Biggest Hometown Heroes in the NBA
Homecomings have become trendy in today's NBA.
It all started with LeBron James heading back to Cleveland last summer. Then Kevin Garnett was traded back to the Minnesota Timberwolves in a not-actually-a-homecoming-but-still-exciting trade. Now our minds can't let go of that concept.
Every time you turn around in an NBA circle, someone will ask if Kevin Love is headed home to Los Angeles this offseason. Or if Kevin Durant will return to Washington, D.C. in a couple of summers. Or if Russell Westbrook is going to team up with Love in L.A. in a few years.
Homecomings. We cant stop thinking about them.
Not every hometown player giving his all for a team is a star, though. Some guys are great. Others are more obscure. It's the ways of the herd.
Here are some of the best homegrown players, listed from least significant to most.
Jarnell Stokes, Memphis Grizzlies
1 of 12
Jarnell's mother must be stoked.
The kid was born in Memphis, grew up in Memphis, went to Southwind High School in Memphis and attended the University of Tennessee. Take a wild guess where he gets to begin his NBA career...no, not Atlanta.
Stokes may not be seeing the floor much during his rookie season, but he's learning from some of the best big men in the NBA, one of whom is a hometown product we'll get to a little later.
P.J. Hairston, Charlotte Hornets
2 of 12
Hairston is all about North Carolina.
The rookie was born in Greensboro, North Carolina, and attended UNC, where he played for Roy Williams. Sure, he may have gone to high school in Virginia, but now that he's back in his home state, it seems only fair to consider him a local guy.
Greensboro is only about 100 miles from Charlotte. Chapel Hill, meanwhile, isn't much farther. Now the kid just needs to work on his 32 percent field-goal accuracy.
Otto Porter Jr., Washington Wizards
3 of 12
When Porter Jr. started his pro career, he didn't even need to learn the team's arena.
Imagine the excitement when Wizards fans heard the third overall selection of the 2013 NBA draft.
Basketball observers in D.C. had just spent two years watching Porter Jr. at Georgetown, seeing him dominate his conference en route to winning the 2012-13 Big East Player of the Year Award. So the now second-year forward went from the Verizon Center to...the Verizon Center.
If only he were performing at the level Washington basketball fans hoped he would, everything would be just dandy.
Nazr Mohammed, Chicago Bulls
4 of 12
Now we're getting a little less obscure.
Mohammed may not be an All-Star, but he is a veteran who has found career success as a backup center. Actually, doesn't it feel like he's been a crafty vet since the mid-'90s?
After years of bouncing around the league, splitting time with seven different teams, Mohammed finally came back to Chicago before the 2012-13 season. Now in his third year with the Bulls, he may not play much anymore, but he's still representing his hometown.
Udonis Haslem, Miami Heat
5 of 12
Udonis Haslem will possibly never know life outside of Florida.
The Heat forward, who feels like he's been either manning the starting power forward spot or coming off the bench since the Carter administration, was born in Miami, raised there and even stayed in-state for college, when he enrolled at the University of Florida.
In some ways, Haslem had his choice of destinations when he graduated from Gator Nation. Even after making third-team All-American, the power forward didn't hear his name called on draft night, signing with the Heat as an undrafted free agent before the 2003-04 season. 12 years later, he's still there.
Marvin Williams, Charlotte Hornets
6 of 12
But wait, Marvin Williams is from the Seattle area, you might say. And you might be right.
He is from Seattle. And Charlotte is certainly nowhere near the state of Washington. It is, however, close to where Williams made a one-year pit stop before going pro.
Williams played for Roy Williams (no relation) at UNC, where he turned himself into the second overall selection of the 2006 draft. Nowadays, picking a collegiate sixth man over guys like Deron Williams and Chris Paul (!!) sounds insane, but back then...actually, it was still pretty crazy back then.
North Carolina may not be a long-time home for Williams, but he did come back to the area when he signed a two-year, $14 million deal with the Hornets this past summer.
Nick Young, Los Angeles Lakers
7 of 12Is there anything more L.A. than wearing sunglasses indoors, boasting one of the more relaxed personalities in your industry and receiving a classic car from your celebrity girlfriend for Christmas?
Never change, Nick Young. Never change.
Young, who's known best for his in-game antics and postgame quotes, is in his second stint in Los Angeles after growing up in the area and going to school at USC. He played for the Clippers for half of the lockout season and later came back to sign with the Lakers. He's in the first season of a four-year deal, which means L.A. fans get to see plays like the one in the clip above for a long time.
Congrats, Lakers fans.
George Hill, Indiana Pacers
8 of 12
George Hill must have been thrilled when the San Antonio Spurs traded him to the Pacers for Kawhi Leonard and other pieces on draft night of 2011.
Sure, Hill was leaving a championship-caliber team, but he was also heading to one that would contend for Eastern Conference titles. And most importantly, he was heading home.
Hill is another one of those guys with the "born-and-raised" title. Aside from that three-year stint with the Spurs, he's always lived in the Indianapolis area. Even when he went to college, he chose Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.
Derrick Rose, Chicago Bulls
9 of 12
Now we're on to some of the big names. First up: Derrick Rose.
For the first time in a little while, there's actually good news on Rose. Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau said over the weekend that he's hopeful his star point guard can return this week. That's a major improvement from everyone's worst fears a couple months ago when Rose went down with yet another meniscus injury.
Bulls fans love Rose not just because of his performance or how hard he plays or his off-court class or the general excitement he stirs every time he steps on the floor. It goes beyond that. He's actually one of the fans.
He grew up in Chicago during the Jordan era. He experienced, as a fan, much of what the viewers in the United Center seats go through every game. He's a Chicagoan.
Carmelo Anthony, New York Knicks
10 of 12
The hometown argument for Carmelo Anthony is a little bit sketchy.
For years, we heard how Melo was a native Baltimorean. The narrative swung a bit, probably more out of convenience than anything else, when he pushed for a trade to the Knicks. Then, all of a sudden, he was a New Yorker, even though his family left the Big Apple for Maryland when he was eight years old.
Now that he's with the Knicks, though, it fits well to call Anthony a life-long New Yorker, especially since his one-year career at Syracuse, who just about every New Yorker roots for, was so prominent.
Marc Gasol, Memphis Grizzlies
11 of 12
What is Marc Gasol doing here? I thought he was Spanish...
Well, he is. Gasol spent most of his childhood living in Barcelona, but when his brother, Pau, was drafted into the NBA and headed to the Grizzlies in 2001, Marc moved with him. Still in school, Marc lived with the Gasol clan in Germantown, Tennessee, a suburb of Memphis, and attended Lausanne Collegiate School.
So when someone talks about the soon-to-be free agent potentially leaving the Grizzlies in the upcoming summer, just remember he has more emotional ties to Memphis than the average fan realizes.
LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers
12 of 12
And now, for the ultimate hometown kid: LeBron James.
Ohio's most famous man is responsible for most conversations about Akron between people who live on the coasts. This year, LBJ is having another tremendous season while leading what's arguably the best team in his conference as he tries to go to the NBA Finals for a fifth consecutive year.
For a while, we may have thought of James as "the guy who left Cleveland." But by the time he hangs up his kicks, we'll probably remember him as "the guy who came back."
.png?w=600 "New Mock with Lottery Odds Locked In 🔮")
