16) Nat Clifton (Xavier University of Louisiana)

As only the second Black player to sign an NBA contract when the color barrier was lifted in 1950, Clifton’s basketball legacy was secure before he even stepped on the court. But he supplanted that superlative and quickly established himself as the first Black superstar, helping the Knicks reach three consecutive NBA Finals and getting named to the 1957 All-Star Game. Already 28 years old when he first suited up for the Knicks in ’50-’51, Clifton had already been a pro for several years with the barnstorming Harlem Globetrotters and New York Rens. Prior to that, he was a prep legend at DuSable High School in Chicago, catching the eye of college scouts when he shattered the Illinois state tournament single game scoring record in 1942. He enrolled at Xavier, a catholic HBCU in New Orleans (not be confused with the non-HBCU Xavier in Ohio) that was founded in 1925 by a nun who was dedicated to educating Native and Black Americans. “Sweetwater” led the Gold Rush to the championship game of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament but departed school after just one year to enroll in the U.S. Army. Two other players have reached the NBA from Xavier, and coincidentally were teammates on the late ’70s SuperSonics: Bruce Seal and Slick Watts. Another interesting connection with the school is that the first Black player to sign an NBA contract, Harold Hunter (beating out Clifton by just a couple days), coached Xavier for three seasons in the mid ’70s.

15) Marvin Webster (Morgan State)

Born and raised in Baltimore, Webster remained in his hometown to attend Morgan State, a public HBCU. It was there that he received the nickname “The Human Eraser” for his incredible shot blocking ability, which led the Bears to the 1974 NCAA Division II championship. Despite playing for a relatively small school, Webster was drafted third overall in the 1975 NBA Draft by the Hawks. He opted to play in the ABA for one year instead but did eventually make his mark in the NBA, as the leading rebounder and third leading scorer on the ’77-’78 SuperSonics that reached the NBA Finals. He then signed a notably large (and controversial) free agency contract that summer with the Knicks but struggled the rest of his career due to complications from hepatitis, which eventually led to his death from a heart attack at age 56. He was posthumously inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2018, thanks in large part due to research conducted by a sports analytics club at his high school. Though Morgan State joined Division I in 1984 and has reached two NCAA Tournaments, Webster still stands as the only player from the school to reach the NBA and he furthermore continues to hold the school records for career rebounds and field goals.

14) Purvis Short (Jackson State)

After leading Blair High School in Hattiesburg, Mississippi to the 1974 state title, Short reportedly received NCAA scholarship offers from every blue chip program imaginable. He turned them all down to play with his older brother, Gene, at Jackson State, a large, public HBCU based in the state capital. Short racked up incredible numbers at Jackson State thanks to his patented “rainbow” jumper, averaging 26.4 points and 9.9 rebounds per game in his final three seasons, and twice earning the SWAC Player of the Year award. He then followed in his brother’s footsteps to the NBA, getting drafted fifth overall by the Warriors in 1978 (as for Gene, he was the #9 overall pick of the Knicks in 1975 but struggled to adjust to NBA life and was out of the league after just one season). Though the younger Short is sometimes also labeled a bust, he had a solid 12-year NBA career, averaging 20+ points per game four times, including 28.0 per game in ’84-’85, before knee issues forced him to retire at age 32. Aside from the Short brothers, other notable Jackson State alumni include Lindsey Hunter, who won a championship with the ’03-’04 Pistons, and Cornell Warner, who backed up Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at center for the ’73-’74 Bucks that reached the NBA Finals. 

13) Caldwell Jones (Albany State)

For 18 straight seasons, a member of the Jones family was the starting center at Albany State. Caldwell was the third of six brothers to matriculate at the Georgia-based HBCU, hitting campus in 1969 and in his senior year playing for his oldest brother Oliver, who had become the head coach. Of the six Jones brothers, four moved on from Albany State to the NBA and Caldwell was the most successful of the bunch at the pro level. He started in the ABA with the San Diego Conquistadors, getting named an All-Star in 1975 and leading the league in blocks per game twice. After the 1976 merger, he signed with the 76ers and played in three NBA Finals, in 1977, 1980, and 1982, including in the latter two as the team’s starting center and leading rebounder before getting traded to Houston as part of the package for Moses Malone. While in Houston, Caldwell got a chance to team up with younger brother Major for two seasons, before finishing out his career with stops in Chicago, Portland, and San Antonio, retiring just shy of age 40. The four Jones siblings are the only NBA players from Albany State, though the school also produced Mack Daughtry, who spent one season in the ABA in the late ’60s. Caldwell was part of the inaugural class of the Albany State Sports Hall of Fame in 1999, with brothers Charles, Major, and Melvin joining him in 2004.

12) Jimmy Jones (Grambling)

When the Baltimore Bullets selected him in the second round of the 1967 NBA Draft and the New Orleans Buccaneers took him first overall in the inaugural ABA Draft the same year, the choice was easy for Jones. A lifelong Louisianan, he played high school ball in his birthplace, the small town of Tallulah, and then moved on to Grambling State in 1963. A public HBCU in rural Louisiana, Grambling was founded in 1901 by a group of farmers looking to increase higher education amongst Black Louisiana residents. Jones carried the torch at Grambling from Willis Reed (who was a senior there when he was a freshman), averaging over 20 points per game while leading the Tigers to three SWAC titles. When two pro leagues came calling, Jones knew his heart was in his home state and signed with the Buccaneers. He was one of the biggest stars in ABA history, getting named 1st-Team All-ABA three times, an All-Star six times, and finishing as high as second in the league in scoring. Jones did eventually suit up for the Bullets for three seasons, starting in ’74-’75, before retiring. Though it was once an NBA pipeline, producing not just Jones and Reed but also Aaron James, Larry Wright, and Bob Hopkins, Grambling has not produced an NBA player since 1977.

11) Avery Johnson (Southern)

Like many players on this list, Johnson had an arduous and circuitous route from his HBCU days to NBA stardom. Despite leading the NCAA in assists per game in his senior season at Southern, Johnson wasn’t drafted in 1988 and played a stint with the Palm Beach Stingrays of the USBL before signing with the SuperSonics. He bounced from Seattle to Denver to San Antonio to Houston and back to San Antonio in his first four seasons, averaging just 3.9 points and 3.1 assists per game over that span, before finally settling in as the starting point guard for the Spurs. From there, he developed into one of the steadiest point guards of the ’90s, eventually getting rewarded with a championship with San Antonio in 1999. Southern was actually the third college that Johnson attended, as he started out at New Mexico Junior College, then an NAIA school in Oklahoma called Cameron University, before joining the storied HBCU in his native Louisiana. In his two years on campus, “The Little General” led the Panthers to back-to-back NCAA Tournaments and became the first player in Division I history to average double-digit points and assists per game in the same season. In 2013, the school renamed its court to “Avery Johnson Court” and retired his #15 jersey.

10) Anthony Mason (Tennessee State)

Mason’s heart was always in New York, the city in which he grew up and later had his best pro years with the Knicks, but his college journey took him to Nashville. It was there that he was recruited to the public HBCU Tennessee State in the mid ’80s, just as its basketball program was transitioning to Division I as part of the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC). In his senior year, ’87-’88, Mason averaged 28.0 points and 10.4 rebounds per game for the Tigers, catching the eye of pro scouts. Portland drafted him in the third round of the 1988 NBA Draft but cut him that same summer, setting off a three year sojourn that took the forward from Turkey to Venezuela to the CBA to the USBL, with short stints with the Nets and Nuggets in between. He finally caught on with the Knicks in 1991, working his way up from the Summer League team to becoming a roster mainstay, eventually earning a Sixth Man of the Year award, an All-Star appearance, and playing in the 1994 NBA Finals. His 2,075 career points at Tennessee State still stands as the school’s all-time Division I record and he’s also second in career rebounds.

9) Truck Robinson (Tennessee State)

Before it joined Division I in the ’80s, Tennessee State was a powerhouse in Division II in the ’70s, especially in the years they were led by Leonard “Truck” Robinson. Born and raised in Jacksonville, where he is still arguably the greatest prep player in the city’s history, Robinson was recruited to Tennessee State in 1970. In his junior and senior years, the undersized (6’7″) but bruising power forward led the Tigers to the Division II Tournament Final Four, including a National Final appearance in 1974. A second round pick of the Bullets in 1974, he played in the NBA Finals as a rookie coming off the bench but had his best years later with the Jazz and Suns, getting named 1st-Team All-NBA in ’77-’78, appearing in two All-Star Games, and leading the league once in rebounds per game. A proud tradition of Tennessee State players reaching the NBA started with Dick Barnett being a first round pick in 1960, continued with Robinson and Anthony Mason in the ’70s and ’80s, and most recently includes NBA All-Defensive team member Robert Covington. In 2018, Robinson was inducted into the Small College Basketball Hall of Fame.

“So how did one of the obvious greatest talents of his generation end up at a Division II school? According to the man himself, major colleges considered his style of play “too street and too Black,” a familiar refrain for many stylish players of that era.”

8) Charles Oakley (Virginia Union)

A private HBCU founded in Richmond, Virginia in 1865 to educate freed slaves, Virginia Union has been a longtime Division II basketball school that has nonetheless produced two NBA greats in Oakley and Ben Wallace. In fact, they are two of five NBA players from the school that were all recruited by legendary coach Dave Robbins, who led the Panthers for three decades and earned three NCAA Division II titles (none of which came with Oakley or Wallace on the roster). Oakley hit campus in 1981, recruited from John Hay High School in Cleveland, and earned Division II Player of the Year honors in his senior season. Word of his scoring and rebounding prowess outstripped his Division II obscurity, and Oakley was drafted ninth overall in 1985 by his hometown Cavaliers, who then traded him to the Bulls. Over 19 NBA seasons, he developed a reputation as an elite rebounder and defender, one of the league’s all-time toughest players, and folklore status amongst Knicks fans, who still revere him to this day. He was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 2016 for his contributions in college and his 12,205 career rebounds are the most in NBA history by an HBCU alumnus.

7) Bob Love (Southern)

Known mainly for its football rivalry with Grambling, Southern also has some hardwood success in its history, including nine Division I NCAA Tournament appearances. Long before any of that, the Baton Rouge-based HBCU was a member of the NAIA, an athletics collection of small schools. Their shining moment back then came in the 1965 NAIA Tournament, when Love led the Jaguars to their first quarterfinals appearance. The two-time All-American was subsequently drafted by the Cincinnati Royals in the fourth round that summer but failed to make the team and spent some time in the CBA (which was then called the Eastern Basketball Association). When Love got a second chance in the NBA he made it count, becoming the first superstar for the then nascent Chicago Bulls. A smooth, ambidextrous combo forward, Love averaged 22.6 points and 7.1 rebounds per game in a seven year prime all with Chicago, and was named 2nd-Team All-NBA twice and an All-Star three times during that stretch. He is still third in Bulls franchise history in career scoring, behind Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. In 2011, Southern retired his jersey #41, raising it to the rafters alongside Avery Johnson and Bobby Phills. 

6) Zelmo Beaty (Prairie View A&M)

With a basketball program dating back to 1956, the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) is the only Division I conference made up entirely of HBCUs. In its long history, the SWAC has produced only two Naismith Hall of Fame players: Willis Reed and Beaty, who was inducted in 2016. Beaty’s school was Prairie View A&M, the second oldest public university in Texas, with a history dating back to 1876. Though the school is mainly renowned for its stellar marching band and danceline, it had one moment of basketball glory in 1962, when Beaty guided the Panthers to the NAIA championship. For his efforts, Beaty was named MVP of that tournament and was also a two-time NAIA All-American. He was drafted third overall by the Hawks in 1962 and spent seven seasons with the franchise, averaging 17.4 points and 11.2 rebounds per game and going to two All-Star Games. Beaty then became one of the biggest NBA stars to defect for the ABA, joining the Utah Stars in 1970 and becoming a dominant force in the new league, including earning the Playoffs MVP award when the Stars won the 1971 championship. His 2016 Hall of Fame induction was unfortunately posthumous, as Beaty passed away from cancer in 2013. He has also been enshrined in the College Basketball Hall of Fame and the Texas Sports Hall of Fame. No other player has ever reached the NBA from Prairie View A&M though Guy Manning was drafted by the Bullets in 1968 and spent two seasons with the Houston Mavericks in the ABA.

5) Earl Monroe (Winston-Salem State)

One of just 14 players who’s had their jersey retired by multiple NBA franchises, Monroe’s #10 also hangs from the rafters at his alma mater, Winston-Salem State. His exploits at the school are almost as legendary as his Philadelphia playground escapades and his later professional resume. Playing for the Division II HBCU based out of North Carolina, right down the street from Wake Forest, Monroe averaged 41.5 points per game in his senior season, earning Player of the Year and leading the Rams to the national title. That Winston-Salem State championship was, in fact, the first ever at the NCAA level by an HBCU school. It was also in his college years that Monroe earned the nickname “Earl the Pearl” when local sportswriter Jerry McLeese began referring to his baskets as “pearls.” Monroe was subsequently drafted second overall by the Bullets and embarked on a Hall of Fame NBA career that included six seasons averaging 20+ points per game, four All-Star appearances, a Rookie of the Year award, and a championship with the Knicks in ’72-’73. So how did one of the obvious greatest talents of his generation end up at a Division II school? According to the man himself, major colleges considered his style of play “too street and too Black,” a familiar refrain for many stylish players of that era. Winston-Salem State did produce several other NBA players under the guidance of its legendary coach, Clarence Gaines (who was enshrined in Springfield in 1982, eight years before Monroe), including Haywoode Workman, Carlos Terry, Earl “The Twirl” Williams, and Cleo Hill, who in 1961 became the first HBCU alumnus to be selected in the first round of the NBA Draft.

4) Bob Dandridge (Norfolk State)

In 2021, the Naismith Hall of Fame count of HBCU players and coaches inducted increased from 10 to 12 with the additions of Ben Wallace and Dandridge. It was a long time coming for Dandridge, who was drafted out of Norfolk State by the Bucks in 1969 and developed into one of the premier NBA forwards of the ’70s. While attending the Virginia-based school, Dandridge participated in a game many consider the greatest in HBCU basketball history, the 1968 CIAA Tournament championship, wherein the Spartans defeated North Carolina A&T in a 134-132 triple overtime thriller. Though he was a fourth round pick, Dandridge was an instant contributor for the Bucks alongside fellow rookie Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He would eventually score more points in the NBA Finals in the ’70s than any other player, participating with the Bucks in 1971 and 1974 and then with the Bullets in 1978 and 1979, winning titles in 1971 and 1978. He was also a four-time All-Star, finished as high as fifth in MVP voting, and beloved by fans for his speed and his defensive intensity. Though the school was Division II in Dandridge’s day, Norfolk State transitioned to Division I in 1997 and made headlines in the 2012 NCAA Tournament with a major upset of Missouri.

3) Ben Wallace (Virginia Union)

An All-State competitor from a tiny town called White Hall in central Alabama, Wallace was first recognized as a diamond-in-the-rough talent as a teenager by then Knicks star Charles Oakley. Oakley mentored Wallace at a basketball camp, then recommended he start his college career at Cuyahoga Community College in Oakley’s home town of Cleveland. From there, Wallace followed his mentor to his alma mater, Virginia Union, a private HBCU in Richmond. Already a dominant defender and rebounder, Wallace led the Panthers to a Final Four appearance in the 1996 NCAA Division II Tournament, and further developed his game under the tutelage of legendary coach Dave Robbins. Though he was infamously un-drafted in 1996 and languished on the bench for the Wizards and Magic early in his career, Wallace eventually caught on with the Pistons and established himself as one of the greatest defensive players in NBA history, earning Defensive Player of the Year a record tying four times. He also led the NBA in rebounding twice, blocks per game once, and was starting center and heart-and-soul for the Pistons team that won the 2004 NBA title. Wallace is a member of the CIAA, Virginia, Michigan, and Alabama Sports Halls of Fame, and in 2021 was additionally enshrined in Springfield.

2) Willis Reed (Grambling)

In a honor that will likely stand for the foreseeable future, as the HBCU-to-NBA pipeline has mostly dried up, Reed is the only HBCU alumnus to win NBA league MVP or Finals MVP. Not only did he earn both those awards in the ’69-’70 season, Reed also provided one of the most indelible moments in basketball history, bounding through the tunnel of Madison Square Garden to start game seven of the Finals despite a torn thigh muscle. Though nothing in his collegiate career reached those heights of importance and renown, Reed also had some significant successes at Grambling, averaging 26.6 points and 21.3 rebounds per game in his senior season, getting named an All-American twice, and leading the Tigers to the 1961 NAIA national championship. Playing for Grambling was a natural fit for Reed, who was born and raised just 20 miles away on a farm in still heavily segregated Northeastern Louisiana. Though his entire pro career, both as a player and coach, happened in New York, Reed’s heart was always back in the countryside of Louisiana, and he eventually retired to a large farm just down the road from the Grambling campus.

1) Sam Jones (North Carolina Central)

In prepping for the 1957 NBA Draft, Red Auerbach asked his friend and former player, Wake Forest coach Bones McKinney, for scouting advice on the ACC. McKinney reportedly responded that the best player in the state of North Carolina was actually Jones, who had just finished up his senior season at North Carolina Central. The rest, as they say, is history, with Jones getting selected eighth overall by the Celtics and eventually winning 10 championships over the next 12 years, while getting named an All-Star five times and developing into the prototypical shooting guard, an archetype that holds to this day. But the origin story is lesser known. To wit: when it came time for Jones to play high school basketball in 1947, his segregated hometown of Wilmington, North Carolina had no schools for Black students. Thus, he ended up starring for the private Black-only school Laurinburg Institute. From there, he was heavily recruited by numerous HBCUs and wound up choosing North Carolina Central. A public HBCU located in Durham, just down the street from Duke, NCCU was a longtime Division II powerhouse under Hall of Fame coach John McClendon. Jones earned a degree in teaching from NCCU in 1957 (following two years off to serve in the U.S. Army) and considered quitting pro basketball a couple times early in his career to take on teaching until he developed into a key cog in the Bill Russell Boston championship machine. In 1984, he became just the second HBCU player to be inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame, following Willis Reed.