The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams. It is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada and is considered the premier professional basketball league in the world.
James Arthur Jackson is an American former professional basketball player. Over his 14 National Basketball Association (NBA) seasons, Jackson was on the active roster of 12 different teams, which was an NBA record shared with Joe Smith, Tony Massenburg, Chucky Brown, and Ish Smith; until Ish played with the Denver Nuggets, his 13th team, in the 2022–23 season. He is currently a basketball analyst for Fox Sports, Turner Sports and the Los Angeles Clippers on Bally Sports West, having previously worked for the Big Ten Network.
Baron Walter Louis Davis is an American former professional basketball player who is a studio analyst for the NBA on TNT. He was a two-time NBA All-Star, made the All-NBA Third Team in 2004, and twice led the NBA in steals. He was drafted with the third overall pick in the 1999 NBA draft by the Charlotte Hornets. He also played in the NBA for the New Orleans Hornets, Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Clippers, Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks. Davis played college basketball for the UCLA Bruins, earning All-American honors before turning professional after his sophomore year. He was a star high school player while at Crossroads School. Davis holds the NBA's career playoff record for steals per game with an average of 2.28 over 50 games.
Devin LaVell Brown is an American former professional basketball shooting guard who played 8 seasons in the National Basketball Association. Brown won an NBA championship as a member of the San Antonio Spurs in 2005.
Joseph Leynard Smith is an American former professional basketball player. A power forward, he played for 12 teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA) during his 16-year career.
Christopher Claus Andersen is an American former professional basketball player. Nicknamed "Birdman", Andersen was born in Long Beach, California, grew up in Iola, Texas, and played one year at Blinn College. Andersen began his professional career in the Chinese Basketball Association and the American minor leagues. He then played in the NBA for the Denver Nuggets and the New Orleans Hornets. He received a two-year ban from the NBA in 2006 for violating the league's drug policy, but was reinstated on March 4, 2008, and re-signed with the Hornets the next day. He returned to Denver later in 2008, and remained with the team until 2012. He signed with the Miami Heat in January 2013 and won a championship with them that same year. He and Oliver Lafayette are the only Blinn students to ever play in the NBA. He most recently played for Power in the Big3 league.
Wardell Stephen Curry Sr. is an American former professional basketball player. He played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1986 until 2002 and retired as the Charlotte Hornets' all-time leader in points (9,839) and three-point field goals made (929). Curry currently works as a color commentator, alongside Eric Collins, on Charlotte Hornets television broadcasts. He is the father of NBA players Stephen Curry and Seth Curry.
Larry Donnell Nance Sr. is an American former professional basketball player. A forward from Clemson University, Nance played 13 seasons (1981–1994) in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Phoenix Suns and Cleveland Cavaliers. He was a three-time NBA All-Star.
Clarence "Chucky" Brown Jr. is an American men's college basketball coach and former professional basketball player.
Eugene Scape Littles was an American basketball player and coach. He played six seasons in the American Basketball Association (ABA) for the Carolina Cougars and Kentucky Colonels between 1969 and 1975. Littles won an ABA championship with the Colonels in 1975. He later coached in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Charlotte Hornets, and Denver Nuggets.
Jérôme Moïso is a French former professional basketball player.
Cedric Simmons is an American-born Bulgarian professional basketball player for SeaHorses Mikawa in the Japanese B.League. He was born in the United States, but also holds Bulgarian citizenship, and has played for the senior men's Bulgarian national basketball team. A 6-foot-9-inch-tall (206 cm) power forward-center, Simmons was selected by the New Orleans Hornets, in the first round of the 2006 NBA draft.
Herman "J. R." Reid Jr. is an American basketball coach and former professional player who is an assistant coach for the Monmouth Hawks men's basketball team. He played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Charlotte Hornets, San Antonio Spurs, New York Knicks, Los Angeles Lakers, Milwaukee Bucks and Cleveland Cavaliers. Reid played college basketball for the North Carolina Tar Heels and was a consensus first-team All-American as a sophomore in 1988. He won a bronze medal as a member of the United States national team at the 1988 Summer Olympics.
Stephen Silas is an American assistant basketball coach for the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is the son of NBA star player and head coach Paul Silas.
Clinton "Trey" Johnson III is an American-Qatari former professional basketball player and coach. He played college basketball with the Alcorn State Braves and the Jackson State Tigers in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC). During his senior year, he won the SWAC Player of the Year award. He has spent much of his professional career with the Bakersfield Jam in the NBA Development League, a minor league basketball organization owned and run by the National Basketball Association (NBA). During his time in the D-League, he received a call-up to the NBA and has played for the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Toronto Raptors and the Los Angeles Lakers. He has also spent several short stints overseas in Serbia, France, and Italy. He has represented Qatar in international competition.
The 1988 NBA Expansion Draft was the eighth expansion draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on June 23, 1988, so that the newly founded Charlotte Hornets and Miami Heat could acquire players for the upcoming 1988–89 season. Charlotte and Miami had been awarded the expansion teams on April 22, 1987. In an NBA expansion draft, new NBA teams are allowed to acquire players from the previously established teams in the league. Not all players on a given team are available during an expansion draft, since each team can protect a certain number of players from being selected. In this draft, each of the twenty-three other NBA teams had protected eight players from their roster and the Hornets and the Heat selected eleven and twelve unprotected players respectively, one from each team. Prior to the draft, the league conducted a coin flip between the Hornets and the Heat to decide their draft order in this expansion draft and in the 1988 NBA draft. The Hornets won the coin flip and chose to have the higher pick in the 1988 Draft, thus allowing the Heat to receive the first selection and the right to select twelve players in this expansion draft.
Isaiah Jamar Thomas is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Charlotte Hornets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He most notably played with the Boston Celtics from 2015 through 2017, when he was a two-time NBA All-Star and named second-team All-NBA.
Timofey Pavlovich Mozgov is a Russian former professional basketball player. Mozgov won an NBA championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016, becoming one of the first Russians to do so, alongside Sasha Kaun. As a member of the Russian national team, he won the bronze medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics, as well as a bronze medal at EuroBasket 2011. Mozgov signed with the Lakers in 2016 before being traded to the Nets in the 2017 offseason. In the 2018 offseason, he was traded to the Magic before returning to Khimki in 2019.
Henry Sims is an American professional basketball player who last played Ulsan Hyundai Mobis Phoebus of the Korean Basketball League (KBL). He played college basketball for Georgetown University.
Byron Antom Scott is an American former professional basketball player and head coach in the National Basketball Association (NBA). As a player, Scott won three NBA championships with the Los Angeles Lakers during their Showtime era in the 1980s. He was named the NBA Coach of the Year with the New Orleans Hornets in 2008.
