Basketball Facts

Barack Obama was nicknamed "Barry O'Bomber" by some teammates at Punahou High School for his enthusiastic jump shot, though he spent most of his senior championship season on the bench

Michael Jordan wasn't actually cut from his high school basketball team - as a 5'10" sophomore, he was placed on the junior varsity squad instead of varsity, which was standard practice. He used the perceived slight as motivation and made varsity the following year.

Basketball great Wilt Chamberlain never fouled out of a game.

In the year 2000, Pope John Paul II was named an "Honorary Harlem Globetrotter."!

Chinese sports authorities reportedly arranged the marriage between Yao Ming's parents—Yao Zhiyuan (6'7") and Fang Fengdi (6'3"), both elite basketball players—as part of a state-sponsored athletic breeding program. Their son became the 7'6" NBA superstar.

There is a basketball court on the top floor of the U.S. Supreme Court Building. It’s known as the “highest court in the land.”

Tim Duncan trained for the Olympics as a teenager. He was one of the best young swimmers in the country. His sister Tricia had already swum at the 1988 Olympics. Then Hurricane Hugo hit St. Croix in 1989 and destroyed the island's only Olympic-size pool. The only place left to train was the open ocean, and Duncan was terrified of sharks. He quit swimming, picked up basketball at 14, and became a five-time NBA champion.

Shaquille O'Neal has quietly rebuilt basketball courts for 30 years. The first was in Orlando, where Marquis Daniels grew up. Daniels made the NBA and told O'Neal: "Because you fixed it up, I'm here." O'Neal has since rebuilt six more courts - he's still doing it, one court at a time.

The underdog gym from the movie Hoosiers is real. Knightstown, Indiana raised $14,400 to build it in 1921. It closed in 1966 and nearly got torn down in 1988. The 1986 film had already made it famous. Two preservation groups stepped in and saved it. Real high school teams still play real games there. More than 80 a year. It never stopped being a real gym.

Arthur Ehrat, a farmer who barely followed basketball, built the rim that bends on every dunk. In 1976, his nephew, a college coach, said players kept bending rims. Ehrat tried magnets in his shed. They failed. A coil spring off a John Deere field cultivator held instead. A player shattered two backboards in 1979, but the NBA didn't adopt the rim until 1981. Every dunk since traces back to a farmer's tractor spring.

After being traded to the Phoenix Suns, Shaquille O'Neal went to Walmart at 2 AM to furnish his new apartment. He spent $70,000 on TVs, laptops, and appliances in a single trip. His credit card was declined because the bank flagged it as fraud — they couldn't believe someone was spending that much at Walmart.

Howard Schultz offered Shaq a Starbucks franchise deal in the late 1990s. Shaq told him: "Black people don't drink coffee, sir. I don't think it's gonna work." Magic Johnson took the deal instead, opened 105 Starbucks in underserved communities, and sold his stake for an estimated $100 million. Shaq calls it his biggest mistake.

Michael Jordan never wanted to sign with Nike. He wore Adidas. He begged Adidas to sign him. They told him: "We can not make a shoe work." Nike offered $2.5 million and a signature shoe. Jordan still did not want to go. His mother forced him onto the plane. Jordan Brand now generates $7 billion a year.

Dennis Schroder was offered an $84 million contract by the Lakers. He turned it down - he thought he was worth $100 million. Then his performance tanked. The big offers vanished. He eventually signed with the Celtics for $5.9 million. He paid $78 million to bet on himself.

Manny Pacquiao was boxing's reigning WBO welterweight champion. He was also a sitting congressman in the Philippines. Then he became head coach of a pro basketball team, Kia Sorento. He used the job to draft himself 11th overall, at age 35. His debut drew a record crowd of 52,612 fans. He played seven minutes and scored zero points.