N.W.A was an American hip hop group formed in Compton, California. Among the earliest and most significant figures of the gangsta rap subgenre, the group is widely considered one of the greatest and most influential acts in hip hop music.
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and preserving the history of basketball. Dedicated to Canadian-American physician James Naismith, who invented the sport in Springfield, the Hall of Fame inducted its first class in 1959, before opening its first facility on February 17, 1968.
O'Shea Jackson Sr., known as Ice Cube, is an American rapper, songwriter, actor, and film producer. His lyrics on N.W.A's 1988 album Straight Outta Compton contributed to gangsta rap's widespread popularity, and his political rap solo albums AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted (1990), Death Certificate (1991), and The Predator (1992) were all critically and commercially successful. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of N.W.A in 2016.
Rebecca Rose Lobo-Rushin is an American television basketball analyst and former professional women's basketball player in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) from 1997 to 2003. Lobo, at 6'4", played the center position for much of her career. She played college basketball at the University of Connecticut, where she was a member of the team that won the 1995 national championship, going 35–0 on the season in the process. She was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010. In April 2017, she was one of the members of the 2017 class of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, alongside Tracy McGrady and Muffet McGraw.
The Naismith College Player of the Year is an annual basketball award given by the Atlanta Tipoff Club to the top men's and women's collegiate basketball players. It is named in honor of James Naismith, the inventor of basketball.
Maurice Podoloff was an American lawyer and a basketball and ice hockey administrator. He served as the president of the Basketball Association of America (BAA) from 1946 to 1949, and the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1949 to 1963, making Podoloff the de facto 1st commissioner in NBA history.
Ann Meyers Drysdale is an American retired pro basketball player and a sportscaster. She was a standout player in high school, college, the Olympic Games, international tournaments, and at professional levels.
Nathaniel "Sweetwater" Clifton was an American professional basketball player. He is best known as one of the first African Americans to play in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was also a professional baseball player.
Morice Fredrick "Tex" Winter was an American basketball coach and innovator of the triangle offense, an offensive system that became the dominant force in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and resulted in 11 NBA Championships with the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s and the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2000s. He was a head coach in college basketball for 30 years before becoming an assistant coach in the NBA. He was an assistant to Phil Jackson on nine NBA championship teams with the Chicago Bulls and the Los Angeles Lakers. Winter was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011. In 2016, the NBA created the annually presented Tex Winter Assistant Coach Lifetime Impact Award in his honor.
Walter Pearl Davis was an American basketball player. After his college years with the North Carolina Tar Heels he played professionally as a forward/guard for 15 years in the National Basketball Association (NBA), spending the majority of his career with the Phoenix Suns. Davis was a six-time NBA All-Star, a two-time All-NBA Second Team member, and the NBA Rookie of the Year in 1978. In 1994, the Suns retired his No. 6 jersey and in 2004 he was enshrined in the team's Ring of Honor. Davis' 15,666 points during his time with the Suns is the most in franchise history. In 2024, it was announced that Davis would be posthumously inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
John B. McLendon Jr. was an American basketball coach who is recognized as the first African American basketball coach at a predominantly white university and the first African American head coach in any professional sport. He was a major contributor to the development of modern basketball and coached on both the college and professional levels during his career. He has been enshrined three times in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and also inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
The All American Red Heads were the first professional women's basketball team. In 1936, almost 50 years after women's basketball began, C. M. "Ole" Olson started a barnstorming team which would play around the country until 1986. The name of the team came from Olson's wife, who owned a number of beauty salons in the south. They played by men's rules and were a smash success with the audience. They were so successful as an exhibition team that they fostered two other teams, the Ozark Hillbillies and the Famous Red Heads.
The National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, located in Kansas City, Missouri, is a hall of fame and museum dedicated to men's college basketball. The museum is an integral portion of the College Basketball Experience created by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), located at the T-Mobile Center. The hall is meant as a complement to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, with a focus strictly on those who have contributed greatly to college basketball.
Herbert Simon is an American real estate developer. He resides in Indianapolis, Indiana. He was educated at the City College of New York and is the owner of the Indiana Pacers and Indiana Fever, and chairman emeritus of the shopping mall developer Simon Property Group. In 2010, he purchased Kirkus Reviews.
The John Bunn Award—in full, the John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award—is an annual basketball award given by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to an individual who has contributed significantly to the sport of basketball. Named after John Bunn, the first chairman of the Basketball Hall of Fame Committee from 1949 to 1969, the award is the highest and the most prestigious honor presented by the Basketball Hall of Fame other than enshrinement.
The Nancy Lieberman Award, named for Basketball Hall of Fame legend Nancy Lieberman is given to the nation's top collegiate point guard in women's Division I basketball. Sue Bird won the inaugural award in 2000, making her the first of only three players to have won three Lieberman Awards. Paige Bueckers is the first freshman to win the award in 2021, and only three players have won as sophomores —Bird in 2000 and the other two three-time winners, Sabrina Ionescu in 2018 and Caitlin Clark in 2022.
Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award is an annual award given by the National Basketball Coaches Association (NBCA) to a longtime NBA coach's life in basketball and his "standard of integrity, competitive excellence and tireless promotion" of the game. The inaugural award winner was Tom Heinsohn. The award is named after former NBA head coach Chuck Daly.
The Katrina McClain Award is an award presented annually to the best women's basketball power forward in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I competition. It is named after Hall of Famer Katrina McClain-Pittman, a two-time USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year with two Olympic gold, one Olympic bronze, and three FIBA World Championships medals. McClain was the WBCA National Player of the Year in her senior season at Georgia.
