The USA Basketball Men's National Team, commonly known as the United States men's national basketball team, is the most successful team in international competition, winning medals in all eighteen Olympic tournaments it has entered, including fifteen golds. In the professional era, the team won the Olympic gold medal in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2008, 2012, and 2016. Two of its gold medal-winning teams were inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in August 2010: the 1960 team, which featured six Hall of Famers, and the 1992 "Dream Team", featuring 14 Hall of Famers. The team is currently ranked first in the FIBA World Rankings.
The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It has more than 700,000 members nationwide, including more than 100,000 volunteers.
College basketball in the United States is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA), the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), and the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA). Each of these various organizations are subdivided into from one to three divisions based on the number and level of scholarships that may be provided to the athletes.
The Denver Nuggets were a professional basketball team based in Denver. The Nuggets joined the National Basketball League (NBL) for the 1948–49 season, and then joined the National Basketball Association when the NBL was absorbed by the Basketball Association of America to create the NBA for the 1949–50 season. The Nuggets were the first major professional sports franchise in Colorado, and the first NBA franchise west of the Mississippi.
The Philadelphia Tapers were an American professional basketball team that played a partial 1962–1963 season in the American Basketball League (1961–62). It traces its history to the 1950s AAU New York Tapers.
James Clifford Pollard was an American professional basketball player and coach. As a player in the National Basketball Association (NBA), Pollard was considered one of the best forwards in the 1950s and was known for his leaping ability, earning him the nickname "The Kangaroo Kid". A five-time NBA champion and four-time NBA All-Star, Pollard spent his entire eight-year professional career with the Minneapolis Lakers.
Donald Argee Barksdale was an American professional basketball player. He was a pioneer as an African-American basketball player, becoming the first to be named NCAA All-American, the first to play on a United States men's Olympic basketball team, and the first to play in a National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star Game. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Robert Albert Kurland was a 7 feet (2.1 m) American basketball center, who played for the two-time NCAA champion Oklahoma A&M Aggies basketball team. He led the U.S. basketball team to gold medals in two Summer Olympics, and led his AAU team to three national titles. He is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
The 1963 NBA draft was the 17th annual draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on April 30 and May 7, 1963, before the 1963–64 season. In this draft, nine NBA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball players. A player who had finished his four-year college eligibility was eligible for selection. If a player left college early, he would not be eligible for selection until his college class graduated. In each round, the teams select in reverse order of their win–loss record in the previous season. Before the draft, a team could forfeit its first-round draft pick and then select any player from within a 50-mile radius of its home arena as their territorial pick. The Chicago Zephyrs relocated to Baltimore and became the Baltimore Bullets prior to the draft. The Syracuse Nationals participated in the draft, but relocated to Philadelphia and became the Philadelphia 76ers prior to the start of the season. The draft consisted of 15 rounds comprising 84 players selected.
This draft holds the record for the fewest non-territorial picks who later debuted in the NBA, with 17.
The Akron Goodyear Wingfoots are one of the oldest basketball teams in the United States. They were founded in 1918, by the workers at the Goodyear Tire Company, in Akron, Ohio. The teams, while giving workers recreation, also helped to promote one of the first canvas/rubber based shoes made specifically for athletics, the wingfoot.
The Cleveland Pipers were an American industrial basketball team based in Cleveland, Ohio in the 1950s and early 1960s. The Pipers are mostly known for having played in the short-lived American Basketball League from 1961–62. They were also a power in the days Amateur Athletic Union basketball and the National Industrial Basketball League (NIBL) which peaked in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Bill "The Hill" McGill was an American basketball player best known for inventing the jump hook. McGill was the No. 1 overall pick of the 1962 NBA draft from the University of Utah, after leading the NCAA in scoring with 38.8 points per game in 1961-1962.
The Amateur Athletic Union Men's Basketball All-Americans were players who competed in the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) between 1920–21 and 1967–68 and were chosen as the best players in the league during their respective seasons. Founded in 1888, the Amateur Athletic Union is one of the largest non-profit, volunteer, sports organizations in the United States. It is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs.
Jerome Franklin Shipp is a retired American basketball player. He played for the United States men's national basketball team at the 1963 FIBA World Championship, 1963 Pan American Games and 1964 Summer Olympics, winning a gold medal at the latter two competitions. Shipp was also a three-time Amateur Athletic Union All-American for the Phillips 66ers in Bartlesville, Oklahoma during the 1960s.
The Phillips 66ers were an amateur basketball team located in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and sponsored and run by the Phillips Petroleum Company. The 66ers were a national phenomenon that grew from a small-town team to an organization of accomplished amateur athletes receiving national and worldwide attention. Under the sponsorship of the company's owner, Frank Phillips, the team, which began playing in 1919, participated in the Amateur Athletic Union, the nation's premier basketball league before the National Basketball Association. Between 1920 and 1950, some of the strongest basketball teams in the United States were sponsored by corporations—Phillips 66, 20th Century Fox, Safeway Inc., Caterpillar Inc., and others.
William Ernest Reigel was an American basketball player and coach. He played college basketball at Duke University and McNeese State University, leading McNeese to the 1956 NAIA championship. Reigel went on to choose the Amateur Athletic Union over an offer from the NBA's Minneapolis Lakers. He earned AAU All-American honors four times.
Lloyd Sharrar was an American basketball player who was a college All-American at West Virginia University (WVU) and played for several years in the Amateur Athletic Union. He was also a second round pick of the Philadelphia Warriors in the 1958 NBA draft.
The Caterpillar Diesels was an amateur basketball team located in Peoria, Illinois and sponsored and run by the Caterpillar Inc. company. The Caterpillars were one of the most successful teams of the Amateur Athletic Union League in the 1950s and they became world-wide known in 1952 when five of their players represented the USA team in the Olympics, winning the gold medal.
This article lists all-time records achieved in the AAU tourney and the local leagues in a few statistical categories. The tournaments organized by the AAU started in 1897 and until the late 1940s included college teams, athletic clubs and company teams. Gale Bishop holds the record for most points scored having netted 62 in the second round of the 1945 tournament in Denver.
United States 