NBA Legends Quiz
Several NBA greats started out in a different sport entirely.
An NBA legends quiz with answers about the retired stars who built the league: their signature shots, their title runs and the unlikely routes that brought some of them to basketball in the first place.
Did you know?
- Muggsy Bogues, at 1.60 metres, is the shortest player in NBA history, yet he lasted fourteen seasons as a point guard. Quick hands and a low centre of gravity made him one of the league's best at stealing the ball and at passing without losing possession.
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was so dominant as a student that American college basketball banned the dunk from 1967 to 1976. The rule pushed him to perfect other ways of scoring close to the basket, and the high, sweeping hook shot he developed became his trademark as a professional.
- Before the three-point contest at the 1988 All-Star weekend, Larry Bird is said to have asked his rivals in the dressing room which of them was planning to finish second. He then won the event for the third year running without taking off his warm-up jacket.
How its greatest players built the NBA
The NBA of the 1950s was a small league with modest crowds, and for years even its finals were not always shown live on national television. Its growth into a worldwide competition owes a great deal to a handful of players whose styles and rivalries drew in new audiences. Each generation's stars changed how the game was played and, just as importantly, how it was watched.
Dynasties and rivalries
The Boston Celtics of the late 1950s and 1960s won eight championships in a row, built on defence, rebounding and fast breaks. Interest dipped in the 1970s, then revived when Magic Johnson and Larry Bird entered the league together in 1979. Their college final that year had drawn a record television audience, and their teams, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Celtics, met in three finals during the 1980s, a rivalry widely credited with rescuing the league's popularity.
A global game
In 1992 NBA professionals were allowed to play at the Olympic Games for the first time. The United States team in Barcelona, nicknamed the Dream Team, turned its players into worldwide celebrities and inspired young players on every continent. A decade later Yao Ming of China was chosen first in the 2002 draft, and in 2007 Germany's Dirk Nowitzki became the first European to be named the league's most valuable player.
How legends are honoured
Great careers are remembered in several ways. Teams retire a player's shirt number and hang it from the arena roof, and in 2022 the league retired Bill Russell's number 6 for every team at once, the first time it had done so. The sport's Hall of Fame stands in Springfield, Massachusetts, the town where basketball was invented, and it honours players, coaches and contributors from all over the world, not only from the NBA.