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1949

Ahmad Rashad is born (as Robert Earl Moore) in Portland, Oregon. He changed his name in 1973 after converting to Islam.

1964

NCAA and NBA coach Eric Musselman is born in Ashland, Ohio.

1975

Toby Bailey is born in Los Angeles, California. He starred at Loyola High School before matriculating at UCLA, where he helped the Bruins win an NCAA title in his freshman season.

1976

Hal Greer has his jersey #15 retired by the 76ers. The Hall of Fame inductee spent his entire 15-year career with the franchise, starting with their days as the Syracuse Nationals, and retired in 1973 as their all-time leader in points and assists.

Connie Hawkins has his jersey #42 retired by the Suns. Hawkins spent four-and-a-half seasons with Phoenix, making four All-Star teams and getting named 1st-Team All-NBA.

1980

Vladimir Radmanovic is born in Trebinje, Bosnia and Herzegovina (then Yugoslavia). His national team debut came at the 2002 FIBA World Championship, where Yugoslavia upset the United States and won gold.

1981

Marcus Banks is born in Las Vegas, Nevada. Upon his 2016 retirement as a player, Banks returned to his hometown to start a youth basketball academy.

David Halberstam’s “The Breaks of the Game” is first published. Chronicling the tumultuous ’79-’80 Trail Blazers season, the non-fiction work is now widely considered the greatest book ever written about basketball.

Paul Westhead is fired as head coach of the Lakers just 11 games into the ’81-’82 season and replaced by his top assistant, Pat Riley. Despite leading the Lakers to a championship in 1980, Westhead had fallen out of favor with his star players and lost control of the locker room. Riley would subsequently coach Los Angeles to the 1982 title.

1989

Kenneth Faried is born in Newark, New Jersey. The NBA Draft took place in his hometown at the Prudential Center in 2011, when Faried was in the house to shake David Stern’s hands after getting selected #22 overall by the Nuggets.

1997

Zach Collins is born in Las Vegas, Nevada. He helped lead Bishop Gorman High School to four consecutive Nevada state titles.

2002

Jeff Hornacek has his jersey #14 retired by the Jazz. He was a key part of the Utah teams that made back-to-back NBA Finals appearances in 1997 and 1998.

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