Fans talk about how great basketball is in their state and how many players they’ve sent to the NBA. But sometimes when they talk about how strong the sport is in their state, they actually rely on college players from other states or the NBA team located there if they’re lucky enough to have one.
But instead of looking at what states import the most basketball talent, I wanted to see which state produced the best NBA starting lineups. If a player was born or played their high school basketball in a state, that’s what counts.
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I stretched the rules here and there, but this list of all 50 states and one district is meant to look at if each state could have an all-time starting NBA lineup, just how good would it be?
For the sake of simplicity, we are mostly going by what state a player was born in and where they played high school, but there are some exceptions. A player like Michael Jordan may have been born in New York, but he’s “from” North Carolina by most opinions. We had to stretch the rules for some states with fewer players, but the general idea is the same.
I didn’t stick entirely to player’s positions in the NBA, but for the most part I tried not to have a center playing shooting guard or anything like that. We live in a “positionless” NBA now, supposedly, so we might as well make these all-time state teams reflect that.
Let’s get this rolling in alphabetical order, starting with Alabama.
Next: Alabama
Alabama
Eric Bledsoe, Chuck Person, Charles Barkley, DeMarcus Cousins, Artis Gilmore
Total of 23 All-Star appearances, 1 NBA/ABA championships
Eric Bledsoe has only been in the NBA for five seasons but he’s one of the better ball handlers and distributors from the Cotton State. Bledsoe averages 10.8 points, 4.1 assists and 3.5 rebounds per game and played a role in turning the Los Angles Clippers from a joke to a respectable team. He followed the money to Phoenix, where he hopes the young team can make a run in the Western Conference.
Chuck Person is the next on the list with 14.7 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.8 assists per a game. Person was a career 34.4 percent three-point shooter and ranks 47th all-time in three-point shots made at 1,220, earning him the nickname “The Rifleman” thanks to the show of the same name. It really helps that his full name is Chuck Connors Person, named after the star of the show, Chuck Connors.
Hall of Famer and all-time All-Star Charles Barkley is next for this Alabama squad with an impressive list of accomplishments to prove his credentials. They include being named to the NBA’s 50th Anniversary Team, winning the MVP award in 1993, five selections to the All-NBA First Teams and All-NBA Second Teams as well as one All-NBA Third Team. Despite being 6’6″, he ranks 19th all-time with 12,546 rebounds and also makes the top 100 in assists (4,215, ranked 92nd) and steals (1,646, ranked 25th) as well as 29th all-time in points with 23,757.
DeMarcus Cousins comes in at the power forward position, averaging a career double-double so far with 18.9 points, 10.6 rebounds and 2.6 assists a game. Cousins creates plenty of controversy, but he seems worth any headache as he’s been in the top 10 several seasons in points, rebounds and Player Efficiency Rating. He’s the cornerstone and lighting rod of the Sacramento Kings going forward either way.
Team Alabama rounds out its lineup with Artis Gilmore, a name fans might recognize but may not have a proper appreciation for. The 11-time All-Star and ABA champion averaged 18.8 points and 12.3 rebounds per per game in his career while also earning one MVP with the league before it merged with the NBA. If more of his career and his best years would have taken place in the NBA, casual fans might know him better, but nonetheless, he is a legend and Hall of Famer either way.
Grade: B
Next: Alaska
Alaska
Mario Chalmers, Carlos Boozer, Trajan Langdon
Total of 2 All-Star appearances, 2 NBA/ABA championships
Alaska actually has two players in the NBA that were actually born there. Mario Chalmers has won two championships with the Miami Heat and averaged 10.2 points and 3.8 assists a game last season. Chalmers is a competent point guard and strong defender coming off the bench for Miami.
Chalmers may be best known for his days in college and the 2008 NCAA championship game when he sent the game against Memphis into overtime with a clutch three-pointer.
Carlos Boozer is also on the team with two All-Star games under his belt as well as career averages of 15.2 points and 9.5 rebounds a game. He’s ranked 71st on the all-time rebounds list with 8,192. While he’s made fun of as his career declines, let’s not forget that he has a career PER of 19.5. He was a rather prolific player at one point if you can stop making jokes for a moment.
Lastly the three-year career of Trajan Langdon and his 5.4 points, 1.3 rebounds, and 1.3 assists a game with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Grade: Incomplete
Next: Arizona
Arizona
Mike Bibby, Fat Lever, Jerryd Bayless, Richard Jefferson, Sean Elliott
Total of 4 All-Star appearances, 1 NBA/ABA championships
Mike Bibby may be the archenemy of the Starters’ JE Skeets, but he had a long career and played on numerous playoff teams, most notably the Sacramento Kings. Bibby and the Kings came close to making the NBA Finals in the early 2000s, but it was the Los Angeles Lakers that eliminated them several years in a row.
He averaged 14.7 points, 5.5 assists and 3.1 rebounds per game. His 5,517 assists rank 44th all-time while his 1,172 steals is good for 93rd. On top of all that, he was a career 37.9 percent shooter from beyond the arc and with 1,517 made threes, he ranks 23rd all-time.
Two time All-Star Fat Lever is next on the list with career averages of 13.9 points, 6.2 assists and 6.0 rebounds per game. But his most notable claim to fame is defense and how often he stole the ball. He had a total of 1,666 in his career (24th all-time) and averaged 2.2 a game, the seventh best mark in NBA/ABA history. When he wasn’t stealing the ball, he was dishing out assists to the tune of 6.2 per a game (48th all-time) with a total of 4,696 — 66th all-time.
Jerryd Bayless is next on the list with his 8.3 points, 2.9 assists and 2.1 rebounds per a game in his seven-year career. Last season in the opening round of the playoffs, Bayless helped the Milwaukee Bucks take Game 5 of their series with a last-second layup.
Richard Jefferson is another one of those memorable players like Bibby that when you look back on their career, you’re somewhat surprised they never made one All-Star Game. Also like Bibby, he’s a talented three-point shooter with a 38 percent mark from there. In his best season, he scored 20.9 points a game, but a 16.2 points per game average for his career isn’t too bad either.
Sean Elliott comes in with a pair of All-Star appearances in the 1990s and one NBA title with the San Antonio Spurs. The strike-shortened season saw Elliott and the Spurs lose just two of their 17 playoff games, all of which Elliott started. With 11.9 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game, Elliott helped start the Spurs dynasty that is only now on its last legs.
Grade: C+
Next: Arkansas
Arkansas
Derek Fisher, Joe Johnson, Scottie Pippen, Paul Silas, Caldwell Jones
Total of 17 All-Star appearances, 14 NBA/ABA championships
Arkansas if the first state on the list that has strong NBA credentials and could throw out a starting five to compete with almost any other team on this list.
The MVP and small forward of the team would be Scottie Pippen with his six NBA titles and seven All-Star appearances. Pippen may be in the shadow of Michael Jordan, but to pretend like he isn’t one of the best players and wing-defenders to ever play the game only shows ignorance. Pippen won titles with Jordan, but Jordan didn’t win them without Pippen either.
Pippen averaged nearly 20 points a game during his prime and made three All-NBA First Teams, two all-NBA Second Teams, two All-NBA Third Teams as well as eight NBA All-Defensive First Teams, two NBA All-Defensive Second Teams and once led the league in steals. His credentials speak for themselves.
Though Paul Silas’ resume resembles a journeyman’s career with the six teams he played with, he made two All-Star teams while also winning a trio of NBA titles. Like Pippen, he made several All-NBA First and Second Defensive teams while scoring over 10,000 points and pulling down over 10,000 rebounds.
Derek Fisher may have never made it to an All-Star game, but he did win five NBA titles with the Los Angeles Lakers. While you could be dismiss him as an average player on a great team, that would erase the fact that he contributed in everyone of those championships and notably bailed them out against the San Antonio Spurs during the 2004 Western Conference Finals.
Next in the lineup is Joe Johnson, the often criticized but seven-time All-Star nevertheless. He kicked off an eight-year run of playoff appearances for the Atlanta Hawks, five of which Johnson was a part of. He’s averaged 17.3 points a game throughout his career.
While he gets pegged as a volume shooter, and rightly so at times, he’s been a strong three-point shooter throughout his career and was second the league in three-point percentage in 2004-05.
Caldwell Jones rounds out the Arkansas team with one ABA All-Star appearance and two NBA All-Defensive First Teams. On top of that he gave us this quote towards the end of his career when he was primarily a reserve: “I’m like a spare tire on the Cadillac. I’m just sitting around in the trunk, waiting to get put on the car if one of the fancy tires blows out.”
Grade: A
Next: California
California
Jason Kidd, Gary Payton, Paul Pierce, George Yardley, Bill Walton
Total of 36 All-Star appearances, 5 NBA/ABA championships
It is no surprise that the nation’s most populous state has one of the best all-time teams of any state.
Jason Kidd gets things started as the squad’s player-coach with 12.6 points and 8.6 assists a game. He led the league in assists three times and steals once. It is easy to forget how in control of the game he was because he only won one championship, but Basketball-Reference.com has him with the 11th highest value over replacement player in his career.
Not a bad starting point for this California team.
Kidd bumps Gary Payton to shooting guard on our imaginary team, but something tells me the Glove could make it work. Also like Kidd, Payton snuck in a title toward the end of his career but had already put together a Hall of Fame career before then.
His 16.3 points and 6.7 assists are impressive enough, but his nickname was earned on defense where he earned nine All-NBA First Team selections.
Paul Pierce, a.k.a. The Truth, has had 10-All-Star appearances and one NBA championship in his career. The Truth is still chasing a second one with a stop in Los Angeles this season but he’s already earned himself a future Hall of Fame invite with 20.7 points and 5.8 rebounds per a game in his career.
While it is fun to mock Pierce for his theatrics and ill-timed boasts, the man is undoubtedly a Hall of Famer.
To find a power forward for this team we had to go back to the 1950s for George Yardley with his six All-Star Game appearances. Yardley was the scoring champion in 1958 with 2,001 points. He made a All-NBA First Team and All-NBA Second Team in his short seven-year career.
His career averages of 19.2 points and 8.9 rebounds a game hold up well, and his career PER of 20.5 is good for 56th all time.
Bill Walton rounds out Team California with his short but iconic NBA career. With the Portland Trail Blazers Walton was both a NBA and Finals MVP before injuries started to pile up, but it is clear his talent was exceptional. Even after his injuries he won a second NBA title with the Boston Celtics.
He averaged a career double-double with 13.3 points and 10.5 rebounds per game, as well as 3.4 assists.
Grade: A+
Next: Colorado
Colorado
Charles Williams, Chauncey Billups, Scott Wedman, Bob Doll, Joe Kleine
Total of 11 All-Star appearances, 4 NBA/ABA championships
The names may not be as big for Team Colorado, but they have a decent array of hardware in spite of that.
The biggest name is Chauncey Billups, the seven-time All-Star and NBA champion with the Detroit Pistons. Billups was a teammate willing to pass the ball as he averaged 6.1 assists a game to go along with his 17.2 points. Unlike a few others in the state, Billups was born, raised, went to high school and college in Colorado before playing for the Denver Nuggets in two separate stints.
Along with his career accomplishments, he’s clearly a home-state hero.
Next on the list, and with two NBA titles is Scott Wedman. Though he wasn’t born in the state, he was raised there and played his high school and college ball in the Centennial State. Wedman first came in the league with the Kansas City Kings before making his way back to Boston in the early 80s to win a pair of championships coming off the bench.
Wedman’s 13.2 point, 4.8 points and 48.1 percent shooting earned him two All-Star appearances as well.
Bob Doll was more of a college star than an NBA one, but he still ends up as one of the state’s better NBA players with 8.4 points per a game when he played in the 1950s. In fact, he only played one season in the NBA as the rest of his career had been in America’s proto-leagues of the time.
Like Doll, Charles Williams was more of an ABA star (where he won a championship with the Pittsburgh Pipers), but he was an All-Star twice in the NBA. Williams averaged 16.2 points a game in his career.
Joe Kleine only averaged 4.8 points and 4.1 rebounds a game in his career, but played for seven teams over his 13-year NBA career. He didn’t play in the 1998 NBA Playoffs with the Chicago Bulls, but you could add more more to the state’s total if you want. Kleine also won a gold medal in the 1984 Olympic Games.
Grade: B-
Next: Connecticut
Connecticut
Calvin Murphy, Michael Adams, Charles Smith, Rick Mahon, Marcus Camby
Total of 2 All-Star appearances, 1 NBA/ABA championships
Calvin Murphy is the shortest member of the Hall of Fame at 5’9″ and made one All-Star Game during his time with the Houston Rockets. His defense and quickness allowed him to carve out a distinguished career where he also held the record for most consecutive free throws made, a mark that has now been eclipsed.
He averaged 17.9 points a game while shooting 48.2 percent from the field in his career.
Michael Adams had the group’s other All-Star appearance with his selection in 1992 as he averaged 18.1 points and 7.6 assists a game, while in his career he averaged 14.7 points and 6.4 assists. Like Murphy, he also stood below six feet at 5’10”, but made the best of the abilities to carve out his niche in the NBA.
Charles Smith averaged 14.4 points and 5.8 rebounds per a game, but sadly his most notable NBA moment might be this:
Rick Mahorn, one part of the “Thump N’ Bump” duo with Charles Barkley, won a championship earlier in his career with the Bad Boys Detroit Pistons. He earned a NBA All-Defensive Second Team spot in 1990 and in his career averaged 6.9 points and 6.2 rebounds a game.
Marcus Camby averaged more rebounds per a game (9.8) than points (9.5) in his career and while he never was an All-Star, he made four NBA All-Defensive teams. Camby led the league in blocks four times in his career as well as having led the NBA in total rebounding percentage four times as well. He won the league’s Defensive Player of the Year Award in 2006-07.
Shout out to Mike Gminski and his awesome facial hair as an honorable mention.
Grade: C-
Next: Delaware
Delaware
Walt Hazzard, A.J. English, Terence Stansbury, Stephen Graham, Joey Graham
Total of 1 All-Star appearances, 0 NBA/ABA championships
Walt Hazzard, later Mahdi Abdul-Rahman, averaged 12.6 points, 4.9 assists, and 3 rebounds a game in his career while being in the league’s top 10 in assists five times in his career.
Unfortunately, for the lovely state of Delaware, their squad goes down quickly after that as no one else even came close to making an All-Star Game. English averaged 9.9 points over two seasons, Terence Stansbury played three seasons (6.3 PPG), Joey Graham played six seasons (5.9 PPG), and Stephen Graham played six seasons (4.0 PPG). And yes, the two Grahams are brothers.
Grade: D
Next: Florida
Florida
Vernon Maxwell, Mitch Richmond, Tracy McGrady, Otis Thorpe, Darryl Dawkins
Total of 14 All-Star appearances, 4 NBA/ABA championships
Florida kicks things off with Vernon Maxwell and his two NBA titles. He played a pivotal role in Houston’s 1994 and 1995 titles while averaging 16.2 points and 4.3 assists per a game. He led the league in made three-pointers in 1991 and 1992. Not a bad start for Team Florida.
Mitch Richmond had six All-Star appearances while finding his way on to the 2001-02 Los Angeles Lakers championship team before retiring. Though he was only a small part of that team, he averaged 21 points a game in his career while making five All-NBA teams. Richmond shot better than 40 percent from beyond the arc and ranks 62nd all-time in the league’s three-point percentage.
Tracy McGrady stands 6’9″ but had the game of a much smaller player. Even Kobe Bryant said as much. McGrady began to make his name with the Toronto Raptors but it was with the Orlando Magic and Houston Rockets he became the player we came to love. It was with the Magic we saw the seven-time All-Star level talent he was, averaging 28.1 points and seven rebounds a game.
McGrady continued to flourish with the Rockets and made three more All-Star games, but injuries hampered the tail end of his career and took away what could have been his prime seasons.
The Sunshine State’s frontcourt includes Otis Thorpe and his NBA championship with Houston, as well as one All-Star appearance. He was an iron-man with 542 consecutive games played and held career averages of 14.0 points and 8.2 rebounds per game, totaling over 17,000 points and 10,000 rebounds before he left the game.
Darryl Dawkins rounds out the list and despite never making an All-Star game, he deserves a spot as much as anyone else on this list. Chocolate Thunder shot 57.2 percent from the field in his 13-year career while averaging 12 points, 6.1 rebounds and 1.4 blocks a game.
He played in the NBA Finals three times but unfortunately for him and the Philadelphia 76ers, they never came out on the right side of things. Dawkins built his career on being an excellent defender while knowing when to take his shots. We can also thank Dawkins for the NBA adopting breakaway rims after he shattered two backboards in the 1978-79 season.
Grade: A-
Next: Georgia
Georgia
Walt Frazier, Dale Ellis, Mike Mitchell, Horace Grant, Dwight Howard
Total of 17 All-Star appearances, 6 NBA/ABA championships
Hall of Famer Walt Frazier leads the charge for Georgia as the seven-time NBA All-Star averaged 18.9 points and 6.1 assists per game during his career. He may be known for his visually-assaulting suits now, but during his hey-day the New York Knicks dominated with his offensive prowess. He and Earl “the Pearl came together to form the “Rolls Royce Backcourt” and won the 1973 NBA Finals together.
Next up for Georgia is Dale Ellis and his 15.7 points per a game that earned him one All-Star appearance. After struggling for a few seasons with the Dallas Mavericks, Ellis’ career took off with the Seattle SuperSonics where he earned the NBA’s Most Improved Player Award in 1987 and went on to earn that All-Star appearance a year later.
In his best year, 1988-89 he averaged 27.5 points a game while settling for 15.7 points per game in his career. He’s quietly one of the better shooters in NBA history as he’s in the top 12 for field goals and three-pointers made.
Mike Mitchell’s 19.8 points and 5.6 rebounds per a game earned him a spot on the Peach State’s list and he never hesitated to shoot the ball as he was in the top 10 in field goals attempted in made for a six-season stretch in the early 80s.
Horace Grant and his rec specs are iconic to anyone who watched basketball in the 80s and 90s but most probably forget the All-Star averaged 11.2 points and 8.1 rebounds per a game throughout his career. He would win three championships with the Chicago Bulls before earning one with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2001. Grant took his shots when they were available and pulled down plenty of rebounds in his career but never led the league despite ranking 43rd in NBA history for total rebounds.
Rounding out the Peach State posse is Dwight Howard. The eight-time NBA All-Star and five-time All-NBA First Teamer also earned three Defensive Player of the Year Awards. He’s gotten a basketball phenomenon named after him, yet we always obsess over how unlikable he can be at times.
If you take your opinion of him off the court out of the way, it is easy to see he’s a defensive force wherever he’s been as he’s led the league in blocks and rebounds several times. If he wins one championship, he might finally get the respect he deserves for his play.
Grade: B
Next: Hawaii
Hawaii
Cedric Ceballos, Red Rocha
Total of 3 All-Star appearances, 1 NBA/ABA championships
Surpringly Hawaii has produced two NBA players and perhaps more surprisingly, both were All-Stars.
Cedric Ceballos had the NBA’s highest field goal percentage among qualified shooters in the 1992-93 season at 57.6 percent on 381-of-662 shooting. But it was a few years later when he still was shooting above 50 percent when he made the 1994-95 All-Star Game as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Rocha played in the early days of the NBA and won a title with the Syracuse Nationals.
Grade: Incomplete
Next: Idaho
Idaho
Luke Ridnour, Charlie Black, Dale Wilkinson, Steve Hayes
Total of 0 All-Star appearances, 0 NBA/ABA championships
Idaho nearly has a full squad but they are one potato short of a team.
Luke Ridnour has put together a 12-season career in the NBA with 9.3 points and 4.5 assists per game, but his offseason this year will end up being an interesting footnote in NBA history. Ridnour was traded four times within the span of six days. After signing with the Orlando Magic he was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies, then to the Charlotte Hornets and then the same day, to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Finally he was traded to the Toronto Raptors but even then he has was waived.
Gary Freeman averaged 3.2 points in his only season in the NBA but played in a total of 52 games.
Next down on Team Idaho is Charlie Black, who averaged 9.2 points a game playing in the 1940s in the NBA.
Dale Wilkinson continues to add size to the team, but he only averaged 1.2 points per game in his 12-game NBA career in the 80s.
Playing center for team Idaho is Steve Hayes with his five-year NBA career from the early 1980s. He averaged 2.6 points and 2.5 rebounds a game.
Grade: D
Next: Illinois
Illinois
Isiah Thomas, Dwyane Wade, Harry Gallatin, Dan Issel, George Mikan
Total of 40 All-Star appearances, 11 NBA/ABA championships
Running the point guard for the Illinois team is Isiah Thomas with his 19.2 points, 9.3 assists and 1.9 steals per a game during his 13-year career. He should have made the Dream Team in 1992, but perhaps Michael Jordan’s pettiness kept him off.
Isiah will have to settle for winning two titles with the Bad Boy Detroit Pistons and making the All-Star Game in all but one season in his career. Thomas led the league in assists twice and while he didn’t dominate many other statistical categories, he still ended up in the top 10 all-time in the NBA in PER, a testament to his all-around game.
Next up is Dwyane Wade and his trio of NBA titles. Like Thomas, Wade has made the All-Star Game in all but one of his NBA seasons for a total of 11 so far. Wade led the league in scoring in 2008, averaging 30.2 points per a game and still has one of the best all-time PERs for his career at No. 8. He still has a few years left to add to this list of accomplishments.
Hall of Famer Harry Gallatin is next with seven All-Star Game appearances as well as one All-NBA First Team and All-NBA Second Team selection. He led the league in 1954 with 1,098 rebounds and his career average of 11.9 rebounds a game ranks 21st on the all-time list. Add those rebounds to his 13 points a game and you have a career double-double for Gallatin.
Hall of Famer Dan Issel is next up on the list with an ABA title with the Kentucky Colonels as well as six All-Star appearances. He scored over 27,000 points in his career to put him in the same category as many of other names of the time, including Julius Erving and Wilt Chamberlain. Numbers like that aren’t too surprising when you consider he led the ABA in scoring for three straight seasons. His 22.6 points and 9.1 rebounds a game make him this team’s power forward.
Closing out the Illinois team is Hall of famer George Mikan. He only played seven seasons and was an All-Star four times. Perhaps more importantly, Mikan won five titles with the Minneapolis Lakers. Mikan led the league in points from 1948-50 as well as rebounds in 1952-53 and his 6’10” frame allowed him to be dominant. His play led to a few rule changes in the NBA, including the goaltending rule, widening the foul lane and introducing the shot clock.
Grade: A
Next: Indiana
Indiana
Jeff Teague, Gordon Hayward, Larry Bird, Shawn Kemp, George McGinnis
Total of 19 All-Star appearances, 5 NBA/ABA championships
The Hoosier State has a strong tradition in basketball and it is no surprise their all-time NBA is impressive as well.
Jeff Teague gets the nod at point guard and though he may only have one All-Star appearance so far, 12.5 points and 5.0 assists per game give you an idea of why he deserves a spot. Scott Skiles is the only other Hooiser that should be considered, but I believe by the end of Teague’s playing days — and if the Atlanta Hawks continue to be successful — he’ll be the clear choice.
Another active player gets the next mention for team Indiana as Gordon Hayward. He may normally be a small forward, but there is too much talent in the state not to make players adjust. Hayward has been proving himself to be one of the league’s better players with 16.4 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game. He’s only gotten better each season and we’ll have to wait to see how much he peaks before the end.
You knew Larry Legend was coming, and of course Bird is on team Indiana. Bird was the best trash talker, not because the words were so brutal, but because he backed it up. Strangely he never was a leader in any statistic during his career but he was near the top in points, rebounds and assists consistently. Thanks to advanced statistics like win shares, plus-minus and PER in particular, where he still sits in 18th all-time, we know that Larry Bird is one of the greatest to play the game from any state, much less in Indiana.
George McGinnis and his six All-Star Game appearances as well as two ABA titles comes up next of the Hoosier State. In fact, those two titles came with ABA version of the Indiana Pacers if you needed more “Indiana-ness” for McGinnis. 21.8 points and 11.8 rebounds per game averages for McGinnis aren’t too shabby either.
Rounding out the list for Indiana is Shawn Kemp. The Rain Man is best known for his time with the Seattle SuperSonics and lives there now, but he was born and raised in Indiana. Kemp and the Sonics were a force to be reckoned with from 1993 to 1997 while he made a total of six All-Star games in his career. Kemp averaged 14.6 points, 8.4 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per a game.
Grade: A
Next: Iowa
Iowa
Bob Hansen, Kirk Hinrich, Harrison Barnes, Raef LaFrentz, Kevin Kunnert
Total of 0 All-Star appearances, 2 NBA/ABA championships
Bob Hansen has to slide down to point guard for Iowa, but he has one championship ring with the 1992 Bulls. While that is one of his few notable career achievements, it should be noted he shot 46.8 percent in his career.
Next up for Iowa is Kirk Hinrich and his 11.4 points, 5.0 assists and 3.0 rebounds a game. He’s proven to be effective both as a starter and off the bench through his long career. He’s quietly worked his way into the top 100 in NBA history for career assists and three-pointers made.
Another current player hails from Iowa in the form of Harrison Barnes. Barnes has only been playing for three years but he gets to hold this year’s title above his head if needed to prove his credentials. So far he’s averaged 9.6 rebounds and 4.1 rebounds in his career and those numbers have improved each season.
Raef LaFrentz brings us to the fourth member of Team Iowa with his 10.1 points and 6.1 rebounds per a game. From 1999 to 2002 he was one of the better shot blockers in the league as he ranked in the top 10 each of those years. Impressively in the 2004-05 season, he had a 120 offensive rating, good for eighth that season.
Rounding out the list for Iowa is another big man in Kevin Kunnert and his 8.3 points and 7.3 rebounds per a game. In four seasons he managed to rank in the top 10 in total rebounding percentage to round out Team Iowa.
Grade: C
Next: Kansas
Kansas
Larry Drew, Lucius Allen, Danny Manning, Ronald Franz, Alvan Adams
Total of 5 All-Star appearances, 1 NBA/ABA championships
Larry Drew starts us off with his 11.4 points and 5.2 assists a game. While he doesn’t break into the all-time totals with his play, those 5.2 assists per a game are good enough for 94th on the all-time list.
Lucius Allen is next on the list thanks to his 13.4 points, 4.5 assists and 3.1 rebounds per game as well as one NBA championship. He helped the Kareem-Abdul Jabbar and Oscar Robinson led Milwaukee Bucks with the 1971 title over the Baltimore Bullets.
Danny Manning takes the point for the Sunflower State with his four invites to the All-Star Games and his career averages of 14 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists a game. Manning suffered from knee problems in his career but battled back after reconstructive knee surgery in 1996 and had two more double-digit scoring seasons before his career came to a close.
Ronald Franz is another ABA player who was born and raised in Kansas as he worked to average 11.7 points and 5.3 rebounds per game in his career.
Completing the team for Kansas is Alvan Adams, a one-time All-Star with the Phoenix Suns. Adams’ triple-double of 47 points, 18 rebounds and 12 assists against the Buffalo Braves made him on of five players in NBA history to have as many as 46 points and 16 rebounds in a triple-double performance. Not a bad way to round out Team Kansas.
Grade: C-
Next: Kentucky
Kentucky
Rajon Rondo, Allan Houston, Cliff Hagan, Dave Cowens, Wes Unseld
Total of 25 All-Star appearances, 5 NBA/ABA championships
The enigmatic Rajon Rondo will run the point for this Kentucky team and though last year hurt his stock tremendously, the four-time All-Star is still one of the best point guards to come from the Blue Grass state. He’s led the league in steals once in his career but his 10.8 points and 8.3 assists a game is what he’s been known for. A strong year in Sacramento this year would do a lot to repair his reputation.
Two-time All-Star Allan Houston is next on the list with career averages of 17.3 points, 2.9 rebounds and 2.4 assists a game. A bad contract muddles his legacy but shooting 40.2 percent from beyond the three-point line ranks him 28th all-time in league history, so don’t forget that he was a proven shooter in the league.
Cliff Hagan is a six-time All-Star who won an NBA championship with the St. Louis Hawks in the late 1950s. He averaged 17.7 points, 6.6 rebounds and 3.2 assists a game in his Hall of Fame career and was often in the top 10 in shooting. As a quick side note, Hagan skipped his first two years in the league to be in the military, but he still found time to play basketball as he won the Worldwide Air Force basketball championship in both his years in the Air Force.
Dave Cowens made the NBA All-Star game eight times while winning a pair of championships with the Boston Celtics. His 17.6 points and 13.5 rebounds per a game were damn impressive, as well as being one of the best defenders in the league. During the 1977-78 season he led the Celtics in points, rebounds, assists, blocks, and steals. Damn.
Wes Unseld’s 10.8 points and 14 rebounds per game in his career may not jump off the page like some of the players on this list, but consider the fact he was averaging more than 15 rebounds a game to start his career. And that is a double-double average in over 900+ career games while shooting over 50 percent. He defended the rim well in the Washington Bullets’ 1978 title run and still ranks in the top 25 in many rebounding statistics.
Grade: A
Next: Louisiana
Louisiana
Joe Dumars, Clyde Drexler, Elvin Hayes, Karl Malone, Bill Russell
Total of 56 All-Star appearances, 15 NBA/ABA championships
Louisiana is sneakily amazing at basketball. You don’t always think of them as a breeding ground for basketball talent but looking at this team it may just be the best on this list. And that’s with Hall of Famers Robert Parish, Bob Pettit and Willis Reed missing the final cut.
Starting off is Joe Dumars and his six All-Star games and two titles. Dumars averaged 16.1 points and 4.5 assists a game while shooting 46 percent in his career. He’s still ranked in the top 100 for points scored in the game’s history while making four all-defensive teams.
Next down the list is Clyde Drexler and his 20.4 points, 6.1 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game career averages. In 1992 he finished 2nd in MVP voting to Michael Jordan, which isn’t the worst thing in the world to happen to you. Drexler won a title with the Houston Rockets after they traded for him just before the deadline. And if nothing else, the 10-time All-Star gave us this work of art:
Next up is Elvin Hayes. He’s still the last rookie in the league’s history to lead the league in scoring, he went on to 12 All-Star games and won one title with the Washington Bullets. He still stands in the top 30 in points, rebounds and blocks.
Karl Malone is the only member of Team Louisiana to not win an NBA title, but he’s also arguably the state’s second best player. 14 All-Star games in his career help punch up the Hall of Famer’s career if you needed any justification for including the man with 36,928 points, second most in league history.
He ended his career with top 100 rankings in offensive and defensive ratings while also being a career 51.6 percent shooter. Some people aren’t smart enough to see that he’s one of the best to ever play the game just because he didn’t win a championship. Those people are idiots.
Bill Russell. 11 NBA championships, 12 All-Star Games, five MVPs says a lot. The man won championships more often than not, something very few players can ever say. Next time someone talks about the greatest to play the game and doesn’t even mention Russell, feel free to let them know they don’t know basketball.
I don’t think I can add much else other than to point out that while he did move to California and play high school and college basketball there, he was born and was raised partially in Louisiana, so let’s not split hairs here. Besides. he’d be booting out Bill Walton on team California and both men should be on this list somewhere.
Grade: A+
Next: Maine
Maine
Erick Barkley, Cuttino Mobley, Caron Butler, Jeff Turner, Brad Miller
Total of 4 All-Star appearances, 0 NBA/ABA championships
Only a total of 10 players in NBA history have been born or played high school basketball in Maine according to Basketball-Reference but in spite of that they have several recognizable names to fill out the roster.
Erick Barkley isn’t one of those though, as he played only two seasons in the NBA and averaged 2.9 points a game, totaling 77 points in 226 minutes of play.
But you may recognize Cuttino Mobley and his 11-year NBA career where he averaged 16 points and 3.9 rebounds a game. He ranked 64th all-time in three-point field goals made with 1,085.
Next up is Caron Butler, a two-time All-Star who averaged 14.3 points and 5.1 rebounds a game so far in his career. He’s in the top-100 in NBA history with 1,154 total steals and should be an interesting piece for the dysfunctional Sacramento Kings this year.
Jeff Turner averaged 6.0 points and 3.8 rebounds with the New Jersey Nets and Orlando Magic in the late 80s and early 90s.
Brad Miller rounds out The Pine Tree State’s team with a pair of All-Star appearances and career averages of 11.2 points and 7.1 rebounds a game. Miller shot 52.4 percent in the 2003-04 to lead the league with 125.1 offensive rating. Miller’s precise shot selection allowed him to carve out an NBA career as an offensive option while playing defensive well enough to be a strong, positive influence on the floor throughout his career.
Grade: D+
Next: Maryland
Maryland
Sam Cassell, Steve Francis, Rudy Gay, Jeff Green, Marvin Webster
Total of 4 All-Star appearances, 3 NBA/ABA championships
Sam Cassell made one All-Star game during his 14-year career but he was effective in almost every stop along the way and won three NBA titles. While he came in as a reserve in the first two titles with the Houston Rockets and later in the same role with the Boston Celtics, he made the best of those minutes. When he wasn’t bookending his career with championships he averaged 15.7 points and 6.0 assists per a game.
Steve Francis is next for the Maryland squad as a talent but unfortunate NBA “What if?”. During the stint we know him most for with the Houston Rockets, he averaged 19.3 points, 6.4 assists, 6.1 rebounds and 1.6 steals and he made three All-Star games, but only one playoff appearance. Despite career averages of 18.1 points, 6.0 assists and 5.6 rebounds, Francis’ career was derailed by injury, problems with coaches and management, and the usual issues we see when we feel someone never had the career their talent deserved.
Rudy Gay is one of those players that people seem to love or hate but it is hard to deny he’s been steadily improving and settling into a role with the Sacramento Kings, and he holds career averages of 18.5 points and 5.8 rebounds per game. Yes, he shoots a lot, but he’s been getting his field goal percentage up since 2012 and last year with the Kings he averaged 21.1 points, 5.9 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game.
Jeff Green is another player that fans seem to either loathe or like, but 14.3 points and 5.0 rebounds a game aren’t too bad at all. He’s shooting 47.3 percent from the field in his career but things haven’t gone as well for him lately as he hasn’t quite settled into his role with the Memphis Grizzlies so far.
Marvin Webster earned his “Human Eraser” nickname during his playing days at Morgan State and he still managed to block 1.4 shots a game in his NBA and ABA careers. Webster added to that with 7.0 points and 6.8 rebounds a game during his 10-year NBA career with four teams.
Grade: B-
Next: Massachusetts
Massachusetts
Michael Carter-Williams, Dana Barros, Jarrett Jack, Bill Laimbeer, Patrick Ewing
Total of 16 All-Star appearances, 2 NBA/ABA championships
For the greatness that has been Boston Celtics basketball, the state hasn’t produced as many players as you expect. It may not be a large state, but having a metropolitan area like Boston surely would increase the likelihood. That being said, it isn’t a bad team either.
The young Michael Carter-Williams takes the point for the Bay State with his 14.1 points, 5.6 assists and 4.0 rebounds a game so far in his short career. In his first year in the league he was in the top 10 in steals and averaged 1.9 a game. His numbers dropped a little in his second season, but he was traded during it to a much better team in the Milwaukee Bucks. He’ll need to cut down on turnovers but he’s looked good so far in his first two seasons.
Next up for Massachusetts is Dana Barros, a one-time All-Star and all-around sharp shooter. Barros was a lead leader in three-point field goals and three-point field goal percentage several times in his career and his career percentage still ranks 17th all-time. He earned the Most Improved Player in 1995 as well as that one All-Star appearance.
With just over a dozen players from Massachusetts who played 5+ seasons, there seems to be a lack of small forwards when I looked on Basketball Reference, so we had to do some moving and shaking and playing out of place. That starts with the third player being Jarrett Jack. Jack averages 11 points a game along with 4.4 assists and 2.8 rebounds. He has never been an All-Star, but his passing gives him a 25.3 assist percentage, ranking 98th all-time.
The next two positions you can feel free to swap in and out because both are giants you wouldn’t want to fight with for a rebound.
Bill Laimbeer was born in Boston but grew up around Chicago and then in California. However, the Bay State could use a player with some championships and there aren’t a ton of good replacements for him anyway. Now that we are done splitting hairs, let’s bask in the career of the “Prince of Darkness”. Damn, that is a helluva nickname.
He averaged 12.9 points and 9.7 rebounds with the Bad Boys Pistons. He’s easily one of the most hated players in NBA history and is totally unrepentant of it. He led the league in rebounds twice and ended his career in the top 100 in blocks, rebounds and offensive rating.
Ending Team Massachusetts is Patrick Ewing who was born in Jamaica but graduated from high school in the Bay State. The 11-time All-Star was often in the league’s top 10 in blocks, rebounds and points as he averaged 21 points and 9.8 rebounds in his Hall of Fame career. He was a All-NBA First Teamer, six-time All-NBA Second Teamer, three-time NBA All-Defensive Second Teamer and also won Rookie of the Year in 1986. Ewing Theory aside, there is no reason to think he doesn’t deserve a spot as one as the best centers to play the game.
Grade: B-
Next: Michigan
Michigan
Magic Johnson, George Gervin, Dave DeBusschere, Chris Webber, Mel Daniels
Total of 36 NBA/ABA All-Star appearances, 10 NBA/ABA championships
Magic Johnson was a proto-LeBron James, which is one of the best compliments I could give to either player. Standing at 6’9″, Magic played shooting guard to start his illustrious career before transitioning to point guard. Being 12-time All-Star and five-time NBA champion is obvious enough reason to have him on here, but the way he helped make the NBA what it became in the 80s and 90s doesn’t hurt either.
His and the Lakers’ duels with the Boston Celtics and Larry Bird set the stage for a star like Michael Jordan to come along and send the NBA into the forefront of pop culture. On top of all that, Magic is one of only seven players in history to win an NCAA championship, an NBA championship, and an Olympic gold medal.
George Gervin a.k.a the Ice Man. Gervin earned his spot on this list and on the NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Time Team by scoring 25.1 points and bringing in 5.3 rebounds a game. Gervin had the record for most points in a quarter with 33 until Klay Thompson broke it with 37 — though the Ice Man doesn’t feel like Klay really broke it because he didn’t have a three-point line in his day. With scoring like that, it is no surprise he was the league’s scoring champion four times in his Hall of Fame career.
Dave DeBusschere’s 16.1 points and 11 rebounds a game also put him on this list and just like Magic and Gervin, he is a member of the NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team. DeBusschere’s career got off to a rocky start with an injury and a poor stint as a player coach for the Detroit Pistons but after that he truly found his game. He made the All-Star team both as a Piston and as New York Knick but it was with the latter that he won a pair of titles. He still ranks in the top 50 all-time in rebounds.
Chris Webber is next on the list and his 20.7 points and 9.8 rebounds a game should be enough of an explanation, but Webber’s career is rarely discussed so simply. He took the Sacramento Kings to the brink of a championship appearance but couldn’t quite overcome the Los Angeles Lakers and other factors. Though he didn’t win a championship, he was Rookie of the Year in 1994 and went on to make five All-Star teams.
He’s rightly known for his offensive skills, but his defensive ability was top notch as well. Some people question if he didn’t live up to his talent despite helping make several team playoff contenders, and considering he’s arguably in the top 100 to ever play the game, that question seems a bit ludicrous.
Lastly on a team full of current and future Hall of Famers is Mel Daniels with his seven ABA All-Star appearances and trio of ABA titles. He was drafted by both the NBA and the ABA, but he choose the Minnesota Muskies where he won Rookie of the Year in the ABA. He made seven straight All-Star games while leading the Indiana Pacers to their three ABA titles as well as earning the league’s MVP twice. His 18.4 points and 14.9 rebounds a game in his career don’t hurt his credentials either.
Grade: A+
Next: Minnesota
Minnesota
Whitey Skoog, Dick Garmaker, Mark Oldberding, Kevin McHale, Joe Przybilla
Total of 13 NBA/ABA All-Star appearances, 3 NBA/ABA championships
Whitey Skoog gets things started for Minnesota as he has the tie for the lead in average assists per a game with 2.6. Outside of having a great name and being a Minnesotan, where he played his high school, college and NBA career during the 50s, he also averaged 8.2 points a game with the Lakers.
Dick Garmaker is next on the list with six All-Star appearances and like Skoog, was born and bred in the Gopher State and played for the Minneapolis Lakers. He was one of the top players during his years in the league and averaged 13.3 points and 4.2 rebounds in his career in the 50s.
Mark Oldberding was born and bred in Minnesota but he didn’t play with the Lakers when they were in California. Rather, he played with the San Diego Sails, averaging 9.5 points and 5.3 rebounds in his 12-year career as well as 2.5 assists.
Kevin McHale brings seven All-Star appearances as well as three NBA titles from his time with the Boston Celtics. He made his way on to three NBA All-Defensive First Teams, three NBA All-Defensive Second Team, two-time NBA Sixth Man of the Year and a spot on the NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Time Team. He knew when and where to pick his spots as he led the league in field goal percentage twice and is ranked 13th all-time at 54.4 percent from the field.
Rounding out Minnesota is Joe Przybilla with 3.9 points and 6.2 rebounds a game. Surprisingly, Minnesota doesn’t have a ton of big men but Przybilla and his 13-year career earn a spot on the team.
Grade: C
Next: Mississippi
Mississippi
Mo Williams, Monta Ellis, Chet Walker, Spencer Haywood, Sam Lacy
Total of 14 NBA/ABA All-Star appearances, 2 NBA/ABA championships
One-time All-Star Mo Williams starts off Mississippi with his 13.4 points, 2.8 assists and 2.3 rebounds per game. He had a talent shooting from beyond the arc as his 37.9 percent still has him in the top 100 all-time in shooting percentage.
Does Monta Ellis have it all? He at least has a spot on the list with his 19.3 points, 4.8 assists and 3.5 rebounds per game. He’s been on the fringe of making the All-Star Game as of late and he’s only gotten better since his 2007 Most Improved Player award.
He’s bit of a volume shooter but you can’t ignore how he’s been averaging around two steals since 2010. Things were looking good before Rajon Rondo joined him in Dallas, but Ellis has a chance to keep the momentum going this season with the Indiana Pacers.
Next up is Hall of Famer Chet Walker with one championship and a total of seven All-Star Game appearances. With 18.2 points a game as well as 7.1 rebounds, he also managed to have two top 10 seasons in field goal percentage and was a strong defender as well.
Spencer Haywood comes in next for the Mississippi squad his five All-Star appearances and one title with the Los Angeles Lakers. The Hall of Famer averaged 20.3 points and 10.3 rebounds to highlight a career where his totals are in the top 100 as well.
The final member of Team Mississippi us Sam Lacy, who may have only made one All-Star game but averaged 10.3 points and 9.7 rebounds in his career.
Grade: C+
Next: Missouri
Missouri
Jo Jo White, Larry Hughes, Bill Bradley, David Lee, Ed Macauley
Total of 17 NBA/ABA All-Star appearances, 4 NBA/ABA championships
Jo Jo White gets the ball rolling for the Show Me State and his Hall of Fame career was highlighted by a pair of NBA championships with the Boston Celtics as well as a Finals MVP in 1976. He made the All-Star Game seven straight times as he helped rebuild the post-Bill Russell Celtics.
Larry Hughes takes the next spot on Missouri’s team with his 14.1 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.1 assists a game. His career took him to eight teams over a 14-year span. He helped LeBron James early on in Cleveland and was putting up a career high 22.0 points a game in 2005.
Bill Bradley may have only made it into one All-Star Game, but a pair of championships in the 70s with the New York Knicks helped the future New Jersey senator carve out a Hall of Fame career. 12.4 points a game helped his credentials out as well, but he more likely earns his spot in the hall thanks to being the AP College Player of the Year twice.
Next up for Missouri is David Lee, his two All-Star appearances and the most recent NBA championship. He had a reduced role on the Golden State Warriors last season, but he was still productive in the little time he had. Lee’s position in the league is in a state of flux but a strong season with the Boston Celtics this year could remind everyone what made him a star before last season’s demotion. Was he just a bad fit in coach Steve Kerr’s system or are his best days behind him? We’ll know soon enough.
Last for the Show Me State is Ed Macauley. At age 32 he is still the youngest member admitted into the Hall of Fame, but he had seven All-Star Game appearances and a title with the St. Louis Hawks to earn himself a spot there. He was the best shooter in the league twice (45.2 percent in 1952-53; 48.6 percent in 1953-54) while averaging 17.5 points a game.
Grade: C+
Next: Montana
Montana
Brad Holland, Adam Morrision, Larry Krystkowiak, Phil Jackson, Mike Lewis
Total of 1 All-Star appearances, 1 NBA/ABA championships
Montana only has nine NBA players born there and even fewer that actually played high school there, so it isn’t the easiest to build a starting lineup for them. That being said, Brad Holland will have to move down one position and take the point for the Treasure State. He played a total of three seasons (93 total games) and averaged 3.2 points a game.
Adam Morrison can serve as the team’s shooting guard with his 7.5 points, 2.1 rebounds and 1.4 assists per a game. Though he’s a draft bust, he at least saw action his rookie season and averaged 11.8 points, but he never was able to find his spot in the NBA after an injury derailed his secnd season before it even started. He played three more years before going to play overseas.
Larry Krystkowiak and his respectable nine-year career come up next for Montana. He averaged 8.2 points and 4.9 rebounds mostly as a reserve in his time in the NBA.
Next up is the legendary Phil Jackson with his onechampionship as a member of the 1972 New York Knicks. Sorry Montana, we don’t get to count his titles as a coach. He had 6.7 points and 4.3 rebounds per a game as career averages. A few years after that title with New York, he had his most productive season as a player with 11.1 points a game in the 1973-74 season.
Lastly for Montana is Mike Lewis, who arguably is the best player the state produced. In his six seasons, he averaged 12.1 points and 11.9 rebounds per a game while making one All-Star showing, helping Team Montana avoid a zero in that category.
Grade: C-
Next: Nebraska
Nebraska
Rex Walters, Fred Hoiberg, Mark Pope, Bob Boozer, Dave Hoppen
Total of 1 All-Star appearances, 1 NBA/ABA championships
Only 12 NBA players were born in Nebraska but surprisingly 14 in total graduated from high school there. We get things started with Rex Walters taking point with his 4.6 points and 1.7 rebounds per a game during his seven-year career. Walters had a minor role in the 1994 film Blue Chips.
Next down the line for the Cornhuskers is Fred Hoiberg. The Mayor averaged 5.6 points and 2.7 rebounds a game. The most surprising thing about his career is that despite shooting a league-best 48.3 percent from downtown in 2005, he wasn’t invited to the All-Star three-point competition. His career 39.6 percent shooting from beyond the arc places him 44th in league history. He is currently the Chicago Bulls’ head coach.
The third member of the squad is Mark Pope with his 1.9 points and 1.7 rebounds per game career averages. He is currently the coach of Utah Valley University.
Bob Boozer comes up next for the Cornhusker State and his one All-Star appearance came in 1968 with 21.5 points, 9.8 rebounds and 1.6 assists, but it wasn’t until 1970 that he won a title with the Milwaukee Bucks. He ended his career averaging 14.8 points and 8.1 rebounds a game.
Lastly for Nebraska is Dave Hoppen with 5.0 points and 3.8 rebounds a game. He played for five NBA teams and a handful of international squads during his career.
Grade: C-
Next: Nevada
Nevada
Greg Anthony, C.J. Watson, Marcus Banks, Ricky Davis, Pat Garrity
Total of 0 All-Star appearances, 0 NBA/ABA championships
Nevada only has seven players born in the state and 18 who went to high school there, yet they manage to assemble a decent bit of talent starting with Greg Anthony at the point guard position. He had 7.3 points and 1.9 rebounds a game in his 11-year career and while he only averaged 3.3 assists, his 30 percent assist percentage ranks 49th all time.
C.J. Watson is another point guard but his 7.8 points and 2.6 assists a game are only going to help Team Nevada’s backcourt. His three-point shooting (38.3 percent) has made him more valuable than being just another replacement point guard and the Orlando Magic hope he can help spark their squad’s shooting this season as well.
Marcus Banks comes up next for the Silver State with his 5.9 points and 2.1 assists a game. While those numbers aren’t overwhelming, his short stint with the Minnesota Timberwolves saw him average 12 points and 4.7 assists a game, both career highs.
Ricky “I thought LeBron James was just going to be another addition to help me score” Davis is next and maybe he needed LeBron’s help if he wanted to score more than his 13.5 points a game. Davis shot 44.6 percent in his career and deserves some respect despite that terrible-in-retrospect quote.
Lastly for Nevada is Pat Garrity with his 7.3 points and 2.6 rebounds a game averages. We’re putting him in as the center on this team, but he was a small and power forward throughout his 10-season career and was also a sneaky good three-point shooter with a 39.8 percent career average.
Grade: C
Next: New Hampshire
New Hampshire
Matt Bonner, Will Barton, Jeff Adrien, Rashad McCants, Darius Songalia
Total of 0 All-Star appearances, 2 NBA/ABA championships
Sorry Matt Bonner, you are all alone as far as players born in New Hampshire to play in the NBA, but you will be getting some help from players who at least graduated in the Granite State. Though we’ve generally been going from the one to the five position, we’ll get things started with Bonner and his two championships with the San Antonio Spurs. Bonner has averaged 6.0 points and 3.1 rebounds a game in his career so far.
We’ll start the rest of the team off with Will Barton and his 5.0 points a game along with 2.2 rebounds and 1.0 assists a game averages. He is currently with the Denver Nuggets.
Jeff Adrien comes in next with his five years of NBA experience in 4.6 points and 4.3 rebounds per a game averages.
Rashad McCants comes in with a 10 points a game career average as a shooting guard and a career 43.1 percent shooter.
Darius Songaila takes the final spot with his 6’11” frame and 6.9 points and 3.4 rebounds averages. The Lithuanian graduated from high school in New Hampshire.
New Hampshire’s team is another that doesn’t have a ton of players to choose from and many that are available are currently young and playing now. We should check back in a few years from now to see what they look like.
Grade: C-
Next: New Jersey
New Jersey
Brevin Knight, J.R. Smith, Rick Barry, Tommy Heinsohn, Shaquille O’Neal
Total of 29 All-Star appearances, 14 NBA/ABA championships
Brevin Knight gets the call to start off the Garden State’s roster with his 7.3 points and 6.1 assists a game through his 12-year NBA career. Knight led the league in steals in 1998 with 196, or 2.5 a game. His ability to get teammates going will fit well with the gunner we have next on the list.
J.R. Smith is the butt of many jokes, and rightly so, but he’s also a very talented (and frustrating) player. He’s averaged 12.3 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists in his career while never being afraid to shoot. It should be noted he’s never led the league in missed shots according to Basketball-Reference, and in Denver in 2008, he was in the top 10 in the league for effective field goal percentage. Let’s not forget he won Sixth Man of the Year just a few seasons ago. Maybe if Lil Wayne releases music more often, we can see more of the best of J.R. Smith.
Next up is Rick Barry to bring some All-Star and championship credentials to the team with his (deep breath) one NBA title, one ABA title, one NBA Finals MVP, eight All-Star appearances in the NBA (four in the ABA), five All-NBA First Teams, one scoring title, one year of leading the league in steals, a Rookie of the Year award and a place on the NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Time Team. All that makes it pretty clear why he should be on New Jersey’s squad. He averaged 24.8 points, 6.7 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game and he also gave us Brent Barry and Jon Barry, so that’s cool too.
Tommy Heinsohn is next for the Garden State with his six All-Star appearances and eight NBA titles. The man only failed to win a title in one season of his career, which came after he won Rookie of the Year and a title his first year. 18.6 points, 8.8 rebounds and 2.0 assists a game all points to him being in the top 100 all-time in league history.
Not that the team needs any more championships or credentials, but Shaquille O’Neal is next for the Garden State. He also was Rookie of the Year and won four championships, three Finals MVP Awards, one MVP Award, 15 All-Star selections as well as eight All-NBA First Team selections. Though he gave most of himself, he also gave us the nicknames including the Big Aristotle, Diesel, Shaq-Fu, Superman, the Big Cactus and the Big Shamrock.
Grade: A
Next: New Mexico
New Mexico
Rudy White, Andre Roberson, Damion Jones, Bill Bridges, Kenny Thomas
Total of 3 All-Star appearances, 1 NBA/ABA championships
The state of New Mexico has had a number of talented players come through their universities like Danny Granger, but the sparsely populated state has only had 11 players that were either born there or went to high school there.
Rudy White will take the point for New Mexico with his 3.1 points and 1.0 rebounds a game along with 1.5 assists a game.
Andre Roberson comes up next with his current NBA career and 2.8 points, 3.3 rebounds and 0.8 assists per game with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Damion James comes up next with his 3.8 points and 3.4 rebounds in his 39 total games with three teams.
Bill Bridges is next for Land of Enchantment with his three All-Star appearances in a 13-year career. He had matching 11.9 points and 11.9 rebounds per game averages in his career and went on to win an NBA title with the Golden State Warriors in 1975.
He was more of a role player that final year of his career, but he played more minutes in the playoffs than he did all season with the Warriors and dragged down 3.5 rebounds in 10.6 minutes a game. At 6’6″ he was slightly undersized for the power forward position, but he still managed a career double-double in spite of that and is one of the better rebounders in league history.
Lastly on the New Mexico squad is Kenny Thomas with his 9.3 points and 6.9 points a game throughout his 11-year NBA career. His 10.1 rebounds per a game was ninth in the league in 2004 and he ended his career with a respectable 46.5 percent mark from the field.
Grade: C-
Next: New York
New York
Lenny Wilkens, Bernard King, Julius Irving, Dolph Schayes, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Total of 60 All-Star appearances, 10 NBA/ABA championships
If the sport of NBA basketball has a home, New York could easily make a claim to it. A total of 312 NBA players have been born in the Empire State, so it isn’t too hard to build an impressive starting five.
Lenny Wilkens runs the point for New York with his nine NBA All-Star appearances in his Hall of Fame career. He made his way onto the NBA’s 50th Anniversary Team with his 16.5 points, 6.7 assists and 4.7 rebounds a game average. He led the league in assists twice and his 17,772 points ranks 72nd all-time. He didn’t win one as a player, but coach Wilkens coached the Seattle SuperSonics to a championship.
Next up is Bernard King with his four All-Star games and Hall of Fame career. His 22.8 points and 5.8 assists a game clearly earns him a spot in the backcourt for this team. His scoring peaked in 1985 at 32.9 points a game and he ended his career with 19,655 points and a 51.8 percent shooting percentage, both in the top 60 in league history. All of this is even more impressive when you consider he lost two entire seasons to injuries.
Julius Irving was an All-Star in every season of his career. Let that sink in. Whether it was the ABA or NBA, Dr. J was one of the game’s best players and one of only six that scored over 30,000 points in his career. If those reasons aren’t enough in themselves, this work of art should be enough by itself.
On top of all that, his 10,525 rebounds, 5,176 assists, 2,272 steals and 1,941 blocks all rank in the top 100 all-time for any ABA or NBA player. He shot over 50 percent while averaging 24.2 points a game. He was clearly one of the best ever to play the game. There really isn’t much else to say. The numbers are enough, but the beauty of his game was just as important when you are trying to explain his place in NBA history.
Dolph Schayes beats out a number of other Hall of Famers and stars for the team’s power forward spot ,as many could make an argument for the throne. Dolph’s 12 All-Star game appearances and one NBA title are pretty good credentials, but a career double-double with 18.2 points and 12.1 rebounds a game is pretty good for any power forward. He had over a 1,000 rebounds three times in his career and still sits at the No. 27 spot for career rebounds.
“Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was a force of nature with style” would be one way to describe the Hall of Famer. A six-time NBA champion, two-time finals MVP, six-time MVP, 19-time All-Star might be another. He was on 10 All-NBA First Teams in his career as well as five All-NBA Second Teams.
He started off his career by winning Rookie of the Year and was more than just offense throughout his career as he led the league in blocks four times and was the rebounding champion once as well. He is a member of the NBA 50th Anniversary team for all of those reasons as well as being able to make plays like this.
Needless to say, he is the clear-cut pick for New York’s center.
Grade: A+
Next: North Carolina
North Carolina
Stephen Curry, Michael Jordan, James Worthy, Bob McAdoo, Walt Bellamy
Total of 29 All-Star appearances, 12 NBA/ABA championships
Current MVP and NBA champion Steph Curry gets the point guard spot over Chris Paul, but only because I’m making this list, either deserves the spot. Curry gets the nod because he’s almost a lock now at 27 to be one of, if not the, greatest shooters of all-time.
He’s already made two All-Star games as well after an ankle injury early in his career made us worry if his “undersized” body was going to hold up in the NBA. A few years later, no one really remembers that since he’s averaged 20.9 points ands 6.9 assists a game while shooting 44 percent from beyond the arc. His legend is only going to grow but the next player on the list is the biggest NBA legend of them all.
MJ. Michael Jordan. The best player to play the game, and even if you don’t agree with that, he’s at minimum one of the top five to grace the courts. Jordan’s six titles, both three-peats, are how that legend was built. An All-Star in every full season he played in, Jordan’s numbers are amazing with 30.1 points, 6.2 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game.
The list of honors is staggering: six-time NBA champion, six-time NBA Finals MVP, six-time MVP, 14-time All-Star, 10-time All-NBA First Team, Defensive Player of the Year, 10-time scoring champion, three-time steals champion, and for fun, he won the NBA Slam Dunk Contest twice. Bow in the presence of greatness.
Next on the list is James Worthy, a seven-time All-Star and three-time NBA champion. Worthy doesn’t get the recognition he deserves as he played with Magic and the Showtime Lakers and his career was winding down as Jordan began to take over the league. He’s in the top 100 all-time in scoring while shooting 52.1 percent from the field. Worthy averaged 17.6 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.0 assists a game in his Hall of Fame career.
With seven different teams seeing Bob McAdoo, you might think he was some sort of journeyman player in his career, but despite all the change from year-to-year, he averaged 22.1 points and 9.4 rebounds a game. The Hall of Famer made it into seven All-Star games and won a pair of NBA titles in Los Angeles, including one with Worthy. With 1,147 blocks and 18,787 points in his career, you’ll find him in the top 100 in both categories.
Walt Bellamy rounds out this outstanding squad with his Hall of Fame career that saw him make four All-Star games and average 20.1 points and 13.7 rebounds a game. Bellamy bounced around nine different teams during his career but got things started with a Rookie of the Year award with the Chicago Packers, who eventually became the Washington Wizards. He ranks 38th all-time with 20,941 points to his name and 14,241 rebounds puts him at 12th all-time.
Grade: A+
Next: North Dakota
North Dakota
Duane Klueh, Glenn Hansen, Doug McDermott, Mark Landsberger, Les Jespen
Total of 0 All-Star appearances, 2 NBA/ABA championships
Another state with a small population, but that didn’t stop them from sending a few players to the NBA. North Dakota get started with Duane Klueh and his respectable 8.2 points, 3 rebounds and 1.5 assists a game. He played in the 1950s for the Denver Nuggets and Fort Wayne Pistons.
Glenn Hansen averaged 5.3 points and 2.2 rebounds a game in this three-year career during the 70s with the Kansas City Kings, as well as a two-game stint with the Chicago Bulls. When Hansen was inducted into the North Dakota Sport Hall of Fame, he said in an interview with NOLA.com that his favorite memory was when he scored 26 points and held Pete Maravich to eight in a one-point victory.
Doug McDermott is a more contemporary member of the North Dakota squad, but he brings 3.2 points and 1.2 rebounds a game from his rookie season with the Chicago Bulls last year. Injuries slowed him down last season but here’s hoping he bounces back this year.
Mark Landsberger brings in a pair of championship rings for the Roughrider State thanks to the 1980 and 1982 Los Angeles Lakers championships. Landsberger averaged 5.6 points and 6.1 rebounds in his career and while he never was a full-time starter, in 1979 and 1980 he was second in the NBA in rebounding percentage at 20.7 percent and 22.6 percent, respectively.
Les Jespen rounds out Team North Dakota with his two-year NBA career where he only played a handful of minutes in 52 games, averaging 1.0 points and 1.3 rebounds a game.
Grade: D+
Next: Ohio
Ohio
Ron Harper, John Havlicek, LeBron James, Charles Oakley, Nate Thurmond
Total of 32 All-Star appearances, 15 NBA/ABA championships
The Buckeye State gets things started with Ron Harper. He gets the nod over Norm Van Lier because Van Lier grew up more in Pennsylvania than he did Ohio. But back to Harper. Harper averaged 16.1 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.5 assists a game in his career, but most impressively, he was on five title teams over six years as he caught the tail end of the Jordan-era Chicago Bulls before joining the Lakers for the first two titles of their three-peat.
Harper wasn’t just watching on the bench either, as he averaged 9.0 points, 3.7 rebounds and 2.7 assists a game in his playoff career. He sits 34th all-time in steals per a game with 1.7, capping off his defensive prowess.
Hall of Famer John Havlicek comes up next for Ohio and you may remember him for this play.
Outside of being part of one of the more famous calls in league history, he also had career averages of 20.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and 4.8 assists per a game. Havlicek went to the All-Star game 13 straight times and was a part of eight championships with the Celtics. His 6,114 assists are 31st all-time while 26,395 is good enough for 16th in league history.
Ohio’s greatest player comes next in the form of LeBron James, with 11 All-Star appearances and a pair of titles. His career is already legendary as he’s averaged 27.3 points, 7.1 rebounds, 6.9 assists, 1.7 steals and 0.8 blocks per game. He can do anything that’s asked of him on the court and showed how he can put a team on his back as well.
He’s won the Rookie of the Year Award, been the MVP four times, the Finals MVP twice, the scoring champ once, and made nine All-NBA First Teams, two All-NBA Second Teams, five All-Defensive First Teams and one All-Defensive Second Team.
If he left the game now, he would rank 35th in three-point field goals, 26th in assists, 36th in steals, sixth in points, and second in PER, only behind Michael Jordan. That’s all he has left to chase now too, is the legend of Jordan. We have a few more years to see if he can.
Charles Oakley is up next for the Buckeye State with one All-Star Game appearance to go with his 9.5 points and 9.7 rebounds per game. If he left the game sooner than he did (he played 18 seasons) his career numbers might be better as he averaged a double-double for six of the first nine years of his career.
Oakley was a steady performer throughout his long career. His rebounding might be Hall of Fame worthy as he ranks in the top 25 for offensive, defensive and total rebounds in his career, as well as 60th all-time in steals. Needless to say, he was an excellent defender.
Hall of Famer Nate Thurmond rounds out the Ohio team with seven All-Star games and tidy career averages of 15 points and 15 assist per a game. In his best season, 1967-68, he averaged 20.5 points and 22 rebounds per a game. Along with those mind-boggling numbers, he made two All-Defensive First Teams, and three All-Defensive Second teams as well as a place on the NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Time Team.
Grade: A
Next: Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Mark Price, John Starks, Ron Boone, Wayman Tisdale, Blake Griffin
Total of 10 All-Star appearances, 0 NBA/ABA championships
Mark Price starts off at the point guard position for the Sooner State with his career that saw four All-Star games, one All-NBA First Team, three All-NBA Third Teams and a pair of Three-Point Shootout Championships at All-Star Weekend.
Price shot 47.2 percent from the field in his career and averaged 15.2 points and 6.7 assists a game, ranking 62nd all-time with 4,863 total assists. His career PER of 16.8 ranks 78th all-time, but that isn’t too shabby either. On top of all that, Price was a pioneer of splitting double-teams.
Coming up next is John Starks with his one All-Star game and a career line of 12.5 points, 3.6 assists and 2.5 rebounds a game. He’s known as a rival of Reggie Miller, but also is famous for “The Dunk.”
Ron Boone comes in at the small forward position for Oklahoma, the all-time leader in minutes for the Sooner State. Sure, he moved to Nebraska early in his life, but he was still born in Oklahoma and is one of the state’s best players. Boone had one of the sport’s best iron-man streaks with 1,041 consecutive games played, a record at one time.
Wayman Tisdale comes up next on the list for Oklahoma and despite never playing in an All-Star game he’s one of the most well-known products of the state. Tisdale averaged 15.3 points and 6.3 points a game as a power forward while shooting just over 50 percent in his career, placing him in the top 100 of NBA history. The powerful dunker was also an accomplished musician after his NBA career but sadly he lost his battle with cancer in 2009.
Blake Griffin and his deadpan sense of humor come up for the final spot on the Sooner squad. Griffin was a force to be reckoned with from the moment he came out of college and gave rise to the “Lob City” era of the Los Angeles Clippers. What may be more impressive is he helped make the Clippers relevant. That should make him a Hall of Famer one day if nothing else does. Averages of 21.5 points, 9.7 rebounds and 4.o assists a game should help too.
Grade: B
Next: Oregon
Oregon
Damon Stoudamire, Danny Ainge, A.C. Green, Kevin Love, Mel Counts
Total of 5 All-Star appearances, 8 NBA/ABA championships
Damon Stoudamire never made an All-Star game but his 13.4 points, 6.1 assists and 3.5 rebounds were certainly worthy of consideration most years. He was the Toronto Raptors’ first pick ever and would win Rookie of the Year by season’s end. He ended his career in the top 50 all-time in assists and three-point field goals.
Danny Ainge is next for the Beaver State with one All-Star appearance and two NBA titles. Fun fact: Ainge’s sports career started not with the NBA, but the MLB and the Toronto Blue Jays. After three seasons batting .220 and hitting two home runs with 37 RBI, Ainge entered the NBA draft and got his basketball career going.
After a slow start where he shot 35.7 percent his rookie season, Ainge found his shot and would end his career with a 46.9 percent average. He averaged 11.5 points and 4.0 assists per a game and as noted already, won a pair of championships with the Boston Celtics. He’d end his career with 1,002 three-point field goals, which ranks 76th all-time. After his career ended, he returned to Boston and has been an executive there since 2003.
A.C. Green comes up next in the small forward position for the Beaver State with his career averages of 9.6 points, 7.4 rebounds and 1.1 assists a game. While those numbers may not be staggering my any means, he played his role in three different Los Angeles Lakers championships. Two of those were with Magic and Kareem in the late 80s while the third one was with Kobe Bryant and Shaq in 2000. In his best seasons, he averaged around 14 points and 9.0 rebounds a game.
Next on the list as the team’s power forward is Kevin Love. He’s averaged 18.7 points, 11.8 rebounds and 2.4 assists a game so far in his career and made three All-Star Games. Love took time to adjust this year in a new system in Cleveland, but we began to see what the team was capable of near the season’s end. Like Bosh in Miami, it took time for him to adjust to playing with LeBron, but I won’t be surprised if just like Bosh, he’ll end up making several key plays in a championship run for the Cavaliers.
Mel Counts rounds out the Oregon team with a pair of championships with the Boston Celtics in the 60s. Playing behind a legend like Bill Russell isn’t going to help your career numbers, but even when he played for other teams, he averaged 8.3 points and 6.0 rebounds a game, to his credit. In his best seasons, he scored around 13 points and brought down eight rebounds a game.
Grade: B-
Next: Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
Earl Monroe, Pete Maravich, Kobe Bryant, Rasheed Wallace, Wilt Chamberlain
Total of 45 All-Star appearances, 8 NBA/ABA championships
Hall of Famer Earl “The Pearl” Monroe gets this talented team rolling with his four All-Star Games and one NBA title with the New York Knicks. His career saw averages of 18.8 points, 3.9 assists and 3.0 rebounds a game. Monroe won the Rookie of the Year Award and was a fringe MVP candidate for at least two seasons as well. He had no problem shooting the ball as he made 46 percent of his shots and has a career total of 17,454 points — 79th all-time. He is a member of the NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team as well.
Pete Maravich was in the All-Star Game five times in his career and averaged 24.2 points, 5.4 assists and 4.2 rebounds. What made him legendary was his style of play which helped him earn the nickname “Pistol Pete.” Instead of me trying to properly explain it, just watch the beauty in the video below.
He would get knocked with the familiar complaint “all style, no substance,” but that didn’t stop him from being inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Kobe Bryant is next on the Pennsylvania team and he’s certainly earned his spot with five championships and 17 All-Star teams. In three seasons in his career he scored 30 or more points while his career average is 25.4 points. He’s also averaged 5.3 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game. He made 11 All-NBA First Teams, two All-NBA Second Teams, two All-NBA Third Teams, nine NBA All-Defensive First Teams, three NBA All-Defensive Second Teams, has been the scoring champion twice and also won the Dunk Contest.
We could talk about the 81-point game, winning multiple championships, earning the MVP award or any of his other achievements and it wouldn’t do justice to how good he is. His career may be coming to and end with injury troubles, but even if he doesn’t play another game he stands on multiple all-time lists now at 30th in assists, 15th in steals, and third in points with 32,482, only behind Karl Malone and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Next on the list is the man that gave us the maxim “Ball don’t lie,” Rasheed Wallace. Wallace made four All-Star games in his career while averaging 14.4 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per a game. He’s also the all-time leader in technical fouls with 317 and has the single season record with 41. The man deserves to be in the Hall of Fame for that sort of consistency. He also won a championship with the Detroit Pistons.
Wilt Chamberlain rounds out the Keystone State’s squad with his pair of NBA titles, one finals MVP, four-time MVP, seven All-NBA First Teams, three All-NBA Second Teams and a pair of NBA All-Defensive team awards as well as Rookie of the Year. Wilt gave us the 100-point game, making it no surprise that he was the league’s scoring champion seven times. He was the league’s best rebounder 11 times and holds the all-time record with 23,924. He also led the league in assists one year. The Hall of Famer and 13-time All-Star also made the NBA’s 50th Anniversary Team.
Grade: A+
Next: Rhode Island
Rhode Island
Ernie DiGregorio, Ricky Ledo, Joe Hassett, Owen Wells, Marvin Barnes
Total of 2 All-Star appearances, 1 NBA/ABA championships
The United State’s smallest state has seen a total of seven NBA players born there and we’ll get started with Ernie DiGregorio. Things started off well for Ernie with a Rookie of the Year Award in 1974 when he also led the league in assists, but his career only lasted five seasons. He averaged 9.6 points, 5.1 assists and 2.0 rebounds per game.
Ernie Calverley struggled in the NBA with shooting as he had a 70.7 free throw percentage compared with a 29.1 field goal percentage in his career. None of that stopped him from having career averages of 11.9 points and 3.5 assists per a game in his three-year career. Basketball wasn’t pretty in the 1940s.
Joe Hassett averaged 5.9 points, 1.3 assists and 1.1 rebounds in his six-year NBA career and snuck in a title with the Seattle SuperSonics. He didn’t play much, but he was in the NBA’s top 10 in three-point percentage during three seasons and ended his career with a 33.6 percent average.
Tom Garrick is next for Rhode Island with career averages of 5.4 points, 3.2 assists and 2.0 rebounds per game.
Marvin Barnes was a two-time ABA All-Star and all-around player that averaged 16 points, 9.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game.
Grade: D
Next: South Carolina
South Carolina
Raymond Felton, Tyrone Corbin, Larry Nance, Alex English, Kevin Garnett
Total of 26 All-Star appearances, 1 NBA/ABA championships
Raymond Felton has been in the league for 11 years now and he’ll take point for the state of South Carolina. So far in his career he’s averaged 12.7 points, 6.3 assists and 3.2 rebounds per game. Felton has been an excellent distributor in his career, ranking 83rd all-time in assists with 4,366.
Tyrone Corbin’s averages of 9.2 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.8 assists earns him a spot at the shooting guard. Corbin’s 45.6 percent shooting percentage served him well in his career.
Larry Nance is up next for the Palmetto State with three All-Star appearances and for fun, a Slam Dunk Contest championship. That dunk contest win earned him the nickname “The High-Ayatolla of Slamola.” Nance averaged 17.1 points, 8.0 rebounds and 2.6 assists a game and was a 54.6 percent shooter for his career. On the defensive end, Nance ranks 19th on the all-time blocks list with 2,027.
Hall of Famer Alex English comes in at the fourth spot on the team with eight All-Star appearances and was on the All-NBA Second Team a total of three times. English was a scoring machine with 21.5 points per a game to go with 5.5 rebounds and 3.6 assists. Unsurprisingly he had a total of 25,613 points, putting him at 20th all-time.
Kevin Garnett is the final piece of this team’s puzzle with enough anger on the court to cover everyone on this list, not just his home state’s. He earned the MVP Award in 2004 and has been in a total of 15 All-Star games in his long career. He’s fading away into a nice position within the Minnesota Timberwolves organization these days, but let’s not forget he was on the All-NBA First Team four times, All-NBA Second Team three times, and twice on the All-NBA Third Team while also earning the Defensive Player of the Year award in 2008. He’s sitting on a career double-double with 18.2 points and 10.2 rebounds per a game.
Grade: B
Next: South Dakota
South Dakota
Jon Sundvold, Eric Piatkowski, Mike Miller, Jared Reiner, Ray Ellefson
Total of 0 All-Star appearances, 2 NBA/ABA championships
Only seven players in NBA history were born or graduated from high school in South Dakota, but that’s enough to build at team and we’ll start of with Jon Sundvold and his career averages of 7.7 points, 2.9 assists and 1.1 rebounds per game. Sundvold shot the ball well from beyond the arc with a career percentage of 39.2 percent. In his second and probably best season, he scored 11.2 points and had 4.1 assists per a game.
Eric Piatkowski gets the next spot on this list with his 7.5 points and 2.2 rebounds a game. Piatkowski earned the nickname “The Polish Rifle” thanks to being an excellent three-point shooting with a 39.9 percent career average, 39th all-time.
Med Park played five seasons in the NBA and averaged 6.1 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.7 assists per a game in the late 1950s.
Mike Miller is the best player to come out of the Mount Rushmore State with his 11.3 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game. LeBron James’ running buddy had a nice career before joining up with star, but he became better known to NBA fans during the Miami Heat’s championships. He found a way to knock down shots when the Heat needed him as he did in Game 5 of the 2012 NBA Finals when he made seven three-pointers, a NBA Finals record for most three-pointers for a player coming off the bench.
Jared Reiner only played two seasons in the league and averaged 1.2 points and 2.4 rebounds per game. Injuries didn’t help his career as the two seasons he played were sandwiched by a knee injury in 2005.
Grade: D
Next: Tennessee
Tennessee
Oscar Robinson, Anfernee Hardaway, Bingo Smith, Bailey Howell, Clydee Lee
Total of 23 All-Star appearances, 3 NBA/ABA championships
Hall of Famer and legend Oscar Robinson gets the Volunteer State rolling with his 12 All-Star Games and one NBA championship. He averaged a triple-double a game in 1962 with 30.8 points, 12.5 rebounds, and 11.4 assists, yet somehow gets left out of many people’s lists of the best to play the game. He almost averaged that triple-double line in several other seasons, but he’ll have to settle with 25.7 points, 9.5 assists and 7.5 rebounds per game for his career averages.
Anfernee Hardaway comes up next for Tennessee as even after injuries turned his career into a “What if?”, he still managed to average 15.2 points, 5.0 assists and 4.5 rebounds a game in his career. He made four All-Star Games and in his prime, averaged 21.7 points and 7.1 assists per a game as he and Shaq headlined the Orlando Magic. He also made two All-NBA First Teams and one All-NBA Third Team during his career.
Bingo Smith is the small forward of the Tennessee squad with his 12.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.0 assists per a game. He was turnover-prone but also he helped his teams by spreading the court with his shooting, a respectable 44 percent on his career.
Hall of Famer Bailey Howell nearly averaged a double-double for his career with 18.7 points and 9.9 rebounds per a game. Howell won a pair of titles with the Boston Celtics in 1968 and 1969 and he ranks 50th all-time in rebounds with 9,383 and 73rd in points with 17,770.
Clydee Lee finishes off Team Tennessee with one All-Star Game to his credit as well as 7.7 points and 10.3 rebounds a game in his career. He was an excellent rebounder with 7,626 in his career, good for 85th all-time.
Grade: B
Next: Texas
Texas
Slater Martin, Bill Sharman, Stephen Jackson, LaMarcus Aldridge, Chris Bosh
Total of 24 All-Star appearances, 2 NBA/ABA championships
Hall of Famer Slater Martin gets the Lone Star State going with his five NBA champion, nine All-Star appearances and a quintet of All-NBA Second Teams. Martin was an excellent defender in the 1950s and his career averages of 9.8 points, 4.2 assists and 3.4 rebounds helped lead the Minneapolis Lakers to four titles and the St. Louis Hawks to one of their own.
Mookie Blaylock gets the next spot for two reasons: The only player born in Texas to play more minutes than him is Grant Hill (though Hill grew up in Virginia, and that’s why he’s not on this team), and he has a Pearl Jam album named after him. Blaylock averaged 13.5 points, 6.7 assists and 4.1 rebounds per a game in his 13-year career and he made one All-Star Game. He was an excellent distributor as his 5,972 assists rank 34th all-time.
Grant Hill would have easily gotten this spot if he grew up in Texas, but Stephen Jackson is deserving of the spot as well (And yes I know he graduated from Oak Hill, but the year before that he won a state championship in Texas). Some of his off-court issues and The Brawl cloud people’s opinion of Jackson, but his career 15.1 points, 3.9 rebounds and 3.1 assists aren’t too shabby at all. He shot 41.4 percent in his career and won a championship with the San Antonio Spurs in 2003.
LaMarcus Aldridge is back in Texas with the San Antonio Spurs this year and he’s looking to add a championship to his list of accomplishments. He’s made one All-NBA Second Team and a pair of All-NBA Third Teams, but those awards don’t say as much as 19.4 points, 8.4 rebounds and 1.9 assists per a game. Aldridge is a 48.5 percent shooter in his career as well. He’s hoping to add all of that with the Spurs this year.
Chris Bosh was often maligned as the third wheel in Miami’s Big Three but time and time again in the playoffs he proved he was more than that. The 10-time All-Star and two-time NBA champion but surprisingly he’s only made one All-NBA Second Team in his career.
His rebound and kickout to Ray Allen saved the Heat’s bid for a second championship in 2013 and will be on NBA Finals highlights until the end of time. Sure, Allen hit the shot, but you can’t devalue Bosh getting him the ball in the right spot. Don’t forget his plays in overtime and the way he blocked the ever-living crap out of Danny Green.
Here’s hoping last year’s blood clots don’t cause him any more trouble this season.
Grade: B
Next: Utah
Utah
Byron Scott, Danny Vranes, Tom Chambers, Fred Roberts, Shawn Bradley
Total of 4 All-Star appearances, 3 NBA/ABA championships
Though Byron Scott was only born in Utah, the state needs a point guard to lead them. Scott is coaching the Los Angeles Lakers now, the same team he won championships with during his playing days. His 1,224 steals rank 79th all-time to go along with 14.1 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists a game.
Danny Vranes is up next for Utah with his 5.1 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.2 assists per a game. He played for the Seattle SuperSonics and Philadelphia 76ers, but the most notable part of his career may be that in 1986 he was traded by Seattle with Tim McCormick to the Sixers for Clemon Johnson and a 1989 1st round draft pick…that became Shawn Kemp.
Fred Roberts is next for the Beehive State with a 13-year career on seven different teams. He had respectable averages of 7.3 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.2 assists. His shooting percentage for his career was 56.6 percent, good for 89th all-time.
Tom Chambers is at the power forward position for Utah and he’s had the best career of anyone who was born in the state. He scored 20,049 points (43rd all-time) in his career, but he’s the only eligible player who has scored over 20,000 and is not in the Hall of Fame. He has four All-Star appearances under his belt but somehow he hasn’t got the invite from Springfield despite averaging 18.1 points, 6.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists a game in his career.
Shawn Bradley was in Space Jam. He’s was also a very talented basketball player that appeared as himself on an episode of Walker, Texas Ranger. Bradley didn’t appear in any All-Star games, but he was one of the best shot blockers the NBA has seen. His 2,119 blocks are good for 16th all-time and he averaged 2.5 blocks a game to go with 8.1 points and 4.8 rebounds per a game.
Grade: C-
Next: Vermont
Vermont
Total of 0 All-Star appearances, 0 NBA/ABA championships
Sorry Vermont, you haven’t had anyone from your state make the NBA.
Grade: Incomplete
Next: Virginia
Virginia
Allen Iverson, Bob Dandridge, Alonzo Mourning, Moses Malone, David Robinson
Total of 45 All-Star appearances, 6 NBA/ABA championships
The state of Virginia isn’t lacking at any position and they start off with future Hall of Famer Allen Iverson. A lightening rod of controversy throughout his life, his career was no different. He gave us the famous “practice” speech, but like many things in his career it was misunderstood and taken out of context.
But more importantly than all that he was the MVP in 2001 and his legacy as an 11-time All-Star, three-time All-NBA First Teamer, three-time All-NBA Second Teamer, an All-NBA Third Teamer and three-time NBA scoring champ. His career got started in 1997 with him winning the Rookie of the Year award and just a few years later in 2001 he took the Philadelphia 76ers to the NBA Finals.
He scored 48 points in Game 1 and got the victory, stopping the Los Angeles Lakers from having the first perfect postseason in NBA history. Iverson averaged 26.7 points, 6.2 assists and 3.7 rebounds a game. His 5,624 assists rank 43rd all-time while his 1,983 steals are the 13th most in NBA history. He ranks 28th all-time with 24,368 points.
Bob Dandridge’s name may be one you aren’t familiar with, but his averages of 18.5 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.4 assists a game earn him a spot on the list. Dandridge made four All-Star games in his career with the Milwaukee Bucks and Washington Bullets, which he won one NBA Finals with each franchise. His career 48.4 shooting percentage is impressive and it is no surprise he found his way on to an All-NBA Second Team, an NBA All-Defensive First Team and the NBA All-Rookie First Team in his career.
Hall of Famer Alonzo Mourning comes in next for the Old Dominion with 17.1 points, 8.5 rebounds and 1.1 assists a game in his career. His career was interrupted by kidney disease in 2002 but perhaps the most impressive part of his career was when he returned from a year off to contribute to a Miami Heat’s championship in 2006.
Zo could score, but his defense helped him make seven All-Star Teams, an All-NBA First and Second Team, win the Defensive Player of the Year Award twice in 1999 and 2000 and in those same years, he made the NBA All-Defensive First Team and led the league in blocked shots. Mourning was a sentimental fan favorite after his return from fighting kidney disease but the man earned plenty adulation with the way he played the game.
Moses Malone is next on the list and it is easy to understand why with his 20.3 points, 12.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists per a game. Malone’s career started in the 70s but he played in 21 seasons in the ABA and NBA. Malone won one of his three MVP awards in 1983 with the Philadelphia 76ers which he won an NBA Finals with in 1983 while also being the Finals MVP.
Along with all of those accomplishments he was a 13-time All-Star, was on the All-NBA First Team four times, on the All-NBA Seconds Team four times, and made the NBA All-Defensive First Team and NBA All-Defensive Second Team once each. He led the league in rebounds six different times in his career and earned spot on both the ABA All-Time Team as well as the NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Time Team. His 1,199 steals rank eighth all-time, his 1,733 blocks are 23rd all-time and he’s seventh on the all-time scoring list with 29,580 points.
Hall of Famer and 10-time All-Star David Robinson caps off an overly impressive Virginia squad with his two NBA titles, one MVP award, four All-NBA First Team selections, two All-NBA Second Team selections and four All-NBA Third Team selections as well as four appearances each on the NBA All-Defensive First Team and NBA All-Defensive Second Team.
The Admiral (though he only earned the rank of Lieutenant, Junior Grade in the Navy) won the Rookie of the Year award in 1990 and was the scoring, blocking, and rebounding champion in different years of his career. Robinson showed while he was more than just height as he averaged 21.1 points, 10.6 rebounds and 2.5 assists a game in his career. He wore the number 50 in his career to honor his idol Ralph Samson, who, funnily enough, was bumped off this list for the center position.
Grade: A
Next: Washington
Washington
John Stockton, Jamal Crawford, Brandon Roy, Steve Hawes, James Edwards
Total of 13 All-Star appearances, 3 NBA/ABA championships
Hall 0f Famer and 10-time All-Star John Stockton starts off the Evergreen State with an impressive list of accomplishments that include being the NBA’s all-time assist and steals leader. He led the league in steals twice while he was the assist leader for nine seasons in a row.
His play earned him a spot on the NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Time Team to go along with his two All-NBA First Teams, six All-NBA Second Teams and three All-NBA Third Teams, and well as five appearances on the NBA All-Defensive Team. His career was the perfect blend of having the passing ability that was like no other at the time and someone who constantly finished those plays, that person being Karl Malone.
Fittingly, when he broke Magic Johnson’s career record for assists, it was on a pass to Malone. Stockton had a career double-double with averages of 13.1 points and 10.5 assists per game.
Two-time Sixth Man of the Year Award winner Jamaal Crawford is next on Washington’s roster. Crawford has averaged 15.6 points, 3.7 assists and 2.4 rebounds a game in his career and is still playing that sixth man role with the Los Angeles Clippers since 2010. He’s averaging 17 points and 2.7 assists coming off the bench for the Clippers and hopes to continue that production this season.
Brandon Roy is one of the most talented players the state of Washington has ever seen, but a lack of cartilage in his knees unfortunately derailed a promising career. But in those six healthy seasons, he had the highest per a game scoring average of anyone from there with 18.8 points which he complemented with 4.7 assists and 4.3 rebounds a game. He made three All-Star games and was an offensive force to be reckoned with before those knees made him call it a career.
This team needs some height, so we’ll call on Steve Hawes to help fill out the frontcourt. Hawes played 10 seasons in the NBA and averaged 8.4 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.9 assists per a game. He was an excellent rebounder as his career rebound rate of 21.2 percent ranks 92nd all-time.
James Edwards rounds out the Evergreen State squad with three championships — two with the Detroit Pistons and one with the Chicago Bulls. He was nearly nonexistent in the 1996 championship with the Bulls, but he served as a reserve for the Pistons in their 1989 and 1990 championships. In his 19-year career he averaged 12.7 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game.
Grade: B
Next: West Virginia
West Virginia
Jerry West, Hal Greer, Jason Williams, O.J. Mayo, Patrick Patterson
Total of 24 All-Star appearances, 3 NBA/ABA championships
Almost Heaven, West Virginia is where I’m from, so this entry holds a special place for me. Despite being a small, rural state, the Mountain State has produced more NBA players than one might expect.
Jerry West, the NBA logo himself, starts off this team with his 1972 title with the Los Angeles Lakers and the 1969 NBA Finals MVP, the only player to win it on the losing team. He made the All-Star Game in every year of 14-year career and averaged 27 points, 6.7 assists and 5.8 rebounds per game.
He was selected to the All-NBA First Team 10 times and the All-NBA Second Team twice while also making the NBA All-Defensive First Team four times and the Second Team once. He could score too, as he led the league in scoring in 1970 and then two years later led it in assists. He ranks 27th all-time in assists with 6,238 and 23rd in points with 25,192. He’s a member of the NBA’s 35th and 50th Anniversary Teams and has his handprints all over the NBA history, even to today.
From the Los Angeles Lakers’ championship runs in the 1980s and 2000s, to the rebuilding of the Memphis Grizzlies, and now the Golden State Warriors as a minority owner and as a head consultant, West might be one of the smartest basketball minds ever. Wherever he goes, success follows. And as a selfish side note, he was a classmate of my grandfather at East Bank High School in West Virginia.
Hal Greer is the other great Hall of Famer from the Mountain State with his own NBA title with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1967. With that title, he and Wilt Chamberlain put a stop to Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics’ eight-year championship run. He made 10 All-Star Games in his career and the All-NBA Second Team a total of seven times. Greer used a jump shot for his free throws and while it was odd, it was effective as he shot over 80 percent from the line in his career. Greer averaged 19.2 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game in his career.
The West Virginia team is going small ball with Jason Williams taking one of the spots on his the team thanks to his flashy style that earned him the nickname “White Chocolate.”
Williams averaged 10.5 points, 5.9 assists and 2.3 rebounds per game and won an NBA title with the Miami Heat in 2006. Before they got to the Finals, he helped the Heat defeat the Detroit Pistons in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals with 21 points on 10-of-11 shooting, the best playoff game of his career. His career 4,611 assists rank 71st all-time.
O.J. Mayo is next up for West Virginia with his 14.3 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.9 assists a game. He made the All-Rookie Team and is currently with the Milwaukee Bucks. He’ll be coming off the bench again, but it will be interesting to see how coach Jason Kidd uses him while he continues to develop the team’s young talent.
The team needs some height, so Patrick Patterson will come up next for the Mountain State’s team with his 8.8 points and 4.8 rebounds a game. He’s currently with the Toronto Raptors as their starting power forward going into this season. On another selfish side note, I served him a sandwich once when I worked at Quizno’s in college.
Grade: B
Next: Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Nick Van Exel, Terry Porter, Latrell Sprewell, Don Kojis, Jim Chones
Total of 9 All-Star appearances, 1 NBA/ABA championships
Nick Van Exel gets the Badger State going with one All-Star appearance and career averages of 14.4 points, 6.6 assists and 2.9 rebounds per game. His 5,777 assists rank 38th all-time and he was a decent three-point shooter at 35.7 percent. His 1,528 three-pointers ranks him at 22nd on the all-time list.
Terry Porter played the most minutes of anyone born in the state in his 17-year career, averaging 12.2 points, 5.6 assists and 3.0 rebounds a game. In his career, he found himself on the All-Star roster twice and is 12th on the NBA’s all-time assist list with 7,160.
Latrell Sprewell is next on his list and while he averaged 18.3 points, 4.1 rebounds and 4.0 assists in his career, he may be best known for trying to choke P. J. Carlesimo (which earned him a 68-game suspension) and refusing a three-year, $27 million contract saying that “I have a family to feed…if Glen Taylor wants to see my family fed, he better cough up some money.” It is really hard to not talk about either of those things that overshadow a career that saw him score 16,712 points.
Don Kojis is next of the list with a pair of All-Star games and career averages of 12.2 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game. He played for three expansion teams during his 11-year career that started in 1961.
Jim Chones brings the Wisconsin squad a championship, one he earned with the 1980 Los Angeles Lakers. He averaged 12.5 points and 8.2 rebounds a game in a career that started out with the then-ABA New York Nets.
Grade: C
Next: Wyoming
Wyoming
Kenny Sailors, Vern Gardner, James Johnson, Floyd Volker, Mike Dabich
Total of 0 All-Star appearances, 0 NBA/ABA championships
Wyoming has had six NBA players born there and they get started with Kenny Sailors, who averaged 12.6 points, 2.8 assists and 2.0 rebounds in a career that started in 1946 with the proto-NBA of the Basketball Association of America’s Cleveland Rebels. He played for seven different teams in his five-year career, ending with the Baltimore Bullets.
Vern Gardner’s career started in 1949 with the Philadelphia Warriors (they later became Golden State) and averaged 8.9 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game in his career.
James Johnson is the only NBA player from Wyoming that was born after 1921 and in fact, Johnson is in the current NBA and has the awesome nickname of “Bloodsport.” He’s had the longest career of anyone from there and is currently averaging 6.8 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game in his career.
Floyd Volker averaged 7.4 points and 2.1 rebounds in his one season in the NBA while playing for the Indianapolis Olympians and Denver Nuggets.
Mike Dabich is another player from the Cowboy State that played one season, but for two teams. Dabich’s career started with the Oakland Oaks (later the Virginia Squires) and then joined the Dallas Chaparrals, which are now the San Antonio Spurs. He averaged 2.0 points and 1.3 rebounds a game.
Grade: D
Next: But wait! We have one more...
The District Of Columbia
Dave Bing, Kevin Durant, Thurl Bailey, Adrian Dantley, Elgin Baylor
Total of 30 All-Star appearances, 0 NBA/ABA championships
We didn’t forget about you, District of Columbia! Your squad gets rolling with Dave Bing, a Hall of Famer with an impressive list of accolades to his name. He made the NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Time Team while making seven All-Star games in his career.
He started off in 1967 with the Rookie of the Year Award and then would lead the league in scoring the next season. He was selected to the All-NBA First Team twice and the All-NBA Second Team once. He averaged 20.3 points, 6.0 assists and 3.8 rebounds per game in his career and finds himself on two all-time lists at 46th in assists (5,397) and 64th in points (18,327).
Hall of Famer Adrian Dantley brings six All-Star appearances to the table after winning the Rookie of the Year award in 1977. He made two All-NBA Second Teams and perhaps most impressively, led the league in scoring twice in his career. His 23,177 points put him 32nd on the all-time scoring list and he averaged 24.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.0 assists a game in his career and was and impressive 54 percent shooter, which ranks 25th all-time.
Kevin Durant is still building his legacy, but he’s already one of the best players the District of Columbia has ever seen. He’s battled injury the past few seasons but everyone knows a healthy Durant spells trouble for the Western Conference and the NBA. So far in his career he’s won a MVP, made the All-Star Game six times, been on five All-NBA First teams, and been the scoring champion four times.
He started off his career with the Rookie of the Year award in 2008 and has only built from there. He averages 27.3 points, 6.9 rebounds and 3.5 assists per a game and in 2013, he was a member of the 50-40-90 club. If his career ended today he would rank 10th all-time in PER at 24.7. Barring injuries, he still has plenty of amazing basketball ahead.
Hall of famer Elgin Baylor might be the best from the District with his 11 All-Star Game appearances, 10 All-NBA First Team selections and a spot on the NBA’s 35th and 50th Anniversary All-Time Teams. Baylor started out his career by winning the Rookie of the Year award in 1959 and would rack up a total of 23,149 points in his career, 33rd all-time. Despite being undersized for his position he had a career double-double with career averages of 27.4 points, 13.5 rebounds and 4.3 assists per a game.
Thurl Bailey is last, and while he never made an All-Star game, he was able to average 12.8 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.4 assists per a game in his career. Bailey ranks 76th all-time with 1,086 blocks. He may have never overwhelmed anyone with his statistics but he built and impressive 12-year career as a backup in the NBA after winning Rookie of the Year in 1983.
Grade: A
Next: NBA: 50 Greatest Players Of All Time
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