1) Elgin Baylor (born 1934)

Though he retired nearly a half century ago, Baylor is still arguably still one of the 20 greatest basketball players of all time and has assuredly endured as one of the sport’s all-time great ambassadors. We’ve discussed the Sisyphean elements of his career in detail before, from his eight NBA Finals losses as a player with the Lakers to his falling just short of winning MVP to his retirement spurring a legendary Lakers winning streak to his struggles as a head coach with the Jazz and as a general manager with the Clippers. We should also emphasize his scoring acumen (he was the first player to crack 70 in a game), his 10 1st-Team All-NBA nods, his 11 All-Star appearances, his Rookie of the Year award, and his status as the first above-the-rim superstar. Baylor was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 1977, had his jersey retired by the Lakers in 1983 and a statue of him unveiled outside Staples Center in 2018.

2) Sam Jones (born 1933)

When he heard the news that his longtime teammate and close friend passed away, Bill Russell took to Twitter to eulogize Jones as “the last of the good guys.” It was a fitting epitaph for a consummate teammate, an unassuming cog in the machinery who could also dominate a game at will when necessary. Jones won 10 championships with the Celtics, the second most of any player all-time behind only Russell. He also averaged 18+ points per game for seven straight seasons in his prime, played in five All-Star Games, and was 2nd-Team All-NBA three times. Reportedly drafted sight unseen by Red Auerbach out of the HBCU North Carolina Central, Jones didn’t reach the NBA until age 24 due to military service. He lasted 12 seasons, all with Boston, and is still in the top 10 in franchise history in career points, field goals, and free throws. Following his retirement in 1969 (stepping away alongside Russell as a champion), Jones became a teacher for over three decades in Maryland. Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1984, Jones is also one of just eight players to be named to the NBA 25th Anniversary Team in 1971, the 50 Greatest Players list in 1996, and the 75 Greatest Players list in 2021, a honor he received just before his passing. Following John Havlicek in 2019 and then Tom Heinsohn and K.C. Jones in 2020, this marks the third straight year that a legend from the ’50s and ’60s Celtics dynasty has passed away, leaving just Russell and Bob Cousy as carrying the torch (Bill Sharman previously passed away in 2013).

3) Medina Dixon (born 1962)

On a roster that included Teresa Weatherspoon, Cynthia Cooper, and Teresa Edwards, it was Dixon who led the U.S. in scoring at the 1992 Olympics. The tournament ended with a disappointing bronze medal for the United States but prior to that that, Dixon did earn a world championship with the national team in 1990. By those two tournaments, Dixon’s pro career had already taken her to Italy, Russia, and Japan, as the WNBA didn’t exist until after she retired. Her crowning achievement came in the NCAA, when she was a Naismith finalist in ’84-’85 while leading Old Dominion to the national title. As a powerful, basket-facing forward, Dixon’s game often rightfully drew comparisons to Cheryl Miller. Also a legend in her hometown of Boston, where her prep career earned her All-State honors, she passed away at age 59 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

4) John Chaney (born 1932)

With his innovative match-up zone schemes, his intense mien, and his signature unkempt shirt and tie, Chaney was a memorable titan of NCAA coaching. He took over a struggling Temple program in 1982 and quickly turned it into a national powerhouse, reaching 17 NCAA Tournaments in an 18-year stretch, including five trips to the Elite Eight (though never the Final Four). Along the way, Chaney became the first Black coach to reach the 700 win plateau and was subsequently inducted into both the Naismith Hall of Fame and College Basketball Hall of Fame. His career was also not without controversy, including when he lobbed a death threat at rival coach John Calipari during a heated press conference (the two later became close friends), and occasionally inserting a “goon” into games to purposely commit hard fouls (which at one point led to an opposing player suffering a broken arm).

5) Jerry Shipp (born 1935)

Long before the Dream Team and NBA players achieving Olympics glory, the top college talent had to choose between pursuing a pro career or retaining their amateur eligibility. Of course, back in Shipp’s day, amateurism was still about as lucrative as being a professional basketball player. This was thanks in part to the AAU, which is now known as a mostly youth-oriented organization but up until the ’70s was once a powerhouse amateur sports league. Shipp was a star for the Phillips 66ers, a team organized by the titular petroleum company, and led them to two AAU championships in the early ’60s. He had been drafted by the Knicks in 1959 out of Southeast Oklahoma State but dreamed of playing in the 1960 Olympics. That was initially deferred, as he didn’t make the 1960 team, but came true in 1964 in Tokyo. Not only did Shipp make the U.S. team alongside NCAA stars like Bill Bradley and Walt Hazzard, he was actually their leading scorer as they cruised to a gold medal. When his playing days were over, Shipp took a corporate position with Phillips (which is now ConocoPhillips, following a 2002 merger) and coached high school basketball in his native Texoma, Oklahoma.

6) Paul Westphal (born 1950)

The first two Suns NBA Finals appearances in franchise history involved Westphal at the center of them. In 1976, he was the team’s starting point guard, leading play maker, and top scorer, and almost sparked an upset of the Celtics (who were his recently former teammates, as Boston had traded him to Phoenix in the 1975 offseason). In 1993, he was leading from the bench, guiding Charles Barkley and company to a near upset of the Bulls in his first season as head coach. Unfortunately, Westphal missed the end of the ’20-’21 season and the third NBA Finals trip for Phoenix, as he passed away in January of 2021 from brain cancer at age 70. Easily one of the leading figures in Suns franchise history, Westphal had his jersey #44 retired by the team in 1989. He was 1st-Team All-NBA three times, an All-Star five times, an NBA champion with the Celtics in ’73-’74, and inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2019.

7) Tommy Curtis (born 1952)

He may not be as big a name as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or Bill Walton, but Curtis was a crucial member of back-to-back undefeated UCLA teams. He joined the varsity team in ’71-’72, the same year that Walton and Jamaal Wilkes made their debuts, and was a huge spark off the bench for the Bruins. Standing just 5’11” but possessing elite speed and defensive prowess, Curtis came up especially big in the 1972 National Final win over Florida State and the 1973 National Semifinals victory over Indiana. He was drafted in the seventh round by the Braves in 1974 but failed to make the roster and called it quits on his basketball career, becoming a mortgage broker. Before his time at UCLA, Curtis made history in his hometown of Tampa, as part of the first integrated class at his high school and earning Florida High School Player of the Year honors in 1969. 

8) Eric Mobley (born 1970)

A Parade All-American coming out of high school in 1989, on the team alongside Shaquille O’Neal, Mobley was one of the top prospects in the country and made a surprise choice, leaving the Bronx for the Pittsburgh Panthers. Standing 6’11” and 235 pounds, Mobley was an imposing figure, battling Big East rival centers like Othella Harrington, and winding up second in Pitt history in career blocks, behind only Charles Smith. The Bucks drafted Mobley with the 18th pick in 1994 but his NBA career was brief and unremarkable, averaging just 3.9 points and 3.1 rebounds per game over three seasons with the Bucks and Grizzlies. He is somewhat notable as the first in-season trade in Grizzlies franchise history, acquired a few weeks into their inaugural ’95-’96 season in exchange for Benoit Benjamin. After his time in the NBA ended, Mobley returned to Pittsburgh to play one season with the Xplosion of the ABA.

9) Slick Leonard (born 1932)

He was born in the college valley town of Terre Haute and died in the capital city of Indianapolis, and in between Leonard became an embodiment of Indiana basketball. It started at Gerstmeyer High School in Terre Haute, then on to Bloomington, where he nailed the game winning free throw to lead the Hoosiers to the 1953 NCAA title, the first in program history. After a pro playing career with the Bullets and Lakers, Leonard returned home as a coach in 1968, taking over for the neophyte Pacers, then part of the ABA. Over the next 12 years, he led Indiana to five ABA Finals appearances and three titles, then a successful merger into the NBA. Once he retired as a coach, Leonard became a longtime color commentator on television and radio, coining his signature phrase “Boom, baby!” whenever a Pacers player nailed a three-pointer. He was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame as a coach in 2014 and was appropriately the first person ever enshrined in the Indiana University Athletics Hall of Fame when it opened in 1982.

10) Dennis Murphy (born 1926)

Though he was a baseball player at his high school in Los Angeles, Murphy’s true calling came in basketball as an entrepreneur. He also had brief careers in politics and marketing before a chance encounter with Al Davis in the early ’60s steered him into a revolutionary idea. In 1967, Murphy and his partner, Gary Danielson started the American Basketball Association (ABA), the most successful challenger to NBA hegemony in the 20th century. Though the ABA was a tumultuous league, it was also ultimately a fruitful one, with Murphy and Danielson shepherding a merger with the NBA in 1976. Along the way, Murphy came up with many of the ABA’s lasting innovations, including the red-white-and-blue ball, the dance teams (which especially caught the eye of his good friend, Dr. Jerry Buss), and the Slam Dunk Contest. Not satisfied with just one sports venture, Murphy also spent the ’70s founding the World Hockey Association (WHA), which folded in 1979 but sent four teams to the NHL along with Wayne Gretzkey, and World Team Tennis, which was radical in its approach to salary by gender. In his later years, Murphy also founded a second, less successful basketball league (the International Basketball Association) and a roller hockey league.

11) Bob Ferry (born 1937)

There haven’t been a lot of glory days in Wizards franchise history, but the best years are undoubtedly associated with Ferry at the helm as general manager. He took over the post in 1973, just as the Bullets were moving from Baltimore to Washington, and spent the next few years patiently building a championship roster around his two stars, Elvin Hayes and Wes Unseld. Ferry’s most notable transaction was signing Bob Dandridge as a free agent in 1977, but he also made shrewd moves to bring in Kevin Grevey, Mitch Kupchak, Tom Henderson, and Charles Johnson, all of whom were core rotation guys on the ’77-’78 title team. Ferry eventually won Executive of the Year honors twice, in ’78-’79 and ’81-’82, and in his 17 years in charge the Bullets reached the postseason 13 times (they would subsequently make the playoffs just four times in the next 17 years after he stepped down in 1990). Prior to being an executive, Ferry was an All-American as a player at Saint Louis, a first round draft pick in 1959, and spent 10 injury riddled seasons in the NBA with the Pistons, Bullets, and Hawks. His son, Danny, was a superstar at Duke, the #2 overall pick in the 1989 NBA Draft, and eventually became a general manager himself for the Cavaliers.

12) Jerry Harkness (born 1940)

He was the subject of one of the most famous photographs in basketball history, a shot of Harkness shaking hands with an opponent from Mississippi State after the “Game of Change” in the 1963 NCAA Tournament. Harkness was captain for Loyola and one of four Black starters for a history making team that won the championship, upsetting Cincinnati in the National Final. Their Regional Semifinal game against Mississippi State is the contest that most lives on though, as the players defied a state law disbarring them from competing against Black athletes, sneaking out in the middle of the night to take on Loyola in Michigan. Also the leading scorer for the Ramblers in that tournament, Harkness was subsequently drafted by the Knicks in the second round but lasted just one season in the NBA, appearing in only five games. He later also spent two seasons with the Pacers in the ABA, during which time Harkness set the still standing all-time record for longest game-winning shot, hitting an 88-foot buzzer beater to defeat the Dallas Chaparrals in November of 1967. After his playing days ended, he became a civil rights activist, getting involved with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and United Way, and in 2013, Harkness and his Loyola teammates were honored by President Obama at the White House on the 50th anniversary of their title.

13) Terrence Clarke (born 2001)

Though his freshman season at Kentucky was a disappointment for Clarke, the 19-year-old still had high hopes for his pro career. He declared for the NBA Draft after Kentucky’s season ended, was considered a second round prospect, and had just signed with mega agent Rich Paul. One day in late April, Clarke had just finished a workout with Wildcats teammate Brandon Boston in Los Angeles when he was involved in a car accident. Unfortunately, Clarke was not wearing a seat belt and was speeding when he ran a red light, striking another vehicle and then a wall. He was pronounced dead soon after at a nearby hospital (the driver of the other vehicle was unharmed). One of the most highly touted prospects ever to come out of the Boston prep system, Clarke had followed in Donovan Mitchell’s footsteps, matriculating at Brewster Academy in New Hampshire, whom he led to a national title in 2019. Due to his local prominence, Clarke became friendly with Celtics stars Kemba Walker, Jayson Tatum, and Jaylen Brown, who all sang his praises after his passing. In his lone season at Kentucky, Clarke played in just nine games due to a leg injury. 

14) Jim Phelan (born 1929)

When he took the head coaching job at then Division II Mount St. Mary’s in 1954, Phelan reportedly planned on just staying a few years before moving on to a bigger program. But he found himself hanging around in Emmitsburg, Maryland for almost half a century, compiling over 800 wins, a Division II title in 1963, a transition to Division I in 1988, and two late career NCAA Tournament appearances. Regularly turning down numerous offers from more prestigious teams (and being overlooked multiple times by his alma mater, La Salle), the Philly native developed into a legend in Northwestern Maryland. When he finally retired in 2003 at age 74, numerous fellow legends like Bob Huggins, John Calipari, and Roy Williams paid tribute by coaching while wearing a bow tie, which was Phelan’s signature sartorial accessory. Phelan, who also briefly coached the Mount St. Mary’s baseball team and served as the school’s athletic director for two decades, was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008 and had the Northeast Conference’s Coach of the Year award named after him. Before he was a coach, Phelan actually did play one season in the NBA, suiting up three times for the Warriors in the ’53-’54 season.

15) Don Kojis (born 1939)

17 players in Rockets history have represented the team at the All-Star Game. This list includes all-time legends like Hakeem Olajuwon, Moses Malone, and James Harden. But the first was Kojis, an expansion draft selection of the (then San Diego) Rockets in 1967 and an All-Star for the team in 1968 and 1969. It was actually the second consecutive year that an expansion team picked the journeyman Kojis, who started his career with the Bullets in 1963, was traded to the Pistons in 1964, drafted by the expansion Bulls in 1966, and later in his career was traded from the Rockets to the SuperSonics and from the Sonics to the Kings. In his two All-Star seasons with San Diego, he averaged 21.2 points and 9.9 rebounds per game, establishing himself as one of the premier forwards in the league. Before his NBA days, Kojis was an All-American at Marquette (where he still holds the career rebounding record), played for the Phillips 66ers of the AAU, and captained the gold medal winning U.S. team at the 1963 Pan-American Games.

16) LaVannes Squires (born 1931)

One of the biggest trail blazers in NCAA history, Squires was the first Black player to suit up for Kansas. He had grown up in nearby Wichita, the eighth of 12 children, and played his high school ball under coach Ralph Miller, a former Jayhawks star. Miller recommended Squires to Phog Allen, who brought the latter to campus in 1950, breaking the school’s color barrier. Though he was only a nominal member of the rotation, Squires did earn a national championship in ’51-’52, on the team highlighted by Clyde Lovellette, and laid the groundwork for Kansas to soon after recruit Wilt Chamberlain. After his collegiate career ended, Squires was a success in the banking industry and eventually started his own real estate company, settling in the Los Angeles area where he passed away at the age of 90.

17) Stan Albeck (born 1931)

In a coaching career that spanned nearly a half century, Albeck had numerous successes, most notably with the Spurs, whom he led to back-to-back Conference Finals appearances in 1982 and 1983. But he was perhaps most notable for his intriguing tribulations. This includes a brief stint as an assistant coach with the San Diego Consquistadors of the ABA, first under K.C. Jones, who was soon after replaced by stunt hire Wilt Chamberlain. With Chamberlain completely disinterested in the actual day-to-day responsibilities of coaching, sometimes even skipping games outright to attend promotional events for his new book, he would leave all of those tasks to Albeck. Later on, Albeck was an assistant coach with the Lakers but just as the team drafted Magic Johnson to pair with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, he left for the head coaching job of the Cavaliers, a franchise that was fully mired in the disastrous Ted Stepien era. Albeck later had an ignominious season at the helm of the Bulls in ’84-’85, clashing with Jerry Krause over, amongst numerous things, refusing to enforce a minutes restriction for Michael Jordan after he returned from a broken foot. Despite all the adversity, Albeck was well respected around the league and finished with over 300 career wins and a winning record as an NBA coach.

18) Harthorne Wingo (born 1947)

The ’74-’75 Knicks were anchored by franchise legends Walt Frazier and Earl Monroe, and featured popular championship team holdouts Bill Bradley, Phil Jackson, and Henry Bibby. But arguably the biggest fan favorite on the team was Wingo, a combo forward who averaged just 7.4 points and 5.6 rebounds per game as a backup. But when he got ready to pop up off the bench, and he did so in all 82 regular season games and three playoff contests, fans would chant his memorable name “Win-go! Win-go!” Between his unique moniker, his gangly frame, his janky jump shot mechanics, his Rucker Park moonlighting, and his infectious smile, Wingo became a mythological figure amongst ’70s Knicks fans, even later getting immortalized in the lyrics of the Beastie Boys song “Lay It On Me.” Wingo lasted just four seasons in the NBA (including a championship run with the Knicks as a rookie) but continued his career for many years with various European teams. In addition to his status in New York, he’s also a legend in his hometown of Tryon, North Carolina, where he was part of the the first ever integrated class at his high school and is the only person from his county to ever reach the NBA.

19) Mark Eaton (born 1957)

Maybe the best pure shot blocker in NBA history, the 7’5″ Eaton holds several distinctions in the league record books in the category. Most notably, he’s the only player ever to record 400+ blocks in a single season, easily setting the all-time record with 456 in ’84-’85, also the season he set the all-time record for blocks per game in a season (5.6), and won his first of two Defensive Player of the Year awards. Eaton also has the most 300+ block seasons ever, with six (Hakeem Olajuwon, Dikembe Mutombo, and Manute Bol are tied for second with three each), is one of just three players (along with Bol and Shaquille O’Neal) to record 14 or more blocks in a single game, and is one of just four players ever with 3,000 or more career blocks. Not bad for a guy who was un-recruited out of high school and working as an auto mechanic when he was spotted by a community college coach, which launched his career. After retiring as a player, Eaton became a long-time radio and television analyst, as well as president of the National Basketball Retired Players Association. He also developed into an avid cyclist, and was killed at age 64 in a tragic bike accident near his home in Utah.