than Lonzo in 2017, despite some outlets viewing LaMelo as the best choice for the #1 pick that year). He almost instantly gave the Hornets more respect, becoming the youngest player to ever record a triple-double in a game and winning Rookie of the Year. LaMelo thus holds an interesting distinction of being the only player to win Rookie of the Year both in Australia and in the NBA (in back-to-back seasons).
• Andrea Bargnani was the first European player to be drafted #1 overall, going to the Toronto Raptors in 2006 out of his native Italy where was coming off an Italian League championship. A seven-footer with athleticism, range, and ball-handling skills, he was naturally compared to Dirk Nowitzski but struggled to break out through his first three seasons. When Chris Bosh left for Miami as a free agent in 2010, Bargnani became the team's focal point and had a career-best year in terms of points and blocks. However, the 2011 NBA lockout followed by a serious elbow injury brought his time in Toronto to an end. He was traded to the Knicks in 2013 but continued to struggle with injuries, moved onto the Nets as a bench player, and then returned to Europe. While he was adequate enough to avoid the major bust label, helped by the 2006 Draft being considered rather weak, he was still taken ahead of multi-time All-Stars LaMarcus Aldridge and Brandon Roy.
• "Sir" Charles Barkley was a Hall of Fame forward with the Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix Suns, and Houston Rockets in the '80s and '90s. Renowned for his rebounding abilities but perhaps even more famous for his larger-than-life persona, Barkley remains a well-known figure in American culture years after his playing career ended; see his own page for more.
• Don Barksdale was a trailblazer for African-American players in multiple levels of basketball, becoming the first Black NCAA All-American, Olympic team member, and NBA All-Star. A forward who gained national attention while playing at UCLA, he campaigned hard to be part of the gold-medal 1948 Olympic team, then moved back home to Oakland to play amateur ball and work as a popular disc jockey, TV host, and beer distributor. Barksdale became the Baltimore Bullets' (not the same team that's part of the Wizards' lineage, but close enough) first Black player and a 28-year-old NBA rookie in 1951, the year after the NBA integrated, and was named an All-Star in his second season; he was then traded to the Celtics, and his career was cut short by ankle injuries two years later. He died of cancer in 1993 and was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame as a contributor in 2012.
• Dick Barnett is a Hall of Fame shooting guard who was drafted #4 overall by the Nationals in 1959 after leading HBCU Tennessee A&I (now Tennessee State) to three NAIA championships. Known for his trademark "question mark" fall-back jump shot, Barnett signed with the ABL's Cleveland Pipers after a year as a sixth man in Syracuse, leading them to a championship before a court order forced him to stop playing outside the NBA. He managed to convince the Nationals to sell his rights to the Lakers in '62, and he was traded to the New York Knicks in '65. Barnett experienced the most individual and team success in New York, earning two championships and his only All-Star selection. He retired in 1973, and the Knicks retired his #12.
• Rick Barry was a small forward who played for several teams in the late '60s and '70s but had his longest tenure and greatest success with the Golden State Warriors. He was drafted #2 overall by the then-San Francisco Warriors in 1965 and immediately impressed, winning Rookie of the Year. The following season, "the Miami Greyhound" led the league in scoring and set Finals records that stood for decades, but he couldn't get the Warriors to a title. Contract disputes led him to jump across the bay to the pre-merger ABA's Oakland Oaks, leading to one of the first major legal challenges to the NBA's monopoly. The courts forced him to sit for a season, but upon his return he again led the ABA in scoring and this time succeeded at leading his team to a championship. He bounced around the league until an injunction sent him back to the Warriors, where he settled in as the team's star and carved out a role as one of the NBA's first point forwards. He eventually led the Dubs to the 1975 championship, winning Finals MVP after leading the league in steals that season and sweeping the highly favored Bullets. Barry retired in 1980 after two years in Houston. Despite his notoriously prickly personality and the occasional off-court controversy, the 12-time All-Star was a shoo-in Hall of Famer, one of the league's historically great scorers before the introduction of the 3-point line (decades after his retirement, he still holds the highest points per game average in Finals history), and the Warriors retired his #24. He is also famous for his unique free-throw—he shot them granny-style (i.e, two-handed and underhand), which was popular in the early days of the game but had largely disappeared by his day. Since he was one of the league's best free-throw shooters, leading the league in free throw percentage six times and retiring as the league's all-time leader in the category, no one laughed for very long; to this day, his style is occasionally suggested as a way to help out notoriously poor free-throw shooters.
  • He's also the most famous member of an extensive basketball family that dates back to the 1930s:
    • Barry's (first) father-in-law, Bruce Hale, played college ball in the 1930s and for three teams in the early days of the NBA. He then went into coaching and eventually became Barry's coach at Miami of Florida.
    • His four sons with Hale's daughter Pam—Scooter, Jon, Brent, and Drew—all played professionally. Jon and Brent both played 14 seasons in the league, and Drew played in three. Brent was the most accomplished of the four, winning the 1996 Slam Dunk crown and two NBA titles with the Spurs. This made Rick and Brent the second father-and-son duo with NBA rings after Matt Guokas Sr. and Jr., later joined by the Waltons (Bill and Luke) and Thompsons (Mychal and Klay), plus a coaching pair in Brendan and Michael Malone.^note Brendan won his two rings as an assistant with the "Bad Boys" Pistons in 1989 and '90, and Michael won his as HC of the 2022–23 Nuggets. Although Scooter didn't make it to the NBA, he had the longest professional career (17 years), and won NCAA, CBA, and Belgian league titles.
    • Rick and his current wife Lynn (herself a former star college player at William & Mary) have another son, Canyon, who finished his college career in 2017 after being named the top academic/athletic performer in D-I men's basketball in 2016–17. He's since picked up a gold medal in international competition as part of Team USA at the 2019 FIBA 3x3 World Cup^note 3x3 is FIBA's formalized version of the 3-on-3 halfcourt game. and still uses his father's signature free throw style.
• Elgin Baylor was the #1 overall draft pick in 1958 out of Seattle and played for the Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lakers his entire career. The 6'5" small forward immediately turned the team around after a few years of struggle, arguably saving the franchise. The 11-time NBA All-Star and 10-time first-team All-NBA^note Of the players with 10 or more All-NBA nods, Baylor is the only one who made the first team every time. is regarded as one of the game's all-time greatest players. The forerunner of all the reverse layups, hesitation moves, jump shots, and spinning moves you see regularly in any given NBA game, Baylor was a gifted shooter, an accomplished passer, and skilled rebounder, still holding the Lakers' franchise record in that last category. Baylor regularly dazzled Lakers fans with his trademark hanging jump shots; his Signature Move running bank shot, which he was able to release quickly and effectively over taller players, led him to numerous NBA scoring records, several of which still stand. He became the first player to score over 70 points in a game in 1960. In the following 1961-62 season, despite only being able to play for the Lakers on weekends due to serving in the Army Reserve, he averaged 38.3 points a game; the 61 points he scored in game 5 of that year's Finals is still a Finals record and a playoff record that has only been surpassed once by Michael Jordan. Unfortunately, he retired from basketball early in the 1971-72 season due to knee injuries without winning a championship, making him one of those ring-less greats despite playing in eight different Finals. Not only that, the Lakers won a championship that very season; his last game was a Lakers loss, and their next game was the first of a still-NBA record 33-game winning streak. Following his playing career, Baylor briefly coached the New Orleans Jazz (1976-79) and later became the GM of the Clippers from 1987-2008. Though he was named Executive of the Year in 2006, that was after one of only two winning seasons he had with the Clippers in that long tenure. His firing shortly after that success was very contentious, as he accused Clippers owner Donald Sterling of racial discrimination and severely underpaying him compared to other GMs in the league, laying some of the groundwork for Sterling's eventual removal. Baylor's #22 is retired by the Lakers, and he passed away in 2021.
• Bradley Beal was the second-in-command to John Wall with the Washington Wizards after being drafted #3 overall in 2012 out of Florida. After Wall (and Russell Westbrook) left Washington, he became their scoring general and a regular All-Star while setting the Wizards franchise record for 3-pointers. After many years of the Wizards languishing in mediocrity, Beal was traded to the Suns in 2023.
• Walt Bellamy was the #1 overall pick in 1961 out of Indiana and made an immediate impact in the NBA after being selected by the expansion franchise Chicago Packers. An Olympic gold-winner in 1960, Bellamy had one of the best rookie seasons in NBA history, averaging 31.6 points per game (still second only to Chamberlain). The Rookie of the Year continued to play well as the Packers became the Zephyrs, then when they became the Baltimore Bullets, but the team itself struggled. He was traded to the Knicks in the 1965-66 season and bounced around the league for another decade before retiring in 1974. He passed away in 2013.
• Dragan Bender was a 7-foot forward-center drafted #4 overall by the Suns in 2016. The top international prospect in the draft, the teenager struggled greatly upon arriving in the NBA, putting up meager numbers and struggling with injuries while being overshadowed by later picks in the same draft like Pascal Siakam, Dejounte Murray, Malcolm Brogdon, and especially the similarly profiled Domantas Sabonis. The Suns let him go after just three years, and Bender was out of the NBA entirely after one more season.
• Anthony Bennett was drafted #1 overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2013 and is notable as one of the biggest draft busts in NBA history. The Canadian power forward's selection was viewed as questionable from the get-go, as health issues had limited his playing time in college at UNLV. Those concerns were immediately proven valid, as he posted some of the worst rookie performances from a #1 pick seen in decades and never even claimed a starting position. The Cavs shipped him off to Minnesota after that first season, clearing the way for LeBron's return; Bennett started a total of four games in the NBA before moving to the international game, where he at least won a EuroLeague championship. Adding to his bust status: While the top of that draft turned out to be rather scant on All-Star talent, the Cavs joined over a dozen other teams in missing out on Giannis Antetokounmpo.
• Len Bias was considered to be one of the most dynamic and exciting college basketball players of the mid-1980s while at Maryland, and the Boston Celtics drafted him with the #2 pick in 1986. Two days after the draft, Bias died from a cocaine overdose; it was the first time he had ever touched the drug. The Celtics were immensely demoralized by Bias' death. In particular, Larry Bird was excited to have him on board and once claimed he would have retired in 1988 if Bias had lived. Bias is widely considered to be one of the greatest college players to have never played in the NBA.
  • Unfortunately, Bias is also infamously just one of four top ten draft picks in his class who had their careers and lives completely derailed by drugs: NC State center Chris Washburn lasted just two seasons in the NBA after being taken #3 overall by the Warriors, putting up terrible performances and checking into rehab multiple times. The Suns sent Memphis center William Bedford to the Pistons one year after taking him at #7; he won a title as a bench player there but also missed a whole year with a drug suspension and didn't come close to living up to his draft position. Michigan forward-center Roy Tarpley put up good on-court performances and won Sixth Man of the Year in '88 with the Mavericks after being drafted at #8, but he also received multiple multi-year bans for his rampant substance abuse, which likely contributed to his early death from liver failure in 2015. All of these players were taken well ahead of major stars like Arvydas Sabonis, Mark Price, Dennis Rodman, Jeff Hornacek, and Dražen Petrović.
• Chauncey Billups was drafted #3 overall in 1997 out of Colorado by the Celtics, but he had a bumpy start to his career; Boston coaches didn't know whether to position him as a shooting or point guard and traded him before the end of the season, leading to him bouncing around multiple teams and being labeled a draft bust before joining the Detroit Pistons in 2002. Once there, he settled in as a point guard and completely turned his career trajectory around, becoming a respected player that led the Pistons to six straight conference finals and the 2004 title as Finals MVP. After being traded to his hometown Nuggets in 2008 and reaching yet another Conference Final (making him the only non-Celtics or Lakers player to get there seven years in a row), the five-time All-Star was traded against his wishes to the Knicks with Carmelo Anthony in 2011. He became injury-prone but still helped the Clippers' emergence after signing with them for the next season. He returned to the Pistons in 2013 and retired at the end of the season, with the team retiring his #1. After a few years in broadcasting, he returned to the court in 2020 as an assistant for the Clippers, moving from there to become head coach of the Blazers in 2021. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2024.
• Dave Bing was a Hall of Fame guard who was drafted from Syracuse #2 overall in 1966 by the Detroit Pistons and immediately became a star, being named Rookie of the Year and leading the league in scoring in his second season. Though listed as a point guard, his playing style was somewhat ahead of his time, as he was much more of a scorer than typical ballhandlers of his era—and this was in spite of having impaired vision in one eye due to a childhood accident. Bing made six All-Star appearances in his nine seasons in Detroit before short stints in his hometown of Washington and Boston. After his retirement in 1978, the Pistons retired his #21. He then proceeded to have one of the most interesting post-basketball careers of any player. Without all of the assets of a modern-day player (he had to work as a bank teller and warehouse jobs in the offseasons to make ends meet), Bing went into business supplying parts for the auto industry and experienced noticeable success. He later went on to serve as mayor of Detroit for just over a full term (2009-13).^note He was initially elected to serve out the final months of the term of the previous mayor, who resigned after pleading guilty to perjury, and was then elected to a full term. Unfortunately, his term coincided with the city declaring bankruptcy (in fairness, the city was falling apart long before he became mayor).
• Larry Bird was a Hall of Fame forward who played with the Boston Celtics in the '80s and another candidate for the greatest figure in the history of the sport. Drafted #6 overall out of Indiana State in 1978, he decided to stay in college another year, taking the school on a nearly undefeated run that came one game short in the championship against Magic Johnson's Michigan State, laying the groundwork for a historic rivalry as they would meet in three more Finals.^note Incidentally, this prompted the league to enact the so-called "Larry Bird Rule" that said teams can't do that; they have to wait until a player officially declares himself eligible for the draft or completes his college eligibility, whichever comes first. When he did come to Boston, "Larry Legend" won Rookie of the Year and soon became leader of a dominant "Big Three" with Kevin McHale and Robert Parish, becoming one of the most popular figures in Boston sports history and a master of I Shall Taunt You. Bird threepeated as MVP (1984-86), was a 12-time All-Star, and took Boston to three titles ('81, '84, '86), winning Finals MVP in the latter two; he also reached two other Finals, losing both to the Lakers. Generally considered one of the game's great shooters, he also played very unselfishly and averaged better than six assists a game for his career. He was once a single steal away from a quadruple-double, but sat out the entire fourth quarter because he just didn't care. Bird was exceptionally accurate, leading the league in free throws four times and becoming the first member of the exclusive 50-40-90 club^note 50% from the field, 40% past the arc, 90% free throws and one of only three players to make it in more than one season. He won a gold medal with the Dream Team at the '92 Barcelona Olympics but retired shortly thereafter due to lingering back injuries; his #33 was retired by the Celtics. However, he continued to be very involved in the NBA; despite having no coaching experience, he returned to his home state to become HC of the Indiana Pacers in 1997, with the promise that he would only coach for three years. He held true to that promise despite winning Coach of the Year in his first season, taking the Pacers to the conference finals in all three, and losing to the Lakers in the Finals in his final season. He soon returned to the organization as team president, where he won Executive of the Year in 2012 shortly before a 10-Minute Retirement and stepped down for good in 2017. As a result, Bird is the only individual ever to be named MVP, Coach of the Year, and Executive of the Year^note ...let alone all those plus Rookie of the Year, Finals MVP, and All-Star MVP. The Eastern Conference Finals MVP award is named in his honor, he was featured on some special edition covers of NBA 2K 12, and the old Twitter logo was named Larry in his honor.
• Rolando Blackmon was a shooting guard drafted #9 overall in 1981 out of Kansas State by the Dallas Mavericks. He earned four All-Star nods in his 11 seasons in Dallas but often went overlooked due to playing in a small market. He played his final two seasons with the Knicks, coming just short of winning a ring with Mavs' teammate Derek Harper (below) before retiring in 1994; the Mavs retired his #22.
• Daron "Mookie" Blaylock was a point guard drafted #12 overall by the Nets in 1989 after he took Oklahoma to an appearance in the NCAA title game. The Nets traded Blaylock to the Atlanta Hawks in 1992, where he truly flourished as a defender and scorer, becoming the Hawks' all-time leader in both steals (leading the NBA in the category in '97 and '98) and three-pointers in just seven seasons. He retired in 2001 after a few years with the Warriors. Sadly, his basketball achievements have been somewhat overshadowed by his personal health struggles, his battle with alcoholism, and a three-year jail sentence for killing a mother of five in a 2013 car accident that nearly took his own life. Non-basketball fans might know him best for popularizing "Mookie" as a nickname, to the extent that an early '90s grunge band originally named themselves "Mookie Blaylock" before the studio forced them to change it to Pearl Jam (their massive debut album was still named after his jersey number).
• Muggsy Bogues, listed at 5'3", is the shortest player ever in the NBA - and in his rookie year with the Washington Bullets (who drafted him #12 overall out of Wake Forest in 1987), played along with the tallest ever, Manute Bol.◊ His short stature and hustle led him to become something of a secret weapon for the teams he played on (he famously once pulled a basketball right out of the hands of the much taller Patrick Ewing as he was preparing a shot). After the Charlotte Hornets brought in Bogues during the Expansion Draft, he became one of the faces of the team for the next ten seasons, and he remains the Hornets franchise leader in both steals and assists. He exited the NBA in 2001 after stints with the Warriors and Raptors and later had a disastrous stint as coach of the WNBA's short-lived Charlotte team.
• Andrew Bogut was an Australian center selected #1 overall by the Milwaukee Bucks in 2005 out of Utah^note That same year, Utah QB Alex Smith went #1 overall in the NFL Draft, giving Utah the distinction of being the only school to produce the #1 pick in each league in the same year.. While not the first Australian player to reach the NBA, he was by far the most prominent and highest drafted, opening the door for numerous other high profile Australians to enter the league. Though he never developed as a scorer, he was an excellent rebounder and shot blocker (leading the league in 2011). He was traded to the Warriors in 2012 and, though he battled injuries through much of his time there, was a starter for the first championship of the Kerr/Curry era in 2014-15. He spent one-year stints with three other teams (the Mavericks, Cavaliers, and Lakers, continued to represent Australia internationally, and then returned to play in the Australian League, winning MVP and Defensive Player of the Year there in 2019 before retiring in 2020. Bogut generally avoids being labeled an outright bust, but his solid-if-unspectacular career pales in comparison to a few players he was drafted ahead of including Chris Paul and Deron Williams.
• Manute Bol was the tallest player in NBA history (later tied by Gheorghe Mureșan) and a beloved Ensemble Dark Horse in basketball lore. Standing at 7'7", Bol was a member of the Dinka ethnic group in modern-day South Sudan and came to the U.S. in the early '80s after an American coach saw him on a trip and figured he'd be really good at basketball. He immediately attracted NBA attention, but questions around his legal status led to Bol getting drafted by the Clippers, having the draft pick rescinded, leaving D-I Cleveland State to play at D-II Bridgeport, and being drafted by the Washington Bullets in the second round in 1985. While he generally struggled with many aspects of pro play due to his unique physiology (including a clawed right hand), his record-setting height, arm span, and hand size meant he immediately excelled at blocking shots, leading the league in the category in his rookie season (397, the second most ever in a single year). Fans flocked to games just to witness the giant man play (especially when he was briefly paired with Muggsy Bogues, the shortest NBA player ever), and his benevolent nature and sense of humor made him a fan favorite. Bol was traded to the Warriors in '88, where he again led the league in blocks, and bounced around the NBA afterwards (including returning to Washington in '93 to help train Mureșan). Bol was done with basketball after 1995 but remained a prominent figure due to his political activism around the civil war and human rights abuses in Sudan; Bol gave away almost all of his basketball earnings to support refugees and aid efforts, which wound up financially ruining him when he was severely injured in a 2004 car accident. Despite his health problems, he continued traveling to Sudan until he contracted Stevens–Johnson syndrome and died in 2010 at the age of 47 (though many suspect he was several years older what was listed in his official documentation). Bol sits behind only Mark Eaton in blocks per game and is the only NBA player to have posted more blocks than points. His legacy lives on in part through his many children, including his son Bol Bol, an active NBA player currently with the Suns.
• Devin Booker is a very skilled shooting guard for the Phoenix Suns. He oddly started out collegiately as the SEC Sixth Man of the Year winner for Kentucky in his only season there. Despite being considered a Sixth Man for them, Booker was one of the key players on a stacked roster that post a nearly-undefeated season. While he was expected to continue being a good shooting guard for the Suns after being drafted #13 overall in 2015, he made his presence known immediately to fans clamoring for an escape of the Audience-Alienating Era of the 2010s. He is the youngest player to score 60 points in an NBA, never mind 70, which he did at 20 years old, establishing him as their main homegrown star moving forward. He is also the youngest player to compete in the Three-Point Shootout and one of the youngest to win that event, and he went on to set the Suns franchise record in that stat. When the Suns traded for superstar point guard Chris Paul, Booker's presence became one of the keys that helped turn the team from a franchise that had struggled to even make the playoffs throughout the 2010s to a Finals contender in 2021. His success landed him a spot on the cover of NBA 2K 23.
• Chris Bosh is a Hall of Fame power forward and center, famous for his resemblance to an ostrich or a Na'vi and his weird on-court antics. The eleven-time All-Star was drafted #4 overall by the Toronto Raptors out of Georgia Tech in 2003, right behind LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony but before Dwyane Wade. Quickly emerging as one of the league's premier players, he became the face and leader of the Raptors; he remains Toronto's all-time leader in points, rebounds, blocks, double-doubles, free throws, and minutes. Bosh won Olympic gold in '08 and led the Raptors to their first division title in '07, but they never made it past the first round of the playoffs even as they overhauled the roster, prompting Bosh to sign with the Miami Heat in 2010, with whom he won two championships. As a player, Bosh was particularly noted for his ability to drive to the basket, but he was also deadly with his trademark jump shot, thereby forcing opposing players to double-team (while with Toronto) or spread the floor (leaving Wade and James open) in response. Sadly, his career was cut short when he was found to have a blood-clot disorder during the 2015–16 season. After an NBA doctor deemed Bosh's condition career-ending in 2017, the Heat released him in the offseason, though he fought to play again until 2019, the same year they retired his #1 jersey.
• Bruce Bowen was a feared defender for the San Antonio Spurs 2000s dynasty, though he took a circuitous route to claiming that role. After going undrafted out of Cal State Fullerton in 1993, Bowen played five years in international and minor leagues before finally landing an NBA roster spot with the Heat. He bounced around to the Celtics, Sixers, and Heat again before finally landing a permanent home in San Antonio in 2001. Bowen blossomed into an eight-time All-Defensive Teamer and won three titles with the Spurs; despite a lack of scoring output, his physical (some might say dirty) playstyle enabled the success of the rest of the team. He retired in 2009 and had his #12 retired by the Spurs.
• Sam Bowie was a 7'1" center drafted #2 overall in 1984 out of Kentucky by the Portland Trail Blazers. Bowie had a decent but thoroughly unspectacular ten-season NBA career, held down by frequent leg injuries that he attempted to hide during the draft process. Despite five decent years in Portland (followed by stints with the Nets and Lakers), Bowie's name is considered short-hand for NBA draft busts for one reason: he was drafted one pick ahead of Michael Jordan.
• Bill Bradley had one of the most remarkable career arcs of anyone to play in the NBA. The son of a wealthy banker earned national acclaim as potentially the greatest player in the history of the Ivy League while at Princeton and won Olympic gold in 1964. While the New York Knicks drafted him with their territorial pick in 1965, he didn't join them for another two years and change due to his pursuit of a Rhodes scholarship at Oxford (during which he won a EuroLeague title with Olimpia Milano in Italy while also leading Oxford's team to multiple national championships) and his service in the Air Force. When he finally did return to New York, the forward contributed to the Knicks' three Finals appearances and two championships over the next decade, earning an All-Star nod during the final championship season. Following his retirement in 1977, the Knicks retired his #24 and he entered the Hall of Fame. Bradley then began a much longer second career as a U.S. Senator for New Jersey from 1979-97, ending his time as a statesman after losing the nomination to be the Democrats' 2000 presidential candidate to Al Gore.
• Shawn Bradley was a massive (listed at 7'6") center most famous for his time with the Dallas Mavericks from '97-'05. A Military Brat born at a US military hospital in West Germany (he would later represent the reunified Germany in international play) with an American father and German mother, the "Stormin' Mormon" grew up a multi-sport star in Utah and played collegiately at BYU. After a two-year Mormon mission, he was selected #2 overall in 1993 by the 76ers but was initially seen as a bust and traded to the Nets during his third season. He started living up to his promise there, leading the league in blocks in '96-'97, but was traded to Dallas mid-season as part of a salary dump when the Nets changed team leadership. He became a fixture for the Mavs, including being one of the few players in league history to score 20+ points, grab 20+ rebounds, and block 10+ shots in a game while setting the franchise season record for blocks (which he later broke himself while leading the league in blocks again in '00-'01). He paired well with the more versatile Dirk Nowitzki (the two also played together on the German national team) as the team made the playoffs each year from 2000-05. Bradley retired in 2005 and had a brief political career. He suffered a spinal cord injury in a bicycle accident that made him a quadriplegic in 2021.
• Elton Brand was a power forward selected #1 overall in 1999 by the Chicago Bulls out of Duke where he famously became the first player under coach Mike Krzyzewski to enter the NBA Draft before completing his full college eligibility. He broke out quickly, winning Rookie of the Year and averaging a double-double in each of the first five years of his career. Despite strong individual performances, the Bulls struggled overall and conflicts with management led to Brand being traded to the Los Angeles Clippers in 2001 where he continued his strong play, earning two All-Star appearances and a Sportsmanship Award, while leading the team to its first playoff series win in franchise history. An Achilles tear in 2008 brought his Clippers tenure to an end, and he signed with the 76ers, where he continued to battle injuries before getting amnestied in 2012. After bouncing around to three other teams as a bench player (Dallas and Atlanta before returning to Philly), he retired in 2016, entered the 76ers front office, and was named GM in 2018. Video game fans may recognize him as the namesake of the Easter Egg Infinity +1 Sword "Eltonbrand" in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, where one of the developers (Mark Nelson) was a huge Duke fan.
• Ulysses "Junior" Bridgeman was a swingman drafted #8 overall by the Milwaukee Bucks in 1975 out of Louisville. While never an All-Star, Bridgeman was one of the most prominent and successful Sixth Men of his era and was also president of the NBPA from 1985-88. After a brief stint with the Clippers, he retired with the Bucks in 1987, who retired his #2. After his playing career, Bridgeman settled in Louisville and began to invest in Wendy's and Chili's franchises, soon owning hundreds of restaurants and making far more money than he ever did in sports. He currently owns Ebony and Jet magazines, having purchased them in 2020 after they went bankrupt.
• Malcolm Brogdon was a key player behind the emergence of the Milwaukee Bucks as a serious title contender in the late 2010s. Arriving in Milwaukee in 2016 as a second-round pick, the combo guard out of Virginia made an immediate impact, averaging double figures in scoring mostly off the bench and being named Rookie of the Year after heavy favorite Joel Embiid (see the Sixers folder) was shut down halfway through the season, becoming the first second-round pick to become Rookie of the Year since 1965. The following year, he lost about half the season to injury but was still a double-figure scorer when he did play, and did even better the next season, joining the 50–40–90 club despite missing the last few weeks of the season to another injury. He was dealt to the Pacers in 2019 in a salary cap move and continued to perform well when he could remain on the court. Continued injury issues led to him being traded to the Celtics in 2022, where he settled in as a role-player and immediately won Sixth Man of the Year. That proved to be his only season in Boston, being sent to Portland as part of a trade for Jrue Holiday.
• Fred Brown was drafted #6 overall in 1971 out of Iowa and played his entire 13-year career with the Seattle SuperSonics. "Downtown Freddie Brown" was renowned for his long-range accuracy for the era (he led the league in three-pointer percentage the year the rule was introduced) and was an important contributor to the Sonics' sole league title in 1979. The franchise retired his #32.
• Roger Brown was the original Indiana Pacer. Like Connie Hawkins (under "Suns"), he was a New York high school star who was banned by the NBA for his association with notorious basketball fixer Jack Molinas (and as with Hawkins, there was never any real evidence of wrongdoing on Brown's part). When the ABA was formed in 1967, he was working in a GM plant and was the first player the Pacers management sought out and signed. He won the playoff MVP award when the Pacers won their first championship in 1970, scoring out of his mind in the final three games against the L.A. Stars. He led the team to their second championship in '72 against the Nets, outscoring Rick Barry, then took them to a third championship in 1973. The NBA later lifted his ban, but he preferred to remain with the Pacers and the ABA before retiring in 1975, one year before the Pacers were placated to move to the NBA. Brown even went into local politics, serving on the Indianapolis city–county council for four years during his playing career. The Pacers retired his #35 in 1985. Sadly, he didn't live to see his 2013 Hall of Fame induction, dying of colon cancer in 1997.
• Jaylen Brown is one of the current stars of the Boston Celtics, who selected him #3 overall in 2016 (via Brooklyn^note with one of the multiple high draft picks the Nets sent in exchange for Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett years prior) out of California. Initially a small forward, he kicked out to shooting guard when the Celtics acquired Jayson Tatum in 2017, becoming one of the larger guards in the league and the #2 star on the team behind Tatum. He made his first All-Star appearance in 2021 and has been a major component of Boston's success in the years since. He has also developed a reputation for fading in key playoff series, though that didn't stop the Celtics from re-signing him to a supermax deal in 2023, currently the largest in NBA history. A Genius Bruiser, he was infamously derided as "too smart to play in the NBA" by some scouts prior to the draft, became an MIT Lab Fellow while an active player, and was voted the NBAPA's youngest ever vice president at just 22. Jaylen's father is former boxing champion Marselles Brown.
• Kwame Brown was selected #1 overall out of high school by the Washington Wizards in 2001 (their first year with Michael Jordan as team president). Despite putting together a 12-year journeyman career, he is frequently cited as one of the biggest busts in NBA history. Freakishly athletic for his listed size (6'11", 290 lbs), his lack of maturity both on and off the court (including a DUI arrest in 2003 and a public clash with teammate Gilbert Arenas) created significant friction with the team, leading to Brown being specifically cited as one of the reasons the NBA changed the rules for draft eligibility a few years later. Even Jordan coming out of retirement to mentor Brown on the court did not significantly improve his lagging play. After four underachieving seasons in Washington, he was traded in '05 to the Lakers, who were still trying to replace Shaq. Brown played well enough in injury relief to be named the starting center in '06 but suffered a series of injuries and another arrest (disorderly conduct, DUI, driving with a suspended license) that brought his LA tenure to an end. He bounced around to five teams over the next six seasons (including the Jordan-owned Bobcats, in what many saw as a last-ditch effort by Jordan to justify his first pick, the other being the Grizzlies, 76ers, and Pistons), never reaching the potential that made him a #1 pick.
• Jalen Brunson is a combo guard initially drafted in 2018 by the Dallas Mavericks in the second round out of Villanova, where he won two national championships. He started out as a sixth man on the Dallas roster but improved every season and showed real promise in the team's 2022 run to a Western Conference Finals appearance. However, the Mavs did not sign him to a new contract, at which point he signed with the New York Knicks (who had recently hired Jalen's father, former NBA player Rick Brunson, to their coaching staff). Brunson exploded into a genuine star in New York, setting a few franchise and even NBA records (he's the only NBA player ever to go 8/8 on three point attempts in a single half) while taking the Knicks to their most success in years. In 2024, he became the second player in NBA history (after Oscar Robertson) to have three 35+ point, 10+ assist games in a single playoff series.
• Kobe Bryant won five championships and set franchise records for points, games, minutes, and steals with the Los Angeles Lakers, who retired both of his jersey numbers. See his own page for more on his legendary career.
• Quinn Buckner was drafted #7 overall in 1976 by the Milwaukee Bucks after leading Indiana to the last undefeated season in NCAA Division I men's history and winning Olympic gold in Montreal. While never a prolific scorer, Buckner was a solid defensive contributor, still holding the Bucks franchise record for steals despite only playing there six seasons. He subsequently won a ring with the Celtics and retired in 1986 after a year back in his home state with the Pacers. He later moved into coaching (with a disastrous one-year stint as HC of the Mavericks in 1993–94) and broadcasting, serving as the Pacers' color commentator since 1999.
• Jimmy Butler is a 6'7" swingman (small forward/shooting guard) who first made his name with the Chicago Bulls, which drafted him #30 overall out of Marquette in 2011. In an era where most of the NBA's biggest stars are anointed by the time they arrive in the league, Butler's gradual rise to become the face of the Bulls was unexpected; he mostly sat on the bench for his first several years, only to win Most Improved Player in 2015 and becoming a regular All-Star, albeit one on a team that otherwise largely struggled. After winning a gold medal in the 2016 Rio Olympics, he was traded to the T-Wolves in 2017 so that the Bulls could begin a rebuild, and was then traded twice more within a 12-month period, first to the Sixers early in the 2018–19 season and then to the Miami Heat in the offseason. While this would mark the twilight era for most players' careers, "Jimmy Buckets" truly established himself as a star in Miami. Butler led the Heat to a Finals appearance in the "COVID bubble" 2020 season, becoming the first player to out-score, out-rebound, and out-assist LeBron James in a Finals game (though the Heat still lost the series). He led the NBA in steals the following season and carried the team to the Conference Finals in '22 and the Finals in '23, establishing a reputation as an excellent performer in the playoffs.
• Andrew Bynum was drafted #10 overall in 2005 by the Los Angeles Lakers straight out of high school, becoming the youngest NBA player ever when the center played his first game just six days after his 18th birthday. After a few years of development, he played a key role in the team's back-to-back titles in '09-'10 and earned a single All-Star nom in 2012, the same year he tied the record for most blocks in a playoff game. That turned out to be the peak of his career; Bynum was traded the next year to the Cavs, missed a whole season due to complications in treatment for arthritis in his knees, and was out of the NBA a year later.

C

• Marcus Camby was one of the NBA's great blockers. Drafted #2 overall in 1996 out of UMass by the Raptors, he led the NBA in blocks in his second year but was traded away to the Knicks, where he primarily was a role-player before being traded to the Denver Nuggets in 2002. Camby emerged as a regular starter in Denver, leading the NBA in blocks three straight seasons (2006-08); in the middle of that stretch, he was named Defensive Player of the Year. The four-time All-Defensive Teamer was never named an All-Star, and at the end of that stretch, he was traded to the Clippers and then spent some time with the Trail Blazers and returned to the Knicks before retiring in 2013.
• Austin Carr, nicknamed "Mr. Cavalier", was the Cleveland Cavaliers' first star player and a mainstay of the franchise through most of its history. Drafted #1 overall in 1971 out of Notre Dame, the shooting guard struggled somewhat with injuries and only notched one All-Star nod in 1974, but he was still the face of the team through the '70s. He retired in 1981 after splitting the prior season between the Mavericks and Bullets and subsequently returned to Cleveland, where he has served as a color commentator for decades. The team retired his #34.
• Vince Carter is a Hall of Fame SG/SF drafted #5 overall by the Toronto Raptors out of North Carolina in 1998. He quickly made a name for himself due to his awe-inspiring and borderline superhuman dunks, winning Rookie of the Year, being featured on the cover of NBA Live 2004, and gaining the nicknames "Vinsanity", "Air Canada", and "Half-Man, Half Amazing". His athleticism took him to the 2000 Slam Dunk Contest where he wowed the crowd with a dazzling array of finishes and even further into the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where he jumped over a seven-foot player in-game for a dunk on the way to a gold medal. In his twilight years with the Raptors, he became a pariah to the franchise, sandbagging games due to his falling out with the front office. He was traded to the New Jersey Nets in 2004 and then became a journeyman, playing for six different teams^note Magic, Suns, Mavericks, Grizzlies, Kings, and Hawks while commendably adapting his game as a role player, something many stars simply can't do. While the eight-time All-Star didn't see the court as much in his final years, Carter's 22 seasons in the league are the most of any player, and he is the only NBA player to have played in four different decades (the 1990s through the 2020s). Carter retired in 2020 during the COVID-19 shutdown and went into broadcasting. To put in perspective just how long Carter was in the league, on the opening night of his final NBA season...
  • Carter was the oldest player in the league by three full years.^note Carter was born in January 1977; the next-oldest player on an opening-night roster, Udonis Haslem (see the "Players: G through M" page), was born in June 1980.
  • Carter was nearly 12 years older than any of his Hawks teammates.^note The next-oldest, Chandler Parsons, was born in October 1988.
  • Four of Carter's Hawks teammates had yet to be born when Carter was drafted; the youngest wasn't born until nearly 7 months after Carter played his first NBA game.^note Carter's rookie season was shortened by a player lockout, and didn't start until early February 1999.
• Michael Carter-Williams was drafted #11 overall out of Syracuse in 2013. Despite the Philadelphia 76ers being terrible, he excelled enough to be chosen as Rookie of the Year, becoming the lowest drafted player to win that honor in over a quarter-century. Despite his early performances ranking up with the greatest rookies ever, he was traded to the Bucks the following year to ensure Philly would get even more draft picks for the rebuild. This was the beginning of a long decline for Carter-Williams, who never came close to regaining his old form; he has bounced around the NBA ever since.
• Bill Cartwright was a center drafted #3 overall out of San Francisco by the New York Knicks in 1979. While he played slightly longer and had more individual success in New York, he saw the greatest team success as the Chicago Bulls' starting center after he was traded there in 1988. He won three titles in Chicago, retired from play in '95 after a year in Seattle, and returned to the Bulls as an assistant coach, participating in the second half of their dynasty in that capacity. He ascended to become the team's HC in 2001 but was fired in the midst of his third terrible season.
• Sam Cassell was a point guard who played for eight teams during his 16-year career. Selected #24 overall in 1993 out of Florida State by the Rockets, he was a backup point guard and clutch sixth man during Houston's two straight championship-winning seasons in his first two years in the league. He was traded repeatedly over the next eight years to the Suns, Mavericks, Nets, and Bucks, always a solid if unspectacular starter wherever he ended up. Yet another trade in 2003 sent him to the Minnesota Timberwolves, where he broke out as the #2 behind Kevin Garnett and earned his sole career All-Star appearance as the team reached the Conference Finals for the only team in franchise history. However, Cassell injured his back in the second round and was severely limited, contributing to the T-Wolves defeat. He missed much of the next season with an injury and was traded to the Clippers in '05, where he helped the long-struggling team win its first ever playoff series. In 2008, as an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his career, he reunited with Kevin Garnett on the Celtics and became a key bench player as they won the championship that season. Cassell retired after the season, bookending his lengthy career with championships, and moved into coaching, mostly as an assistant under Doc Rivers.
• Wilt Chamberlain is a serious entrant into the "best ever" debate, being an offensive juggernaut who took entire teams to contain him and assembled a list of likely unbeatable records longer than even his arms. For more on the four-time MVP and two-time champion whose jersey is retired by the Golden State Warriors, Philadelphia 76ers, and Los Angeles Lakers for his immense contributions to all three franchises, view his dedicated page.
• Tom Chambers was an athletic forward out of Utah who started off with the Clippers and SuperSonics before joining the Phoenix Suns as the first ever unrestricted free agent signing in league history. A high flyer with a nice shooting touch, he is most known for his mullet and using Mark Jackson as a springboard for a near free-throw line two-handed dunk (this dunk is also a Game-Breaker in Lakers vs. Celtics). However, he's also had a respected career outside of those moments, being a star bench power forward for the Suns' 1993 NBA Finals run. He is currently the only eligible player to have scored 60+ points in a game (besides Gilbert Arenas) or over 20,000 points throughout his career who has not entered the Hall of Fame. Despite this, his #24 is retired by the Suns, and he is a part of the team's local pre-game and post-game broadcasting shows.
• Tyson Chandler was a longtime journeyman who spent the peak of his individual career with the New York Knicks. A solid defensive center drafted #2 overall in 2001 straight out of high school by the Bulls, Chandler bounced around the rosters of the Hornets and Bobcats before winning a ring with the Mavericks. With that championship success, Chandler became a desirable free agent and signed a lucrative deal with the Knicks in 2011. He became the team's defensive weapon in New York's early 2010s resurgence, winning Defensive Player of the Year in 2012 (the same year he won Olympic gold) and his only All-Star nod the next year. Unfortunately, injuries and illness ended his time in New York in 2014; he returned to Dallas, then posted stints with the Suns, Lakers, and Rockets before calling it a career in 2020.
• Maurice Cheeks was a Hall of Fame point guard for the Philadelphia Sixers during their late '70s/early '80s run. Drafted in the second round in 1978 out of West Texas A&M^*then known as West Texas State and initially envisioned as a role player, he emerged as an All-Star during their '83 championship run. He picked up three more All-Star nods through the rest of the decade even as the team's success began to fade, becoming the franchise's all-time leader in assists and steals. Cheeks was traded to the Spurs in 1990 and bounced around to brief stints with the Knicks, Hawks, and Nets before retiring in 1993. He then entered coaching, serving an HC stint with his old team in Philly from 2005-08 after first taking that role in Portland from 2001-05; he'd later get one more shot in the 2013-14 season with Detroit. The Sixers retired his #10.
• Phil Chenier was a skilled shooting guard who started his NBA career when the Baltimore Bullets drafted him in the 1971 "hardship" draft (for college underclassmen of demonstrated need) out of Cal. Chenier was a prolific scorer in Baltimore and later Washington, earning three All-Star nods, though a back injury led him to miss out on most of the team's 1977-78 title season. After a few short stints with the Pacers and Warriors, he retired in 1981 and went into TV broadcasting, eventually serving as Washington's color commentator for three decades (1987-2017); when he retired from this role, the now-Wizards retired his #45 jersey.
• Nathaniel "Sweetwater" Clifton was one of four Black players to integrate the NBA in 1950 and arguably saw the most success of any of them on the court. Clifton was 27 years old by the time he signed with the New York Knicks in 1950, having served three years in the Army during WWII after his college career at the HBCU Xavier (Louisiana), then played several years in the Negro leagues and with the Harlem Globetrotters. His ball handling gained notice from the NBA, and after signing with New York, Clifton helped lead the Knicks to Finals appearances in his first three seasons and earned an All-Star nod in 1957. He was traded to the Pistons after that season, retired a year later, and briefly attempted a comeback in the short-lived ABL in 1961 at the age of 40. He died in 1990, and the Hall of Fame posthumously inducted him in 2014. He was portrayed by Everett Osborne in a 2023 Biopic simply titled Sweetwater.
• Jason Collins was drafted #18 overall in 2001 out of Stanford by the New Jersey Nets (via the Rockets), where he played for the next six and a half seasons. The center had a relatively unspectacular 13 seasons in the NBA, serving as a solid journeyman defender (playing for Memphis, Minnesota, Atlanta, Boston, Washington, and Brooklyn) in the back half of his career who rarely lit up the scoreboard. However, he lands on this list due to being the first male athlete in any of the four major U.S. pro sports leagues to come out as gay during his playing career. Collins made the announcement in a Sports Illustrated cover story during the 2013 offseason while a free agent, revealing that he had worn the #98 for several seasons as a way to honor the notorious 1998 anti-gay murder of Matthew Shepard whose death led to the passage of a federal Hate Crime Act. Collins remained unsigned at the start of the following season, but Nets coach and former teammate Jason Kidd advocated for the team to pick him back up to close out the season, and Collins retired with the team.
• Mike Conley is the point guard who was triggerman of the Memphis Grizzlies' "Grit and Grind" era, spending his first 12 seasons in Memphis and setting the franchise's records for points, games, steals, and assists. The son of Olympic triple jump gold medalist Mike Conley Sr., he was picked #4 overall out of Ohio State in 2007 and established himself as a reliable scorer, passer, and team leader. Unfortunately, he's been a classic example of Overshadowed by Awesome, as he's spent his entire career in the same conference as undeniably great PGs such as Steve Nash, Tony Parker, Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden, just to name a few. It took him 14 seasons to make his first All-Star Game in 2021, the longest wait in league history for a first-time All-Star, and even then he only made the roster as an alternate for the injured Devin Booker and did not make it while playing for the Grizzlies, who traded him to the Jazz in 2019. Conley is also noted as a class act on the court—he's received the NBA Sportsmanship Award a record four times, was named the league's Teammate of the Year twice, and has never received a technical foul once, easily the longest streak for any NBA player.^note Technically, he did get T'd up once in 2014, but it was officially rescinded the following day. He currently plays for the Timberwolves.
• Chuck Cooper was one of four Black players to integrate the NBA in 1950 and the first African-American to be drafted by the league. After Navy service in WWII interrupted his college career at the HBCU West Virginia State, he returned to play at Duquesne and became the first Black player to play a college basketball game in the South. The Boston Celtics drafted the small forward/shooting guard in the second round with the #14 pick. His on-field production wasn't spectacular, and he was traded four years later, bounced around a few other teams, and was out of the NBA by 1956. Cooper died of cancer in 1984 and was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2019 after decades of campaigning.
• Michael Cooper was the defensive star of the "Showtime" era for the Los Angeles Lakers. A third round pick out of New Mexico in 1978, he wasn't particularly notable in his rookie season but emerged after Magic Johnson's arrival; while never named an All-Star, the shooting guard was an All-Defensive teamer eight times, won Defensive Player of the Year in 1987, and was acknowledged by Larry Bird as the greatest defender he ever faced. On the offensive side, he was most known for his "Coop-a-loop" alley-oop signature move. Cooper left the Lakers in 1990 and retired after a year in Italy (where he won that league's MVP) before retiring and moving into coaching; he most notably won two championships and Coach of the Year with the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks in the early 2000s, briefly served as the Nuggets' interim HC, and won another title in the G League.
• Larry Costello was drafted by the Philadelphia Warriors in the second round in 1954, but they traded the Niagara product closer to home with the Syracuse Nationals in 1957. The point guard emerged as a six-time All-Star with the team, won a championship in '67 as a role-player soon after the Nationals became the Philadelphia 76ers, and became notable as the last player to use the two-handed set shot (he led the league in free throw percentage twice in '63 and '65). Immediately after retiring in 1968, he became the first HC for the expansion Milwaukee Bucks; his continued success in that role contributed to a posthumous induction into the Hall of Fame in 2022 after his death in 2001.
• DeMarcus Cousins is a center drafted #5 overall in 2010 out of Kentucky by the Sacramento Kings. A physical presence inside, he averaged a double-double in five of his seven years in Sacramento (while also being among NBA leaders in technical fouls) but could not lift the team out of its lengthy postseason drought. He set a franchise single-game record with 56 points, became just the fourth player in NBA history with 20+ points, 20+ rebounds, 10+ assists, and 5+ blocks in a game, and became the first King to make the All-Star game since 2004 in 2015 (his first of four straight appearances). However, through it all, he was suspended several times by both the league and the Kings for his many fouls, fights with teammates, and other minor off-court offenses. After winning an Olympic gold medal in '16, he was traded to the Pelicans in '17 to pair with rising superstar Anthony Davis. He quickly tied the young franchise's single-game record for rebounds with 23 and became the first player since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to post 40+ points, 20+ rebounds, and 10+ assists in a game. Unfortunately, he tore his Achilles in 2018, the final year of his contract. He signed a Mid-Level Exception deal with the Warriors, returned late in the season after recovering from his injury, and helped the team to a Finals appearance before losing to the Raptors. He then signed with the Lakers, who had just acquired LeBron and reunited with Anthony Davis, but tore his ACL is an offseason pickup game and never played for the team as they went on to win a championship. He bounced through four teams (the Rockets, Bucks, Clippers, and Nuggets) over the next two seasons and currently plays in Puerto Rico.
• Bob Cousy was widely acclaimed as the league's first great point guard. A local college legend in Boston after winning a NCAA championship at Holy Cross, he was drafted #3 overall in 1950 by the Tri-City Blackhawks but refused to play for them, leading to the Boston Celtics picking up his rights. The acquisition paid off; he was a six-time champion, 13-time All-Star, 1957 MVP, and led the league in assists for eight straight seasons (he remains the Celtics all-time leader). His ball-handling and dribbling skills earned him the nicknames "The Houdini of the Hardwood", "Mr. Basketball", or simply "Cooz". If you want to get technical, Cousy introduced an array of ambidextrous moves, behind-the-back dribbling, no-look passes, behind-the-back feeds, and half-court fastbreak launches. In fact, many consider him to be the forerunner for all point guards; Magic Johnson and Pete Maravich modeled their styles after him. In 1954, he also founded the National Basketball Players Association, the first trade union in American pro sports, making him an extremely important figure in sports labor history as he helped lay the groundwork for pro athletes to obtain pensions, health benefits, and much higher salaries than he ever received. He stepped down as the union president in 1958 and retired after 1963 and entered into coaching at Boston College. Bored with what he saw as "easy" success there, he took up a lucrative coaching deal with the Cincinnati Royals in 1969; in his first year, the 41-year-old memorably stepped back onto the court for seven games, though he never posted a winning record in his five seasons with the team. His next stop was a run as commissioner of the American Soccer League, a position he was appointed to despite repeatedly stating that he didn't know jack about soccer. Cousy was elected into the Hall of Fame, had his #14 jersey retired by the Celtics, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Donald Trump; the Eastern Conference Championship Trophy is named in his honor.
• Dave Cowens was a Hall of Fame center (often called undersized for the position at 6'9"), drafted #4 overall by the Boston Celtics out of Florida State in 1971 at the behest of Bill Russell. Although largely overlooked because of the wave of talent that joined the Celtics right after him, Cowens was named Rookie of the Year, the 1973 regular season MVP, an eight-time All-Star, and a two-time champion ('74, '76). Cowens' playing credo was all-out intensity at both ends of the court, a style that never wavered during his ten years in Boston. As a testament to his all-around ability, in 1977–78 Cowens became the first of only six players in league history to lead his team in all five major statistical categories for a season. (The other five are Scottie Pippen, Kevin Garnett, LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Nikola Jokić.) He was also a bit of a Bunny-Ears Lawyer - Cowens once took a leave of absence from the Celtics to work as a cab driver for a night, claiming he needed to clear his head after suffering from burnout. During the 1978-79 season, he was the last player-coach in NBA history; it didn't go well. After retiring in 1980, he attempted a comeback in 1982-83 with the Bucks before calling it a playing career. His short stint coaching the Hornets in the '90s was somewhat promising, his time with the Warriors and a disastrous year with the WNBA's Sky ended his tenure as a HC. His #18 jersey was retired by the Celtics.
• Jamal Crawford had a two-decade journeyman NBA career as a combo guard, becoming renowned as one of the NBA's great ball-handlers and teammates. Drafted by the Bulls #8 overall in 2000 after a very short tenure at Michigan (one year, shortened by an NCAA suspension), Crawford played for eight other franchises, narrowly playing the longest for the Los Angeles Clippers from 2012-17.^note His second stop with the Knicks comes closest; other stints include the Warriors, Hawks, Trail Blazers, Timberwolves, Suns, and Nets. In that time, Crawford won two of his record three Sixth Man of the Year awards (earned in '10, '14, and '16). His playing career ended in 2020.
• Billy Cunningham was a Hall of Fame forward for the Philadelphia 76ers drafted #5 overall in 1965 out of North Carolina. "The Kangaroo Kid"'s leaping ability helped win the '67 title, and he claimed four All-Star nods before signing with the ABA's Carolina Cougars for more money in 1972. When the cash-strapped Cougars failed to pay his full signing bonus, he tried to back out and rejoin the Sixers, only for a court injunction to force him to stay; he won ABA MVP that season after leading the league in steals and taking the Cougars to the ABA's best win record. When the Cougars folded and moved to St. Louis in 1974, Cunningham managed to return to the Sixers and play two more seasons before retiring. After a year in broadcasting, Philly hired him as their head coach; over his eight seasons with the team, he never had a losing record and took them to six Conference Finals, three NBA Finals, and the championship in '83, giving him a career win percentage second only to Phil Jackson and making him the winningest coach in franchise history. The Sixers retired his #32.
• The Curry Family is comprised of several notable players renowned for their long-range abilities.
  • Dell Curry was drafted #15 overall by the Jazz in 1986, but the Virginia Tech shooting guard only lasted a year there before being traded to the Cavs. He was left unprotected in the 1988 expansion draft and became the first player claimed by the new Charlotte Hornets. He would play for the team the next decade, won Sixth Man of the Year in '94, and remains the franchise leader in games played. In some ways, Curry was ahead of his time, as his focus on three-point shooting led him to be viewed as a role-player. He retired in 2002 after stints with the Bucks and Raptors and returned to Charlotte to serve as the team's color commentator. Despite his importance to Charlotte fans, Curry's greatest basketball legacy is unquestionably being the father of...
  • Stephen Curry is the Golden State Warriors' all-time leader in points, games, assists, and steals, and the NBA's all-time leader in three-pointers. Curry deserves much of the credit for the Warriors dynastic run in the 2010s and '20s and has a solid case for being the best shooter in basketball history and changing the way the entire game is played; see his own page for more.
  • Seth Curry, much like his brother, is noted for his three-point prowess, even if he has never reached the heights Steph did. After going undrafted out of Duke in 2013, Seth bounced around to eight teams in the following decade before being traded to Charlotte in early 2024, making him the second Curry to wear #30 for the Hornets.

D

• Bob Dandridge, nicknamed "Greyhound", was a Hall of Fame swingman drafted by the young Milwuakee Bucks in the fourth round in 1969 out of the HBCU Norfolk State. Dandridge emerged as a strong scorer, helping the Bucks win their 1971 championship. He remained consistent late in his career; when he landed with the Washington Bullets in 1977-78, he immediately became a key piece to their championship victory that season. He retired with the Bucks in 1981 and had his #10 retired by the franchise.
• Mel Daniels was the ABA's all-time leading rebounder and a dominant force for the '70s Indiana Pacers dynasty. A #9 overall pick in the 1967 Draft, the New Mexico center was the first NBA first-rounder to elect to go to the ABA instead, having been offered a more lucrative contract by the Minnesota Muskies... who, notably, went broke and had to trade him to the Pacers after his Rookie of the Year season where he led the ABA in rebounds. Daniels claimed the rebound title twice more in Indiana in '69 and '71; thanks to his prolific scoring, he also was named league MVP both seasons and helped lead the Pacers to their three championships. The seven-time All-Star was traded in 1974 and retired after 1976; the Pacers retired his #34 and he was enshrined in the Hall of Fame in 2012. He died after a heart surgery in 2015.
• Adrian Dantley was a Hall of Fame small forward who saw the peak of his career with the Utah Jazz, though he didn't start his career there. Drafted #6 overall in 1976 by the Buffalo Braves shortly after helping the amateur U.S. national team win gold, the Notre Dame product broke out as Rookie of the Year, only to be immediately traded. Dantley played well in short stints with the Pacers and Lakers, but he truly began to shine once landing with the Jazz in 1979, their first year in Utah. Dantley earned six All-Star nods with the Jazz, led the NBA in scoring in '81 and '84, and won Comeback Player of the Year in the latter season after leading the young franchise on their first playoff run. Part of his exceptional scoring ability came from his unique talent for drawing fouls, often leading the league in free throws (at which he was exceptional). Contract disputes led Dantley to leave Utah in 1986 for Detroit. Dantley was part of the "Bad Boy" Pistons teams of the late '80s, but was traded during their championship 1988-89 season and he retired in 1991 after less spectacular stints with other teams. He later became an assistant coach for the Denver Nuggets from 2003-11, briefly becoming their interim HC while George Karl battled cancer.
• Brad Daugherty was the #1 overall pick in 1986. The center from North Carolina quickly emerged as a major star for the Cleveland Cavaliers, being the franchise's all-time leading scorer prior to LeBron. The five-time All-Star's career was cut somewhat short by back injuries; he retired in 1996, and the Cavs retired his #43 jersey. That number is significant — Daugherty was a massive NASCAR fan and chose his number to honor Richard Petty, and he now owns a NASCAR team.
• Bob Davies was a Hall of Fame guard and the first star of the Rochester Royals (later the Sacramento Kings). The "Harrisburg Houdini" became one of the first college basketball stars at Seton Hall thanks to his advanced (for the time) ball handling, and after his WWII service and playing with a few other nascent pro teams, signed with the new NBL team in 1945. He immediately led the team to a NBL championship and was named MVP the following year. He led the NBA in assists in 1949 and helped the Royals claim the NBA championship in '51. He retired from playing in 1955 and entered a career selling Converse shoes before passing away in 1990; his #11 is retired by the Kings.
• Anthony Davis started out as a 6'3" point guard at high school and grew into a 6'10" power forward/center by his college days in Kentucky, which he helped lead to a national championship. The versatile player was the #1 draft pick in 2012 for the team then known as the New Orleans Hornets, winning Olympic gold shortly before making his pro debut. Known for his unibrow and a lanky athleticism that helped him dominate both offense and defense and lead the league in blocks thrice, Davis quickly developed into a perennial All-Star on a team that regularly struggled, becoming the franchise career leader in points, rebounds, and blocks. During the 2018–19 season, he let the Pelicans know that he wouldn't sign a supermax extension once his current deal expired in 2020, instead seeking to be traded to a contender. He subsequently landed with LeBron on the Los Angeles Lakers and bounced back in a big way, winning a championship ring. He has been featured on the cover of NBA 2K 16 and 20 and was named a member of the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team.
• Baron Davis was drafted by the Charlotte Hornets #3 overall out of UCLA in 1999 and emerged as one of the team's main stars after their move to New Orleans in 2002, earning two All-Star selections, scoring the longest field goal in NBA history in 2001 (an 89-foot third quarter buzzer beater), and leading the NBA in steals in 2004, helping him land a cover spot on NBA Street V3. However, he pushed for a trade to the Warriors at this time, and the Hornets' prospects declined in his absence. Davis was a key part of breaking the Warriors' 12-year playoff drought and earned another steal title in 2007, but he failed to revive another struggling franchise after he signed with his hometown Clippers in 2008. He bounced around to the Cavs and Knicks and was out of the NBA after 2012 despite a few failed comeback attempts.
• Brad Davis was the Dallas Mavericks' first star player and has worked for the franchise in some capacity for over 40 years. Drafted in the first round by the Lakers in 1977, the point guard out of Maryland was waived in his second season and struggled to hold onto a spot in the NBA until signing with the expansion Mavs during their first season in 1980. Davis played for the team for the next twelve seasons as a solid role player, including taking the team within one game of a Finals appearance in 1988. His #15 was the first jersey retired by the franchise, and he has served on Mavericks broadcasts since 1993.
• Walter Davis was a swingman drafted #5 overall by the Phoneix Suns in 1977 out of North Carolina after winning Olympic gold the year prior. He won Rookie of the Year after getting off to the best start in NBA history, scoring 34 points in his first game before missing his first shot. The six-time All-Star became the Suns' all-time leading scorer and kept them fairly successful through the '80s before injuries and a drug problem derailed his career. He was released in 1988 and spent his last few seasons with the Nuggets and Blazers before retiring in 1992, eventually passing away in 2023. His #6 is one of the few jerseys officially retired by the Suns.
• Dave DeBusschere was a Hall of Fame forward for the New York Knicks during their championship years, though he started his career with the Detroit Pistons, who took him with their territorial draft pick in 1962 out of the University of Detroit (decades before it became Detroit Mercy). Besides earning four All-Star nods, DeBusschere's time with his hometown team was notable for a few reasons. First, he was one of only a handful of NBA players to simultaneously play in MLB, pitching for the Chicago White Sox for two seasons. Second, he was named the team's player-coach in 1964 at the age of 24, making him by far the youngest head coach in NBA history. However, DeBusschere was not at all successful at turning the team into winners, and he was demoted two seasons later and traded the following year to the Knicks. Surrounded by a much better cast, he earned another four All-Star nods and six All-Defensive team positions, his physical defense playing a key role in the Knicks' '70 and '73 titles. He retired still on the top of his game in 1974 to take a front office job across town with the ABA's Nets; he was appointed the ABA's commissioner in its final season, helping to negotiate the merger with the NBA, then returned to the Knicks as director of basketball operations, where he drafted Patrick Ewing. DeBusschere died of a heart attack in 2003; the Knicks retired his #22.
• Luol Deng was a 6'7" small forward from what's now South Sudan by way of Egypt, London, and Duke. Deng played for four teams in his career but is best known for his first ten seasons with the Chicago Bulls (2004–14), who selected him #7 overall (via the Suns). During his time in Chicago, he helped bring the team back to competition for the first time since MJ's departure, though it took him until 2012 to obtain the first of two All-Star nods; he was the first Bull since Jordan to lead the league in minutes per game. He was traded to the Cavaliers during the 2013–14 season and bounced around a few teams (including Miami and the Lakers) before retiring in 2019. Also noted as being the unwitting trigger for the 2015 sale of the Atlanta Hawks.^ExplanationIn the 2014 offseason, several Hawks executives held a conference call regarding potential free agent signees. During the call, GM Danny Ferry read from a background report in which a scout used racial stereotypes in reference to Deng. This launched an internal investigation that uncovered an email in which principal owner Bruce Levenson made several racial comments, most notably expressing concern that white fans might be scared away by black fans. The Levenson email emerged in the middle of the Donald Sterling controversy; Levenson saw the writing on the wall and put his majority stake in the team up for sale before the NBA could force him to sell out. His other (often-squabbling) partners sold their stakes as well.
• DeMar DeRozan is a shooting guard who spent his first nine NBA seasons in Toronto, becoming the franchise leader in points, games, and minutes. Drafted #9 overall out of USC in 2009, he made his name in much the same way as former Raports star Vince Carter, with slashing drives and acrobatic dunks, and embraced a city that isn't among the most popular playing destinations for American NBA stars, going so far as to re-up with the Raptors in 2016 after leading the franchise to their first Conference Finals appearance instead of returning to his native L.A. as a free agent (though his Canadian loyalty only went so far, as he went on to win Olympic gold with the U.S. that same year). However, he was dealt to San Antonio in 2018 for Kawhi Leonard (just a few months after being featured on the Canadian cover of NBA 2K 18). His departure had a major impact on Raptors fans, falling roughly between LeBron's first and second departures from Cleveland, and stung all the more when the Raptors won a championship immediately after his departure. Another face of the league's ongoing push for mental health awareness, he has since opened up about his struggles with depression. After spending three seasons in San Antonio, he joined Chicago in a sign-and-trade deal and bounced back to All-Star form.
• Vlade Divac,^note last name pronounced DEE-vahts a Hall of Fame center from Serbia, was drafted by the Lakers #26 overall in 1989 out of Partizan Belgrade and arrived in L.A. that year. He became one of the first European players to make a significant impact in the league. On the positive side, he was a remarkably skilled player for his size, noted especially for his passing skills, and also won many friends around the league with his infectious personality. On the negative side, he earned a reputation for flopping to draw fouls. While the bulk of his NBA career was actually with the Lakers, he's more identified with the Kings, having arrived in Sacto in 1998 (at the same time as Chris Webber and Peja Stojaković) and becoming one of the key players during their peak era around the turn of the century before he retired in 2005 after over two decades of playing pro basketball. Divac also won two Olympic silver medals for Yugoslavia in '88 and '96. The Kings retired his #21, and he was their general manager from 2015-20.^note His GM tenure was not one to be proud of, though, as he made blunder after blunder, most infamously picking Marvin Bagley III over Luka Dončić in the 2018 NBA Draft.
• Luka Dončić is a star swingman for the Dallas Mavericks. From Slovenia by way of Real Madrid,^note a multi-sport club that fields teams in a wide range of sports, though the only one that most people are familiar with, especially in the US, is the legendary football/soccer team he was picked #3 overall in 2018 by the Hawks but immediately traded to Dallas (with the Hawks receiving #5 pick Trae Young and a first-round pick, see above). Dončić emerged as a potential star of the future at EuroBasket 2017, when he played a major role in leading Slovenia to a surprise championship, and followed it up the next season by being named the youngest MVP in the history of the EuroLeague at just 19 years old, all while being a starter in Madrid for years. In his first season in the NBA, which turned out to be Nowitzki's last, he picked up the torch of "Dallas' European superstar" and became only the fifth player to average 20 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists as a rookie.^note The others? Only some guys named Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan, and LeBron James. And Tyreke Evans. Dončić ended the season as Rookie of the Year and very quickly set a host of "youngest ever" and even franchise records while being too young to drink in the U.S.. He went on to make the All-NBA first team every season since, becoming the first player since Kevin Durant (and only the fourth overall) to make three before his 24th birthday. His production took the Mavs to their first Conference Finals appearance in over a decade in 2022. He has cemented himself in the Olympics as well, scoring 48 points in his debut in 2021 (against Argentina), the second-highest single-game performance in Olympic history. His success landed him on the cover of NBA 2K 22, and he has remained one of the most prolific scorers in the game, including posting a 73-point performance in early 2024, the same season he claimed the league scoring title.
• Clyde Drexler was a ten-time All-Star, a member of the Dream Team, a Hall of Famer, the Portland Trail Blazers record-holder for games, minutes, and steals, and one of the greatest swingmen of all time. "Clyde the Glide" was the Blazers' go-to superstar for the late '80s and early '90s after they drafted him #14 overall in 1983, leading them to two NBA Finals but losing to the Pistons and the Bulls. In 1992, Drexler finished second in MVP voting (won by Michael Jordan) and twice came within an inch of a quadruple-double, missing by a rebound in one game and an assist in the other. Frustrated with all the times he came up short in the playoffs, including the time his team had the best regular season record (1991, when they lost in the Conference Finals), Drexler was granted a trade to the Houston Rockets, who he helped win their second consecutive championship in 1995 while playing alongside Hakeem Olajuwon, his close friend and college teammate with Houston's "Phi Slama Jama". He retired in 1998 to briefly serve as head coach at his alma mater. The Blazers retired his #22.
• Andre Drummond was drafted by the Detroit Pistons #9 overall in 2012 out of UConn. The highly touted center prospect was, in some ways, the much-less-successful 2010s version of Ben Wallace: an excellent rebounder (leading the league in '16, '18, '19, and '20) who struggled at scoring himself, particularly from the free throw line, with a sub-.500 percentage and a NBA record 23 missed free throws in a single game. The two-time All-Star failed to elevate the Pistons to consistent contention; he was traded to Cleveland in 2020 and has since bounced around four other teams, currently sitting with the Bulls.
• Joe Dumars was a combo guard who played his entire career for the Detroit Pistons. Drafted #18 overall out of the small McNeese in 1985, Dumars was a tenacious defender who could average 20+ points per game, and he and Thomas formed one of the deadliest backcourt duos of his era. Even Michael Jordan said that Dumars was the best defender that he ever played against; his presence famously forced the Bulls to play a completely different style of offense whenever they faced the Pistons, as Dumars was so successful in locking MJ down. A Hall of Famer, six-time All-Star, two-time champion, and the 1989 Finals MVP, Dumars became personally known for his quiet and upstanding behavior despite being one of the "Bad Boy Pistons". The trophy given to the winner of the NBA Sportsmanship Award is named for him, as he was its first recipient. After his retirement from the court in 1999, having set the franchise record for three-pointers and games played, the Pistons retired his #4 and immediately hired him as their president of basketball operations. In this capacity, Dumars continued to be critical to the team's success, guiding a successful rebuild that saw him be named Executive of the Year in 2003 and become the first African American executive to win a NBA championship the following year. He stepped down from this position in 2014 but has remained active in the NBA to this day, serving as the league's executive VP and head of basketball operations since 2022.
• Tim Duncan is a Hall of Famer said by many to be the greatest power forward in NBA history, having played for the San Antonio Spurs for 19 seasons, becoming the franchise's all-time leader in points, games, minutes, rebounds, and blocks. A dominant defender, he earned a record 15 selections to the NBA's All-Defensive Team, though he surprisingly was never named Defensive Player of the Year. He likely wouldn't complain about missing out; in addition to being one of the most humble and understated players to ever see the court, he won back-to-back MVP awards (2002-03) and Finals MVP in his first three of five titles across three decades ('99, '03, '05, '07, '14), plus Olympic bronze in '04. The St. Croix native (who had originally planned to be a pro swimmer before a hurricane destroyed his pool) was drafted #1 overall by the Spurs out of Wake Forest in 1997; he probably would have been drafted at the same spot two or even three years earlier had he not promised his mother on her deathbed that he would graduate from college. However, his four-year tenure honed his skills to the point that he was already playing at an All-Star level from the moment he stepped on an NBA court. Fittingly he won Rookie of the Year, teamed up with David Robinson to create a legendary basketball duo – the so-called "Twin Towers" — and carved his niche into NBA history by lifting his team into one of the Western elites: the only time in his career that the Spurs won fewer than 50 regular-season games was in 1999, where due to a lockout there only were 50 games played, and they never missed the playoffs. Because of his calm and unassuming style of basketball — even in his younger years, he was as likely to dominate with footwork and intelligence as with his natural talent, and he rarely showboated or showed much emotion while playing — Shaquille O'Neal nicknamed Duncan "The Big Fundamental". He was likewise durable and extremely consistent, being the only player ever to make 13 straight All-NBA and All-Defensive selections. One of Us at times, as he's a D&D fan and was even nicknamed "Mr. Spock" for his stoic and intelligent demeanor. His retirement during the 2016 offseason matched his personality—no farewell tour, no hype, just a statement to the press. To no one's surprise, the team retired his #21. He's occasionally worked with the Spurs' bigs since his retirement, even returning to the team in 2019–20 as a full-time assistant. Duncan was featured on the cover of NBA Live 2000.*
• Kevin Durant is nominally a forward (though with many guard skills) widely considered one of the best players of the 2010s. Known for his extremely lanky build (which earned him nicknames like "The Slim Reaper" and "The Durantula"), he was drafted #2 overall in 2007 by the SuperSonics after a stellar college season at Texas. After winning Rookie of the Year in his first season, the teenager stayed with the team for another eight after it became the Oklahoma City Thunder and quickly became a superstar, launching the franchise to greater success. The youngest PPG single-season leader in NBA history, he was widely praised for his sharpshooting accuracy and scoring efficiency, becoming the franchise leader in 3-pointers, and led the league in scoring three straight seasons (2010-12). Durant and teammate Russell Westbrook were largely seen as a Red Oni, Blue Oni dynamic, with Durant as Blue and Westbrook as Red. Durant joined the 50-40-90 club in '13 and was named league MVP in '14 after claiming his fourth scoring title. However, his talents couldn't get the Thunder to a championship, and when he became a free agent in '16, he took a page from LeBron's book and left to join a proven winner with the Golden State Warriors. Much like LeBron's move to Miami, this briefly made Durant the league's designated villain, especially to OKC fans. He took away some of the spotlight from Steph and Company upon his arrival, not that it really mattered to them; the Dubs won the title in both of KD's first two seasons, with KD claiming Finals MVP both times. During the final season of his Golden State contract in 2018–19, he struggled with a calf injury, missed the first four games of the Finals, and tore his Achilles when he returned, ruling him out until 2020. While off the court, he signed with the Brooklyn Nets and became one of the few players to recover from an Achilles injury with nary an impact on his performance; though his attempts to replicate his success at Golden State faltered, he led Team USA to his third gold in the 2020 Olympics (tying Carmelo Anthony's record). When the Nets' "superteam" fell apart in the 2022-23 season, Durant forced a trade to the Suns; despite the trade and injuries causing him to miss almost half the year, he became the sole member of the 55-40-90 club. He wore the #35 for the majority of his career as a tribute to his AAU^note i.e., youth basketball—the AAU, or Amateur Athletic Union, organizes major summer competitions, outside of the high school season coach, who was murdered prior to seeing Durant drafted to the NBA. He has been featured on the covers for NBA 2K 13, 15, and the "75th Anniversary Edition" of 22, as well as NBA Elite 11.

E

• Mark Eaton was one of the most dominant defenders in NBA history and played his whole career with the Utah Jazz. After barely seeing the court in his time at junior college Cypress and UCLA, the 7'4" center was taken in the fourth round in 1982 by the bottom-feeder Jazz as a developmental prospect. No one, not even the team that drafted him, expected Eaton to emerge as one of the best blockers the game has ever seen. While he wasn't offensively prolific, he protected the rim like few others have before or since. He led the league in blocks four times and won Defensive Player of the Year twice, the first in '85 after setting a still standing single-season record for blocks per game (5.6) and the second in '89 after earning his only All-Star nod. When the five-time All-Defensive teamer retired in '93 due to injuries, he was second behind only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in career blocks; he remains in the top five in that category (top among Jazz players) and still holds the career record for blocks per game (3.5). Eaton's #53 was retired by the Jazz, though his relatively short career and fairly poor non-defensive stats have kept him out of the Hall of Fame. He died in a bicycle accident in 2021.
• Anthony Edwards is yet another #1 overall pick for the T-Wolves (they have been a pretty dreadful franchise), going to the team in 2020 out of Georgia. The 6'4" shooting guard (nicknamed "Ant-Man") has so far been very successful in Minnesota, helping to turn them into consistent contenders for the first time since the Kevin Garnett years and becoming a regular All-Star. His dominant performance in the first round of the 2024 playoffs led to the franchise's first series win in 20 years and first ever series sweep. He has also dabbled in acting, most notably in the basketball film Hustle.
• Craig Ehlo was a decent player for the Cleveland Cavaliers, who picked up the third round pick from Washington State in 1986 after three seasons in Houston. He prominently sported '80s Hair but is mostly remembered for having defensive duties on opposing guards, including the Bulls' one whose name you already know, and for regularly failing to stop him. Notably the guy that took The Shot in the face. He played in Cleveland until '93 and retired in '97 after stints in Atlanta and Seattle.
• Sean Elliott was a small forward drafted #3 overall by the San Antonio Spurs in 1989 out of Arizona. After several solid seasons, Elliott was traded to the Pistons in 1993-94 for Dennis Rodman, which turned out poorly for both teams; Rodman was surrounded by off-court drama, while Elliott was diagnosed with a kidney disease that tanked his perceived trade value. He was subsequently sent back to the Spurs and proceeded to post some of the best numbers of his career, win a championship in '99, and even continued to play after receiving a kidney transplant. He retired in 2001, and the Spurs retired his #32.
• Pervis Ellison was the #1 overall pick in 1989, going to the Kings after an exceptional college career where he led Louisville to a national title. However, the center once called "Never Nervous Pervis" soon became known as "Out of Service Pervis"—he missed more than half of his rookie season to injury, leading the Kings to panic and trade him to Washington for a haul of draft picks and players that really didn't work out for the Kings. This trade looked even worse immediately after the trade, as Ellison mostly stayed healthy and even won Most Improved Player in '92, but injuries soon became an issue again, and he released in '94; he played out the rest of the decade as a minor role-player in Boston before retiring in 2000 after a short stint in Seattle, sealing his reputation as one of the most disappointing #1 picks in NBA history.
• Joel Embiid is a 7'0" Cameroonian drafted #3 overall out of Kansas in 2014 by the Philadelphia 76ers, though he wound up missing his first two years due to injuries and didn't make his debut until the 2016–17 season. He made an immediate impact and looked to have Rookie of the Year locked up... until getting hurt again (this time a torn meniscus) in January 2017; the Sixers shut him down for the rest of the season after 31 games. (He ultimately lost out on Rookie of the Year to the Bucks' Malcolm Brogdon.) However, "the Process" eventually asserted himself as a star in Philly, earning an All-Star selection every season since. In 2022, he became the first center since Shaq to lead the NBA in scoring, as well as the first since Moses Malone to average 30+ points per game; he not only kept the scoring title the following year, he increased his scoring output, becoming the first center since Bob McAdoo to earn back-to-back scoring titles and being named league MVP. In 2024, he became the first center since David Robinson to score 70 points in a game and was on pace for another MVP season before injuries derailed his campaign. Despite his individual regular season accolades, Embiid's style of play has also been widely critiqued for his dependence on drawing fouls, averaging considerably more free throws per game than most players in NBA history. This, paired with durability issues, may explain why Embiid has been much less successful in the postseason, holding the undesirable distinction of being the only MVP to never play in a Conference Finals. Also known for his larger-than-life social media presence (including hitting on Rihanna and Kim Kardashian on Twitter) and generally being a huge goofball while's he not on the court, Embiid was featured on the cover of NBA Live 19, to date the last installment in the franchise.
• Wayne Embry was a five-time All-Star center with the Cincinnati Royals (later Sacramento Kings), who drafted him in the third round in 1958 out of Miami (OH). While he had a very successful on-court career and won a ring in Boston in 1968, his greatest contribution to the game came after the end of his playing career. Following his final season with the Milwaukee Bucks in 1968-69, he entered the team's front office as one of the NBA's first Black executives. Embry was critical in acquiring former Royals teammate Oscar Robertson and forming the team that would win Milwaukee a championship. In 1972, Embry was promoted to GM, becoming the first African American to hold that position in the NBA. After seven more years in Wisconsin, Embry would later serve as the Cleveland Cavaliers' GM from 1986-99, reviving the franchise and winning Executive of the Year twice in '92 and '98; his off-court contributions ensured he immediately entered the Hall of Fame as a contributor after his retirement, which proved short-lived. He has worked for the Toronto Raptors' office since 2004, again briefly serving as interim GM in 2006.
• Alex English was the face of the high-scoring Denver Nuggets teams of the '80s. He did not start his pro career in Denver, being drafted in the second round by the Bucks out of South Carolina in 1976. The Bucks didn't know what to do with him and let him go in free agency after two seasons to the Pacers, where he began to emerge as a scorer. However, the Pacers traded him to Denver in the middle of the 1979-80 season to retrieve former franchise star George McGinnis. This proved to be a colossal mistake, as English thrived under the Nuggets' Glass Cannon playing style, averaging over 25 points for eight seasons straight, resulting in a scoring title in 1983 and being the highest scorer of the 1980s.^note He was also very briefly president of the NBPA in 1988. The eight-time All-Star left Denver in 1990 as the franchise's leader in points, games, and minutes played, and he retired from the NBA after one more year in Dallas. In addition to being a member of the 1997 Hall of Fame class, English has spent much of his post-playing career as a well-traveled assistant coach and one of the NBA's most active international ambassadors. The Nuggets retired his #2.
• Julius Erving, nicknamed Dr. J, was the dominant player in the ABA before the merger, giving the league much of its legitimacy; it's been suggested that getting him into the NBA was the primary reason for the merger. He was the only player to win the MVP award in both leagues and the only player to win a championship in both leagues. Erving signed with the Virginia Squires in 1971 in order to leave college at UMass (where NCAA rules prohibited him from utilizing his Signature Move of the slam dunk) one year early, then was traded by the cash-strapped franchise to the New Jersey Nets two years later, where he led the league in scoring thrice and won three straight ABA MVPs (1974-76) as well as two Playoff MVPs after leading the Nets to their only titles in '74 and '76. After the merger left the Nets struggling for dough as well (largely due to the Knicks forcing them to pay a fee for "invading" their territory), he was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers and became one of the most dominant players in the NBA, claiming the '81 MVP, winning a championship two years later (though the Sixers lost the other three Finals he led them to), and becoming the franchise leader in blocks. Besides his iconic afro, Erving was famous the flashiness of his playstyle, particularly his long-range dunks that made the move a standard part of how basketball is played and coined the term "posterized" for how awesome they looked. Iconic moves include his iconic 'Rock That Baby' dunk over the head of Laker Michael Cooper in 1983 and the Baseline Move, a behind-the-board reverse layup executed against Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the 1980 NBA Finals. The 16-time All-Star (5 ABA, 11 NBA) and first-ballot Hall of Famer remained active in basketball after retirement in 1987, joining the front office of the Orlando Magic in 1997. A longtime NASCAR fan, Erving also held an ownership stake in the first all-minority-owned NASCAR racing team. He also has a fondness for acting, starring in the comedy The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh during his career and making regular cameos in other projects in the years after (usually As Himself in Philly-related works). The Sixers retired his #6 (and the Nets his #32).
• Tyreke Evans stands as a good personification of the Sacramento Kings' franchise struggles throughout the 2010s. Drafted #4 overall out of Memphis in 2009, Evans broke out as an early star on a very weak roster, being only the fourth rookie ever at that time to average 20 points and 5 rebounds/assists. Since the other three rookies to make that mark evolved into Hall of Fame talents (Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan, and LeBron James), expectations were for Evans to at least be the future of the franchise. However, that season turned out to be Evans' peak, as injuries and other issues caused him to regress; he bounced around the league to New Orleans, Sacramento (again), Memphis, and Indiana, performing well in spots but never becoming a real star. A drug abuse-related ban in 2019 seemingly ended his NBA career. Adding to Sacramento's grief, Evans was one of a number of middling players drafted before Steph Curry.
• Patrick Ewing was the #1 pick in the 1985 Draft, taken by the New York Knicks as the starting center after winning a national championship at Georgetown. He was the first player ever to be chosen under the NBA draft lottery, leading to one of the most enduring conspiracy theories in sports.^note Many fans claim to this day (with no evidence backing them up) that the NBA rigged the lottery to give the Knicks the first pick that enabled them to select Ewing. The most popular theory is the "frozen envelope", claiming that the envelope containing the Knicks logo had been frozen shortly before it was placed in the hopper, allowing league commissioner David Stern to distinguish it from the others when he reached into the hopper to pull out the first one. A Rookie of the Year and 11-time All-Star, the seven-foot giant was an extremely well-rounded player and still holds almost every one of the Knicks' major statistical records (save for assists—he was not generally a facilitator). He won Olympic gold in '84 as an amateur and '92 as part of the Dream Team and led the Knicks through several vicious playoff series, taking the Knicks to two NBA Finals appearance in '94 and '99. Despite his accolades, however, the Hall of Famer remains one of those ring-less greats whose career happened to coincide with Jordan's. Ewing was also president of the NBPA from 1997-2001, ending his tenure between forgettable one-season stints with the Sonics and Magic; the Knicks retired his #33. He later returned to his alma mater as head coach from 2017-23 and failed to come close to duplicating his college success.

F

• Michael Finley was a swingman who started his career with the Suns, where he had an excellent rookie year after being drafted #21 overall out of Wisconsin, but he was subsequently traded to the Dallas Mavericks, where he played for the next decade. The two-time All-Star led the NBA in minutes played per game thrice (one of only three players to do so more than twice) and was an important supporting player. He was released in 2005 and signed with the Spurs, winning a ring in 2007 as a role player, and retired in 2010 after a very brief stint in Boston. He now works for the Mavericks' front office and has also seen some success as a film producer.
• Derek Fisher was drafted #24 overall by the Los Angeles Lakers in 1996 out of Little Rock. While not a highly decorated player, never even being named an All-Star, he had an 18-year career bolstered by his dependable leadership and clutch performances in big games; he also served as president of the NBPA from 2006-13. A key role-player in the Shaq–Kobe "three-peat" era, he was traded to the Jazz in 2006, where he played the full regular season before having to drop out of a playoff game to be with his baby daughter during emergency surgery for eye cancer; he flew directly back to Salt Lake, got a police escort to rejoin the team mid-game, and helped secure the victory. However, he requested a release from his contract at the end of their playoff run in order to move to a city where his daughter could get better treatment... which allowed him to return to the Lakers, where he played another five seasons and won two more titles. He played a few more short stints with the Thunder and Mavericks before retiring in 2014, holding NBA records for most playoff game appearances and wins (since passed only by LeBron James). After his playing career, Fisher was immediately hired as head coach of the Knicks by his old coach Phil Jackson, to fairly abysmal results. He then returned to L.A. to serve as the HC of the WNBA's Sparks, where he did better but still underperformed before being fired.
• Marcus Fizer was a power forward selected #4 overall by the Chicago Bulls in 2000 out of Iowa State and one of a string of draft failures in their post-Jordan years. He was considered a baffling selection, with the Bulls having just picked Elton Brand #1 overall the year before to play power forward. Longstanding rumors suggest that the Bulls took Fizer intending to trade his rights, but the trade fell through. Fizer largely languished on the bench, not performing especially well when he did play, and then tore his ACL in the final year of his rookie contract. He spent short stints with the Bucks, Hornets, and in the D League, never again starting an NBA game, but finding some greater success internationally for the next decade. Fizer contributes to the belief that the 2000 Draft is one of the weakest ever, though the Bulls still missed out on a couple of one-time All-Stars and several long-term contributors.
• Jonny Flynn was an undersized, score-first point guard selected #6 overall by the T-Wolves in 2009 out of Syracuse. He was the second of back-to-back PG picks after Ricky Rubio, seen as a bizarre selection as neither offered much positional versatility. He started every game as a rookie but put up disappointing numbers, then had offseason hip surgery before his second season. He only started six more games for the T-Wolves as he was supplanted by Rubio, then traded to Houston and Portland over the next two seasons. He was out of the NBA after just four years before playing a few more internationally. Adding to the disappointment for Minnesota, he and Rubio were selected with the two picks immediately ahead of Stephen Curry.
• Larry Foust was drafted #5 overall in 1950 by the Chicago Stags, which folded before the La Salle product could even play with them. He signed with the Fort Wayne Pistons instead and emerged as one of the '50s most dominant players. Massive for his era at 6'9", he dominated the paint, led the league in rebounds in 1952, and took the Pistons to two Finals appearances. Foust retired from play in 1962 after stints with the Lakers and Hawks and died in 1984 at just 56 years old. Foust is notable as the only eligible eight-time All-Star to not be in the Hall of Fame.
• Walt Frazier was a Hall of Fame point guard, the New York Knicks' all-time leader in assists, and the co-leader with Willis Reed for their pair of championships in the early '70s. Drafted #5 overall in 1967 out of Southern Illinois, he stepped in to lead the team to their 1970 title after Reed was knocked out by injury with one of the greatest Game 7 performances in NBA history. He continued to stand out as a dominant performer for several years before being traded to the Cavs in 1977, holding most of the Knicks' career records until Ewing swept them away. The seven-time All-Star retired after just over two seasons in Cleveland, and the Knicks promptly retired his #10. Off the court, Frazier was most famous for his extravagant and colorful style, which earned him the nickname "Clyde". Following his retirement from play, he entered into broadcasting and landed back in the Knicks' booth, where he has called games for decades.
• Jimmer Fredette was an electrifying college star at BYU where he rewrote school, conference, and even some NCAA records as a prolific scorer, even getting his own Memetic Mutation as opponents on whom he put up a ton of points were said to have gotten "Jimmered". However, he was undersized for an NBA shooting guard, lacked the ball-handling skills to remain a point guard in the pros, and his ambidextrous, unorthodox shooting cast serious doubt on his NBA potential. Nonetheless, he was a massive fan favorite and drew comparisons as the basketball version of Tim Tebow. The Sacramento Kings drafted him #10 overall in 2011 (via the Bucks), whose gear saw an unprecedented 540% increase in sales and started a "Jimmermania" craze in Sacramento where even preseason games were packed with fans seeking to see the supposed savior of the long-struggling franchise. Unfortunately, he was anything but. After a few flashes as a rookie, he failed to enter the starting lineup, saw his minutes decrease each year, and the team bought out his contract after his third season when they failed to find a trade partner. He bounced around to four teams in four years, as well as a stint in the D League, before moving on to play internationally where he found more success, winning an International MVP award in China, a championship in Greece, and currently playing in 3x3 basketball working toward the 2024 Olympics. While Fredette failed miserably in the NBA, an actual revolutionary shooter went one pick later — Klay Thompson (the second time the Kings passed one of the Warriors "Big Three" for a bust at the same position). The Kings also missed out on Kawhi Leonard and Jimmy Butler.
• World B. Free was a long-time journeyman who played in the NBA from 1975–88. While most famous for his awesome name (his birth name was Lloyd), his larger than life persona and playstyle made him more than worthy of the moniker. Originally drafted in the second round by the Sixers after leading Guilford to an NAIA championship, the "Brownsville Bomber" and "Prince of Mid-Air" had the most success with the San Diego Clippers from 1978–80, becoming renowned for his high-arcing, long-range shots. He continued to be a prolific (but turnover prone) scorer with the Warriors and Cavaliers through the '80s, ending his NBA career with stints in Philly (again) and Houston.
• De'Aaron Fox is a score-first PG for the Sacramento Kings who selected him #5 overall (via the 76ers) in 2017 out of Kentucky. During his first few years in the league, he was a solid scorer and a quality starter... when healthy. Despite playing in 60 or fewer games in four of his first five seasons (while Sacramento extended its NBA-record playoff drought), the Kings somewhat controversially signed Fox to a max contract in 2021. He rewarded them in 2022-23, as Fox stayed healthy and broke out, earning his first All-Star selection, winning the inaugural Clutch Player of the Year Award, and guided the Kings back to the postseason. He continued his success the following season, co-leading the NBA in steals.
• "Jumping" Joe Fulks was the BAA's first scoring champion in 1947, claiming it after signing to the nascent Philadelphia Warriors in 1946 following his service in WWII. As his name indicates, Fulks was a pioneer of the jump shot and one of the premiere offensive players in early pro basketball, and his scoring acumen led the team to the BAA's first championship. However, the Murray State product was also a very low efficiency shooter, and his records for most missed shots in both a regular and postseason game are likely unbreakable. Fulks retired in 1954 and was later murdered in 1976; he was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame two years later.
• Markelle Fultz was the #1 overall pick in 2017 by the 76ers (via trade-up with the Celtics). The high-scoring point guard out of Washington was expected to be the final step in "The Process", pairing with Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons as the Sixers finally returned to contention after years of tanking. Unfortunately, he was anything but. Just a few games into his rookie season, he suffered a shoulder injury that badly impacted his shooting ability. After an unusually lengthy hiatus to heal a reportedly minor injury, he struggled when he returned late in the season. He was moved to shooting guard for his second season to no avail and was replaced when the team traded for Jimmy Butler. Miffed at the benching, Fultz refused to participate with his agent citing alleged nerve damage in his shoulder. He was traded to the Magic, sat out the rest of the season, and continued to battle injuries in Orlando, including a torn ACL that took him out for most of two seasons. Ultimately, Philly got just 33 games out of Fultz while missing out on stars Jayson Tatum (selected by Boston with the pick Philly traded to move up for Fultz), De'Aaron Fox, and Donovan Mitchell.