The 2018 NBA Draft is tonight and with a few gingers in the running, it made me start to wonder who the greatest red-headed basketball players of all time were. So here is a list perfectly compiled of great red heads in no particular order. Enjoy.
Donte Divincenzo is about to be drafted in the upcoming NBA Draft after his astronomical performance in the national championship and his crazy combine showing. He is a late blooming red head who came off the bench in college and shined when he got his chance. Divincenzo is actually an extremely athletic red head who doesn’t need to just hang out on the 3 point line. He should be drafted in the first round based off his ridiculous tweets from his past about getting his ass eaten, but some team is definetly going to get a stud when they draft this guy. Ass licking or not he is firmly an all-time red header.
Kevin Huerter is another red head from Maryland who had an outstanding sophomore season before declaring for the NBA draft. He is an athletic ginger from New York who is now expected to be drafted in the first round. His stock soared during the combine because of his athleticism and ability to finish at the rim. I know it’s premature to put this guy on the list of all-time red heads, but the NBA draft is going to have multiple red heads taken in the first round for the first time in a long time. The world must know.
Bill Walton is probably the best red head to ever play the game of basketball, from loving trees to posting people up, he pretty much did it all. He was the first successful red-headed basketball player I can ever really recall so I’m just going to assume that means he was the first. Bill Walton may trip acid before he commentates games now, but at one time, he was a forced to be reckoned with on the UCLA men’s basketball team and had it not been for injuries, he probably would have had a much more successful NBA career.
Dennis Rodman was not born a red head, but he surely played the game of basketball with red hair for a while. Probably the biggest head case the NBA has ever seen, he ended up actually saving the world from Nuclear war because of his friendship with North Korea. Rodman was one of the greatest rebounders and defenders in the history of the league. Now, his time to shine as a foreign diplomat is upon us and well, if you saw that coming: you are a liar.
Matt Bonner has to be the most underrated red head of all time. He was actually a crucial piece on some of those Spurs teams that won championships and boy did he fit the mold of a stereotypical white basketball player. He was great at free throws, great three point shooter and wore tube socks with new balance basketball shoes. He won two rings and although he never averaged over 10 points per game in a season, he was the first NBA player with a shoe endorsement from New Balance. Legendary ginger.
Blake Griffin still to this day defies the laws of physics by being a mixed guy with red hair, a black dad and a white mom and somehow the guy came out with red hair. If I’m his father, at some point you have to ask the question if he’s actually your son. Either way, Blake’s red hair led him to be the overall first pick in the 2009 NBA draft and multiple all star games, also by far the most vicious dunker of all the red heads on this list. Blake Griffin went against the grain and became one of the greatest red-headed basketball players to ever play the sport.
Luke Harangody is probably my favorite red-headed basketball player of all time, and he is one of the most beloved college basketball players ever. Everyone wanted the red headed sharp shooter from Notre Dame to be successful at the next level, but it just didn’t happen. Some say it’s because of his hair color and pasty skin as to why he didn’t make it in the league, but we can all reminisce on falling in love with this big ole nerd.
Brain Scalabrine, no he absolutely cannot be left off this list. He is the most overrated red head of all time, but that’s just because people hype up the legend of the Red Mamba a little too much sometimes. He has multiple highlight tapes of him literally just making chest passes and shooting free throws because that is basically all he did in the NBA. He did win a championship with Boston and even managed to muster up a season with the New Jersey Nets where he averaged 6 points a game, but Scalabrine is an all time overrated red head who catches way to much love for absolutely no other reason than being bad at basketball.
Hopefully this entices more red heads to play the game of basketball and prove the critics wrong. Jaylen Fisher, the albino black dude from TCU, is currently proving the haters wrong with his read hair, so to all the future gingers of the NBA, Good Luck. I am firmly in your corner.
– Johnny Rambos