Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. is an American retired professional basketball player and former president of basketball operations of the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played point guard for the Lakers for 13 seasons. After winning championships in high school and college, Johnson was selected first overall in the 1979 NBA draft by the Lakers. He won a championship and an NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award in his rookie season, and won four more championships with the Lakers during the 1980s. Johnson retired abruptly in 1991 after announcing that he had contracted HIV, but returned to play in the 1992 All-Star Game, winning the All-Star MVP Award. After protests from his fellow players, he retired again for four years, but returned in 1996, at age 36, to play 32 games for the Lakers before retiring for the third and final time.
Michael William Krzyzewski is an American college basketball coach and former player. Since 1980, he has served as the head men's basketball coach at Duke University, where he has led the Blue Devils to five NCAA Championships, 12 Final Fours, 12 ACC regular season titles, and 15 ACC Tournament championships. Among men's college basketball coaches, only UCLA's John Wooden has won more NCAA Championships with a total of 10. Krzyzewski has the most wins of any coach in college basketball history.
Christian Donald Laettner is a retired American basketball player whose Hall of Fame career for the Duke Blue Devils is widely regarded as one of the best in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) history. He was the star player on the back-to-back National Championship teams of 1991 and 1992, and the NCAA player of the year in his senior year. He is particularly famous for his game-winning shot against Kentucky in the 1992 tournament and for the hatred he received from opposing fans.
Christopher Paul Mullin is an American retired professional basketball player and former head coach of the St. John's Red Storm. He previously served as special advisor for the Sacramento Kings and general manager of the Golden State Warriors. He is a two-time Olympic Gold medalist and a two-time Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee.
Donald Lee Haskins, nicknamed "The Bear", was an American basketball player and coach. He played college basketball for three years under coach Henry Iba at Oklahoma A&M. He was the head coach at Texas Western College from 1961 to 1999. His greatest triumph occurred in 1966, when his team won the NCAA Tournament over the Wildcats of the University of Kentucky, coached by Adolph Rupp. The watershed game initiated the end of racial segregation in college basketball.
Lawrence Demetric Johnson is an American retired basketball player who spent his professional career in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the Charlotte Hornets and New York Knicks. At an officially listed height of 6'7" tall, he played at the power forward position, due to his strength.
Greg Gumbel is an American television sportscaster. He is best known for his various assignments for CBS Sports. The older brother of news and sportscaster Bryant Gumbel, he became the first African-American announcer to call play-by-play of a major sports championship in the United States when he announced Super Bowl XXXV for the CBS network in 2001. He is of Creole ancestry. Gumbel is currently a play-by-play broadcaster for the NFL on CBS alongside Trent Green as well as the studio host for CBS' men's college basketball coverage.
Frederick Rankin Taylor was a college men's basketball coach for The Ohio State University from 1959 to 1976. Prior to that, he played baseball for the Washington Senators.
Harold Everett Greer was an American professional basketball player. He played for the Syracuse Nationals / Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1958 through 1973. A guard, Greer was a 10-time NBA All-Star and was named to the All-NBA Second Team seven times. He was named to the NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team and he had his uniform number retired by the 76ers.
Tom Izzo ; born January 30, 1955), is an American college basketball coach who has directed the program at Michigan State University since 1995. On April 4, 2016, Izzo was elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
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 All-Star Game. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Thomas Ernest "Satch" Sanders is an American retired college and professional basketball player and coach. He was a 6'6", 210 lb power forward. Sanders is tied for third for most NBA championships in a career, and is one of three NBA players with an unsurpassed 8–0 record in NBA Finals series outcomes. On April 4, 2011, it was announced that Sanders was elected to the 2011 class to enter the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor.
Nathaniel "Sweetwater" Clifton was an American multi-sport athlete best known as one of the first African Americans to play in the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Donald Neil Johnston was an American basketball player at the center position who played eight years in the National Basketball Association (NBA), from 1951 to 1959. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in 1990.
Harlan Orville "Pat" Page was an American football, basketball, and baseball player and coach. He was one of basketball's first star players in the early 1900s. The 5'9" Chicago native played guard at the University of Chicago (1906–1910) and was known as a defensive specialist. While leading Chicago to three national championships (1908–1910), the Helms Athletic Foundation retroactively named him an All-American each time and named National Player of the Year in 1910. Page also played football at Chicago. Walter Camp selected him as a second-team All-American at the end in 1908 and a third-team All-American at the same position in 1909.
Victor A. Hanson was an American football player and coach, basketball player, and baseball player. A three-sport college athlete, he played football, basketball, and baseball at Syracuse University in the 1920s, serving as team captain in all three sports. The Watertown, New York native was named a Basketball All-American three times—in 1925, 1926, and 1927—by the Helms Athletic Foundation and was a consensus selection to the 1926 College Football All-America Team.
The Louisville Cardinals men's basketball team is the men's college basketball program representing the University of Louisville in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) of NCAA Division I. The Cardinals have officially won two NCAA championships in 1980 and 1986 ; and have officially been to 8 Final Fours in 38 official NCAA tournament appearances while compiling 61 tournament wins.
The history of basketball began with its invention in 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts by Canadian physical education instructor James Naismith as a less injury-prone sport than football. The game became established fairly quickly and grew very popular as the 20th century progressed, first in America and then in other parts of the world. After basketball became established in American colleges, the professional game followed. The American National Basketball Association (NBA), established in 1946, grew to a multibillion-dollar enterprise by the end of the century, and basketball became an integral part of American culture.
Oscar Daniel Bezerra Schmidt is a retired Brazilian professional basketball player. He is also known as Oscar Schmidt Bezerra in Spain, where he played for Fórum Valladolid for the 1993–94 and 1994–95 seasons, and simply Oscar, or Mão Santa, in his homeland. Schmidt played the small forward position, was 2.05 m tall and weighed 107 kg (236 lbs). He was born in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil.
