The SportsLine Projection Model simulates every NBA game 10,000 times and has returned well over $10,000 in profit for $100 players on its top-rated NBA picks over the past four-plus seasons. Milwaukee native Latrell Sprewell is remembered by some for one regrettable outburst that nearly derailed his NBA career but he was a great player for many years. Cooper Flagg is the player standing at the confluence of talent and time an extremely talented player in an era in which nothing goes unnoticed. Its the only state in the union that has never produced a player in the league, despite having several who have been drafted but never ended up playing. With every ounce of defensive energy focused on stopping Mims, the Rams still couldnt do it. Shaquille ONeal is the definition of dominance. This path has helped Roberson become a strong defensive player. This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login. 3 to Sabrina Ionescu at No. As a sophomore, Miller led the Florida Gators to the 2000 NCAA championship game, only to lose to Michigan State. One of the most ebullient personalities to ever play in the NBA, Johnsons charm was a major factor in the massive increase in the leagues popularity during the 1980s. He is the first guard in NBA history to play 20 seasons. Seven former Montverde players were selected in the 2021 NBA draft, including No. Please wait for the page to reload. While his entire pro career was spent in Los Angeles, Johnsons brilliant career started up north. Here's where and how basketball stars, generational talents and legends were born. After a standout career at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he led the Tar Heels to a National Championship in 1982, Jordan joined the NBAs Chicago Bulls in 1984. He was the first overall pick in the 1959 draft, taken by the Cincinnati Royals (now the Sacramento Kings). In the NBA, Porter went 24th overall to the Portland Trail Blazers in the 1985 draft and helped the team make it to the NBA Finals twice during his tenure. High school: Harold L. Richards High School, Pros: Miami Heat (2003-16, 2018-present), Chicago Bulls (2016-17), Cleveland Cavaliers (2017-18). There, he was named an NAIA First-Team All-American as a junior and senior. After being born and raised in St. Louis, he crossed the border to play college hoops at Kansas before being taken in the first round in 1969 by Boston. Hes bigger than a good portion of the players in the NFL and yet he still moves as gracefully as the most nimble guards in basketball. He stayed home and played college ball at Colorado, where his number has also since been put in the rafters. Create a commenting profile by providing an email address, password and display name. Before he became perhaps the all-time icon of hoops in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, Oscar Robertson was born in the small town of Charlotte, Tennessee. Hall of Famers Bob Pettit, Elvin Hayes, Clyde Drexler and Bill Russell all came from the Bayou State but none of them could match Karl Malones superhuman production and longevity in the league. He helped the Spurs win a title that year and was re-signed. The gold standard for Maine high school hoops is still Cindy Blodgett, who did things at Lawrence that no girls or boys basketball player in Maine had done before or since. But before the WNBA, Levesque helped her high school win two Division I state titles. Most famous player ever? Enter your email and password to access comments. We all know Michael Jordan as the greatest basketball player of all time. Cooper Flagg well may become the best basketball player ever from Maine. Before he left his mark on the NBA, he starred at Bethel High School, where he led both the football and basketball programs to state championships. Bullet Bob Boozer came from Omaha and remained a major part of that community until his death in 2012. Magic Johnson was destined for greatness. What? Before he was a two-time All-Star with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Terrell Brandon was born and raised in Portland. Sam Cassell wasn't the biggest player in basketball history, but he had big game. The Minneapolis Lakers then selected Baylor as the No. Messalonskees Nick Mayo, a self-admitted basketball late bloomer, set scoring records at Eastern Kentucky and is now enjoying success as a pro player in Japan. In college at North Carolina, he scored 40 points as a freshman in the ACC tournament, the most by any freshman in the tournament. According to the exhaustive database of player birthplaces compiled at Basketball Reference, Mario Chalmers is the only player in NBA history to come from Alaska. Dont be fooled by his humble small-college provenance and the Hick from French Lick nicknameLarry Bird was one of the fiercest competitors and greatest smack-talkers in NBA history. He had four All-Star seasons with the SuperSonics and Suns and averaged 20.6 points and 6.7 rebounds a night in his first 11 seasons in the NBA. The commonwealth of Kentucky has given the NBA some truly great players, with Dave Cowens at the forefront. One of the greatest WNBA players of all time, Diana Taurasi was destined to be a superstar. and fought Bruce Lee in Game of Death, so his cool quotient is easily the highest of anyone on this list. Ohio is right up there among the most prolific states in terms of producing NBA talent but none have left the impact of LeBron James. Ricky Davis helped Davenport North to the state tournament, but did not reach the championship game. After graduating from Notre Dame, he was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1979, played professionally in Italy for a year, then returned to play for the Cavaliers. One of the best NBA players to never be elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Tom Chambers racked up more than 20,000 points in his career as a power forward. He eventually won three NBA championships and was a 13-time All-Star, all with the Miami Heat. The Cowboy State isnt exactly known for cranking out ballers but Johnson has done a nice job representing his home state in the past decade. WebMAINE ANTONIO CAMACHO-BUCKS MARYLAND SAM BURGESS MASSACHUSETTS HUNTER JONES MICHIGAN NOAH BREKER MINNESOTA SIDNEY STEGALL MISSISSIPPI CONNOR BURNS MISSOURI WESTON BROWN MONTANA CARSON NOECKER NEBRASKA LOGAN SCOTT NEVADA BYRON GREVIOUS NEW Theres one player that always comes to mind when you think about excellence. Chauncey Billups became "Mr. Big Shot" long before he became one of the best clutch performers in the NBA. It declares everything new the best and the biggest. Byron Scott helped the Lakers win three championships as a player. Cedric Ceballos didn't always light up scoreboards. All-Time #NBArank continues with a countdown of the game's greatest giants -- the best centers in NBA history. Position: Small forward and power forward. Most important player ever? Discussions between basketball fans have been raging over who are the greatest basketball players of all time to take part in the history of this great game. At LSU he was a star, becoming the SEC Player of the Year and a first-team All-American. 25 Decade-Defining Events in U.S. History, Timeline of the American Civil Rights Movement, https://www.britannica.com/list/the-10-greatest-basketball-players-of-all-time. He was named to the All-Mountain West Conference second team in his senior year in 2014. Before he was The Big Ticket, Kevin Garnett was a kid growing up in upstate South Carolina. Adam Augustyn is Managing Editor, Reference Content at Encyclopdia Britannica. Jordan Hooper was a member of the Tulsa Shock for the 2014 season and has bounced around in her WNBA career. 20 and to Val Whiting at No. Dwyane Wade averaged 20.7 points and 7.6 rebounds during his junior year of high school, and in his senior year, he led his team to a 24-5 record. Chris Paul starred in high school, averaging 25 points, 5.3 assists and 4.4 steals in his junior year. West Virginia lost to California in the championship game during the 1958-59 season. In the NBA, Miller became a proficient three-point sniper with a career average of 40.7 percent from beyond the arc. According to Basketball Reference, only nine players in the league have ever come from that state. While some great athletes use their skill to immediately catapult to the nations most exciting states, some stay close to home as long as they can. Maine Duncan Robinson. He finished his 21-year NBA career in 2015 as a 15-time All-Star. In the NBA, Bonner spent most of his 12 seasons as a backup power forward, playing behind Tim Duncan in San Antonio. Before Luke Ridnour became a solid NBA player, he was an All-American (McDonalds and Parade) in 2000, his senior year in high school. Silver Spring native Victor Oladipo might have something to say about this in a few years but, for now, the title of Marylands best goes to Steve Francis. Your email address will not be published. 1. It wasnt until 1894 that he acquired a soccer ball and reduced the team size to nine players per side. She He repeated that feat against Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic. LeBron James learned how to be under the spotlight and shine early in life. COMMENTARY: Such a label is unfair to the 15-year-old phenom, and short-sighted given the professional basketball success of others before him. After helping the Seminoles advance to the Elite Eight in the 1993 NCAA tournament where they lost to the Kentucky he was drafted by the Houston Rockets in the first round with the 24th overall pick. On Tuesday, he highlighted Jazz guard Talen Horton-Tucker as one of his top NBA DFS picks on DraftKings and FanDuel. Jackson was part of the NBAs All-Rookie first team in 1968 and came off the bench to help the Knicks win a title in 1973. Its time for BritannicaOK, one editor at Britannicato jump into the perpetually unresolved greatest ever in [insert sport here] fray. In 2007 he also led the Cleveland Cavaliers to their first-ever NBA finals appearance against the San Antonio Spurs. In his senior season at Florida State, he averaged 18.3 points, 4.9 assists and 4.3 rebounds and led the ACC in steals. The Best No. Lebron James is one of the most dominant players in the world right now. He is the all-time leader in assists with 15,806. Thats what social media does. Keeping in mind the abilities, weaknesses, and achievements of all the basketball players, here we have shortened a list of players who are regarded as the greatest of all time. But he was so much more than a dazzling smile. The one time in his 14-year career that he was not an All-Star was in 1970, a season in which an injured Chamberlain was limited to just 12 regular-season games and yet he still managed to will his team to the NBA finals upon his return. Before he became forever linked to hoops in North Carolina and Chicago, Jordan was born in Brooklyn and lived there for a few years of his early childhood. Don't have a commenting profile? Soon after his sophomore year, he declared for the NBA draft, going seventh to the Warriors in 2012. He was traded to the Pistons, where he teamed up with Isiah Thomas, Dennis Rodman and Joe Dumars to win back-to-back NBA championships in 1989 and 1990 while becoming one of the most unpopular players in NBA history as the enforcer leader of the "Bad Boys.". Finally, after graduating from high school early, he got selected by his hometown Cavaliers in the 2003 NBA Draft. Mamba came to the NBA straight out of high school there and spent his entire Hall-of-Fame career with the Lakers, winning five titles and making 18 All-Star Game appearances, which is one off of the all-time record. In his two seasons in the ABA, Barnes averaged more than 24 points per game, which landed on the leagues All-Time Team in 1997. In total, Abdul-Jabbar spent 20 seasons in the NBA with Milwaukee and Los Angeles. 3 college prospect in the Class of 2025. Basketball is one of the most popular games across the world. A member of six NBA championship teams as a player and two as an assistant coach, Abdul-Jabbar was also voted NBA Finals MVP twice. However, during the summer, Barkley shot up to 6-foot-4 and made the varsity team, leading them to a 26-3 record and the state semifinals in his senior year. So much more than a dazzling smile, after graduating from high win! The No popular games across the world right now best maine basketball player ever so his cool quotient is easily the highest of on... Draft, including No the Cleveland Cavaliers to their first-ever NBA finals appearance the! All know Michael Jordan as the No year and was a member of the year and a First-Team All-American and! 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