Kawhi Leonard is an American professional basketball small forward for the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs. He played college basketball at San Diego State University (SDSU) and was selected with the 15th overall pick in the 2011 NBA draft. Yesterday, Leonard won the 2014 NBA championship with the San Antonio Spurs and was named the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP). At 22 years old, he was the third-youngest to win the Finals MVP, behind only Magic Johnson (who won in both 1980 and 1982). Leonard was born on June 29, 1991.
Kawhi Leonard is my wife’s favorite NBA player. Tim Duncan is her second-favorite player. She became a Spurs fan after watching parts of the NBA Finals in 2013, and again in 2014.
Tony Parker is a French professional basketball point guard for the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs. He played for two years in the French basketball league before being selected by the San Antonio Spurs in the 2001 NBA Draft. Parker helped the Spurs win three NBA championships in 2003, 2005 and 2007—and was the 2007 NBA Finals MVP. Employing his pace and high field goal percentage to great effect, Parker has been named to six NBA All-Star games. He was also named the FIBA EuroBasket 2013 MVP following his team’s victory over Lithuania in the gold medal game. Parker is also a music artist with his own music album TP.
Manu Ginóbili is an Argentine professional basketball shooting guard for the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs. Hailed as one of the finest international players to grace the NBA, he plays a high-tempo and intense game. He is one of only two players, along with Bill Bradley, to have won a Euroleague title, an NBA championship and an Olympic gold medal. Ginóbili spent the early part of his basketball career in Argentina and Italy, then joined the Spurs in 2002. He made his debut on the Argentina national team in 1998, and helped win the gold medal during the 2004 Olympics.
My wife is not into sports, but she has developed a passing interest in tennis and the NBA because I will sometimes watch a major tournament match or playoff game. For a long time, she called the San Antonio Spurs “the Ginóbilis,” since Manu’s bald spot and noodle-like body maneuvers made him the easiest player for her to recognize and remember. She became a Spurs fan after watching part of the NBA Finals in 2013, and plans to watch the Spurs play the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals again this week.
Chris Bosh is an American professional basketball power forward for the NBA’s Miami Heat. He was selected fourth overall by the Toronto Raptors in the very competitive 2003 draft class that included future NBA superstars LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony. Bosh won a gold medal at the 2008 Olympics and, two years later, reunited with James and Wade on the Miami Heat. Miami Heat’s “Big Three” have since reached four consecutive NBA Finals. Bosh is a nine-time NBA All-Star (2006-2014) and a two-time NBA champion (2012-2013). Despite leaving the Raptors four years ago, the Internet still compares Bosh’s appearance to that of a velociraptor.
Note: The first game of the 2014 NBA Finals is on Thursday, June 5.
Chris Paul is an American professional basketball point guard for the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers. Since being selected in the 2005 NBA Draft by the New Orleans Hornets, Paul has been an NBA Rookie of the Year (2006), a seven-time All-Star, an All-Star Game Most Valuable Player (MVP), and a multiple-time All-NBA and All-Defensive team honoree. He has won two Olympic gold medals with the U.S. national basketball team. On August 21, 2013, Paul was elected the National Basketball Players Association president. He was born on this day in 1985.
Note: After LeBron James and Kevin Durant, CP3 is probably the third-best player in the NBA right now. Honorable mentions go to Steph Curry, Derrick Rose (if he ever gets 100% healthy again), Anthony Davis, Blake Griffin, Russell Westbrook, Paul George, Kevin Love, Joakim Noah, Dwight Howard, James Harden and Carmelo Anthony—in some order. Oh, and maybe Kobe Bryant?
Stephen Curry is an American professional basketball point guard for the NBA’s Golden State Warriors. Curry, who is known for his exceptional shooting skills, played college basketball for the Davidson Wildcats. As a junior in 2008-09, he was the NCAA scoring leader with 28.6 points per game and was a consensus first-team All-American. Curry led Davidson to two consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, including a trip to the Elite Eight in 2008 (in which eventual national champion Kansas snapped Davidson’s 25-game winning streak). He was selected seventh overall in the 2009 NBA Draft. In the 2012-13 NBA regular season, Curry set the record for three-pointers made with 272. In 2014, he was named to his first NBA All-Star team. Curry, the son of former NBA player Dell Curry, was born on this day in 1988.
Julius Erving, commonly known by the nickname Dr. J, is a retired American basketball player who helped launch a modern style of play that emphasizes leaping and play above the rim. Erving helped legitimize the American Basketball Association (ABA), and was the best-known player in that league when it merged with the NBA after the 1975-76 season. Erving won three championships, four MVP awards, and three scoring titles with the ABA’s Virginia Squires and New York Nets (now the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets) and the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers. He is the sixth-highest scorer in ABA/NBA history. He was well known for slam dunking from the free throw line in Slam Dunk Contests and was the only player voted MVP in both the ABA and the NBA. Erving was born on this day in 1950.
Dwyane Wade is an American professional basketball guard for the NBA’s Miami Heat. Named the 2006 Sportsman of the Year by Sports Illustrated, Wade is one of the league’s most popular players. He was named to the All-Rookie team in 2004 and the All-Star team the following nine seasons (2005-2013). In his third season, Wade led the Miami Heat to its first NBA championship and was named the 2006 NBA Finals MVP. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, Wade won a gold medal and led the “Redeem Team” in scoring. In 2009, he led the league in scoring and earned his first NBA scoring title. After LeBron James joined the Heat in 2010, Wade and James led Miami to back-to-back NBA championships (2012 and 2013). Wade was born on this day in 1982.
Derrick Rose is an American professional basketball point guard for the NBA’s Chicago Bulls. Born in Chicago and drafted first overall by his hometown Bulls, Rose was voted NBA Rookie of the Year in 2009. In 2011, he received the NBA Most Valuable Player Award, becoming the youngest player to win this award (age 22). He joined Michael Jordan as the only Chicago Bulls players to win the honor. Rose is a three-time NBA All-Star (2010-2012) and has led the Bulls to the NBA Playoffs each year. In May 2012, Rose tore the ACL in his left knee, causing him to miss the entire 2012-13 season. He was born on this day in 1988.
Kevin Durant is an American professional basketball forward who plays for the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder, formerly the Seattle SuperSonics. Standing at 6′ 9″, Durant has won three NBA scoring titles, the NBA Rookie of the Year Award and an Olympic gold medal. At age 24, Durant became the youngest player in NBA history to join the 50-40-90 club, the ultimate standard for shooters. At the University of Texas, he became the first ever freshman to be named Naismith College Player of the Year. In the 2007 NBA Draft, Durant was selected second overall by the Sonics. After his rookie season, the team moved to Oklahoma City and became the Thunder. Behind his play, the Thunder reached the 2012 NBA Finals. In 2010, 2012, and 2013, Durant finished second in voting for NBA MVP. He was born on this day in 1988.
James Harden is an American professional basketball shooting guard who plays for the NBA’s Houston Rockets. “The Bearded One” was a first-time NBA All-Star in 2013, his first season with the Rockets. Harden played college basketball for the Arizona State Sun Devils, where he was named a consensus All-American and Pac-10 Player of the Year in 2009. He was named NBA Sixth Man of the Year with the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2012 and reached the 2012 NBA Finals. He won a gold medal on the U.S. national team at the 2012 Summer Olympics. In October 2012, Harden was traded to Houston and became the cornerstone of the Rockets franchise. He was born on this day in 1989.
Benny the Bull is the mascot of the Chicago Bulls, a role he has filled since 1969. He has become just as popular as some of the franchise’s most notable figures, such as players Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman and head coach Phil Jackson. Benny is one of the longest-tenured mascots in the NBA and in all of professional sports.
Dennis Rodman is a former NBA player, most famously with the Detroit Pistons and Chicago Bulls. Nicknamed “The Worm,” he was known for his fierce defensive and rebounding abilities. He led the NBA in rebounds per game for a record seven consecutive years (1991-98) and won five NBA championships (1989-1990, 1996-1998). In 1993, Rodman reinvented himself as a “bad boy” and became notorious for his brightly colored hair, piercings, tattoos and controversial, disruptive antics. He famously wore a wedding dress to promote his 1996 autobiography Bad As I Wanna Be and pursued a high-profile affair with singer Madonna. He was born on this day in 1961.
Note: On February 26, 2013, Rodman made a trip to North Korea to host basketball exhibitions featuring the Harlem Globetrotters. He met North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un and later called Kim “his friend” and suggested that President Barack Obama “should pick up the phone and call” Kim since the two leaders are basketball fans. On May 7, self-appointed North Korean ambassador Rodman called on Kim Jong-un to release Kenneth Bae, a U.S. citizen imprisoned in North Korea. Almost equally strangely, in March 2013, Rodman arrived at Vatican City during voting in the papal conclave, which elected Pope Francis I.
Jason Collins is an American professional basketball center, most recently playing for the NBA’s Washington Wizards. He attended Stanford University and was selected in the first round of the 2001 NBA Draft. Collins has played for six teams in 12 NBA seasons and is now a free agent. On April 29, 2013, Collins became the first active male professional athlete in a major North American team sport to publicly come out as gay. According to ESPN’s Rick Reilly, “Collins is now the Jackie Robinson of gay athletes and, like Robinson, strong enough for the job. He’s universally loved in the NBA.”
Note: Collins has said that he chose to wear jersey number 98 in honor of Matthew Shepard, the victim of a gay hate crime in 1998.
Robert Pack is a retired American professional basketball player. Nicknamed “Pac-Man,” he had a 13-season career in the NBA, most notably with the Denver Nuggets from 1992-1995. As a reserve point guard with the Nuggets, Pack was like a 6′ 2″ firecracker coming off the bench. His athleticism, energy and dunking ability could completely change the momentum of games. Pack is currently an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Clippers. He was born on February 3, 1969.
Since I spent much of my childhood in Iowa, I was naturally a fan of the nearby Chicago Bulls (or, more accurately, I was a fan of Michael Jordan). But during Michael Jordan’s first retirement (1993-1995), my Bulls support wavered and I looked to other NBA teams. I decided to jump on the Denver Nuggets bandwagon while Jordan played baseball. Pack was part of an exciting young Nuggets team starring Dikembe Mutombo, LaPhonso Ellis and Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf that went on to become the first eighth-seeded team in NBA Playoffs history to defeat the first-seeded team. In the first round of the 1994 NBA Playoffs, the Nuggets upset the mighty Seattle SuperSonics—which I enjoyed because I thought that Shawn Kemp-led Seattle team had a bad attitude.
Scottie Pippen is a retired American professional basketball player who played 17 seasons in the NBA. He is most remembered for his 12 seasons with the Chicago Bulls, with whom he was instrumental in six NBA titles and their record 1995-96 season of 72 wins. Pippen, along with Michael Jordan, played an important role in transforming the Bulls team into a vehicle for popularizing the NBA around the world during the 1990s. Pippen is also the only person to have won an NBA title and Olympic gold medal in the same year twice (1992, 1996).
Spud Webb is a retired American professional basketball player. At only 5′ 7″ tall, he played point guard in the NBA for 12 seasons, primarily for the Atlanta Hawks and Sacramento Kings. Webb is notable for winning the 1986 NBA Slam Dunk Contest (over teammate and defending champion Dominique Wilkins) despite being one of the shortest players in NBA history and being unable to palm the ball. Since Webb made his NBA debut in 1985, only two players have been shorter: Earl Boykins (5′ 5″) and Muggsy Bogues (5′ 3″).
As a short kid who loved basketball, I was in awe of Spud Webb’s NBA success and dunking ability. Webb had a 42-inch vertical leap, minimum. I used to pretend to be him (when I wasn’t playing Air Jordan or Wilkins) as I dunked ferociously on our eight-foot basketball hoop in the driveway and made up Slam Dunk scores.
Jacques Dominique Wilkins is a retired American professional basketball player (born in France) who primarily played for the Atlanta Hawks of the NBA. Wilkins was a nine-time NBA All-Star, and one of the best dunkers in NBA history, earning the nickname “The Human Highlight Film.” Wilkins participated in five slam dunk contests (1984, 1985, 1986, 1988 and 1990), winning two. In 1985, he beat rookie Michael Jordan in the finals. In 1986, Wilkins was defeated by his 5′ 7″ teammate, Spud Webb. In 1988, the highly anticipated rematch of Wilkins vs. Jordan resulted in Jordan winning 147 to 145, controversially.
As a kid, I tried to imitate the 1988 NBA Slam Dunk Contest dunks on the NERF basketball hoop attached above my bedroom door. Or, even better, on the metal basketball hoop mounted in my late grandparents’ basement that my dad built from Erector Set pieces in the late 1950s. These dunks were essentially the practice of accidentally slamming my nine-year-old extremities into the door frame or doorknob as I contorted my body to get a foam ball to pass through an orange plastic hoop. And the crowd goes wild.
Mike Iuzzolino is a retired American professional basketball player who played for the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks for two seasons (1991-93). After his NBA career, Iuzzolino played professionally in Italy and Spain until 2003. While unknown to many, Iuzzolino was featured in the 1993 arcade edition of the popular two-on-two basketball video game NBA Jam. He was born on this day in 1968.
As a 14-year-old basketball fan, I was surprised that Mike Iuzzolino was one of the 54 NBA players selected for the 27 NBA Jam teams. The 1992-93 Dallas Mavericks roster was pretty weak, aside from teammate Derek Harper, but still. I thought getting to play as Iuzzolino in a video game was awesome—and play as him I did, whenever I grew tired of collecting Mortal Kombat fatalities at the old coin-op arcade. As a skinny little white kid who wanted to be good at basketball, I looked to my Mike Iuzzolino basketball card for inspiration. Because somehow this thin, 5′ 10″ Italian-American point guard from Altoona, Pennsylvania (just 40 miles from my dad’s house) had made it to the NBA. I dreamed, “As soon as I get my growth spurt, I’ll be right there with him.” Coincidentally, Iuzzolino also played basketball at Penn State, which was the university I planned to attend (and I did, from 1997-2001). So, what happened to the two of us? Iuzzolino is now Director of Basketball Operations at Canisius College in New York, and I didn’t play competitive basketball beyond 10th grade. Though I did finally hit 5′ 10″, which is really important in the fields of graphic design and web development.
Dikembe Mutombo is a 7′ 2″ Congolese American and former NBA player. He played for six teams during his 18-year career (1991-2009), most notably the Denver Nuggets and the Atlanta Hawks. “Mt. Mutombo” is one of the greatest shot blockers and defensive players of all time, winning the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award four times. He ranks second to Hakeem Olajuwon on the NBA’s career blocked shots list. Mutombo is a member of the Luba ethnic group and speaks nine languages. A well-known humanitarian, he started a foundation to improve living conditions in his native Democratic Republic of Congo in 1997.
This is 8-bit Mutombo in a “rainbow” Nuggets uniform (a style that lasted 11 years, from 1982-1993). Those uniforms remind me of the Atari 2600 version of Vanguard, a blocky, rainbow shooter that was originally released in 1982, the very same year as Denver’s rainbow jerseys—coincidence? Mutombo is character #5 in my ugly uniform series. The NBA’s 2012-13 regular season began on Tuesday, October 30, 2012.
Kawhi Leonard – No. 751
Kawhi Leonard is an American professional basketball small forward for the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs. He played college basketball at San Diego State University (SDSU) and was selected with the 15th overall pick in the 2011 NBA draft. Yesterday, Leonard won the 2014 NBA championship with the San Antonio Spurs and was named the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP). At 22 years old, he was the third-youngest to win the Finals MVP, behind only Magic Johnson (who won in both 1980 and 1982). Leonard was born on June 29, 1991.
Kawhi Leonard is my wife’s favorite NBA player. Tim Duncan is her second-favorite player. She became a Spurs fan after watching parts of the NBA Finals in 2013, and again in 2014.