Basketball Players

American professional basketball player Jason Collins became the first active openly gay male athlete in the four major North American professional sports.

Sheryl Swoopes is an American basketball star and three-time Olympic gold medalist. She's also the first player to be signed to the WNBA.

With a string of wins in early 2012, New York Knicks guard Jeremy Lin has become one of basketball's most famous players.

Yao Ming is a Chinese basketball player who became an international star as a center for the Houston Rockets of the NBA.

Tristan Thompson is a Canadian-American professional basketball player with the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers. He welcomed a daughter with reality star Khloe Kardashian in April 2018.

Hall of Fame basketball center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the NBA's all-time leading scorer. He won six NBA titles, five with the Los Angeles Lakers, over 20 years.

NBA guard James Harden has emerged as one of the top players in pro basketball since his trade to the Houston Rockets in 2012.

Former pro basketball player Kobe Bryant won five NBA titles with the Los Angeles Lakers while establishing himself as one of the game's all-time greats. He died tragically in a helicopter crash on January 26, 2020.

LeBron James became an immediate star after skipping college to join the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers. He led the Miami Heat to NBA titles in 2012 and 2013 and won another championship with Cleveland in 2016, before joining the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018.

Earvin "Magic" Johnson dominated the court as one of the world's best basketball players for more than a decade. In 1991, he announced that he had tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Professional basketball All-Star Kyrie Irving helped the Cleveland Cavaliers win their first NBA championship before moving on to play for the Boston Celtics and the Brooklyn Nets.

Standing 7 feet, 1 inch tall, Shaquille O'Neal was one of the most dominant players in the NBA before his 2011 retirement.

Basketball icon Larry Bird won three MVP awards and three NBA championships during his 13-year career with the Boston Celtics.

Michael Jordan is a former American basketball player who led the Chicago Bulls to six NBA championships and won the Most Valuable Player Award five times.

Wilt Chamberlain was the first NBA player to score more than 30,000 cumulative points over his career, and the first and only player to score 100 points in a single game.

Professional basketball player Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors was the first person to be named Most Valuable Player by unanimous vote in NBA history.

Native American Jim Thorpe won the pentathlon and decathlon at the 1912 Olympics but was stripped of his gold medals for violating amateur eligibility rules.

Chris Paul, an American professional basketball player for the NBA's Oklahoma City Thunder, has also played for the New Orleans Hornets, Los Angeles Clippers and Houston Rockets.

Russell Westbrook of the NBA's Houston Rockets has drawn attention for his explosive scoring performances and creative outfits.

Former pro basketball player Dwyane Wade starred for the Miami Heat for most of his 16 NBA seasons, earning 13 All-Star selections and winning three titles.

Jasmine Plummer became the first female quarterback to take a Pop Warner youth league to the national championships. Her story was depicted in the film 'The Longshots.'

American college basketball coach John Wooden won a record 10 national championships over a 12-year span at UCLA.

Scottie Pippen teamed up with Michael Jordan to lead the Chicago Bulls to six NBA titles. In 1996, he was named one of the NBA's 50 greatest players.

Basketball star Derrick Rose became the youngest MVP in NBA history in 2011.