Who wore number 16 in NBA?

Ask anybody who has played basketball before, and one of the exciting parts of playing the game is having your jersey number and name plastered on your back. We have seen so many great players in NBA history, each coming with a number attached to their name. While some of them are very obvious, there are some other players who are the greatest players to don a specific number that we may have not known before.

Bob Lanier

Robert Jerry Lanier Jr. is an American former professional basketball player who played for the Detroit Pistons and Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Lanier was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992.

In his 14 NBA seasons, Lanier averaged 20.1 points, 10.1 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.5 blocks, and 1.1 steals while shooting 51.4 percent from the field. He played in eight NBA All-Star Games, and was named Most Valuable Player of the 1974 game. He has had his #16 jersey retired by both the Pistons and the Bucks and his #31 jersey retired by St. Bonaventure University. Lanier is also known as an NBA ambassador.

Pau Gasol

Pau Gasol Sáez is a Spanish former professional basketball player. He is a six-time NBA All-Star and a four-time All-NBA team selection, twice on the second team and twice on the third team. Gasol has won two NBA championships, both with the Los Angeles Lakers back-to-back in 2009 and 2010. He was the NBA Rookie of the Year in 2002 with the Memphis Grizzlies, being the first non-American player to have won that award. He is the older brother of fellow NBA player Marc Gasol.

Gasol was selected by the Atlanta Hawks with the third overall pick in the first round of the 2001 NBA draft, but his rights were traded to the Memphis Grizzlies. He set the Grizzlies’ franchise record for free throws made and attempted. Following more than six seasons with Memphis, Gasol played for the Los Angeles Lakers (from 2008 to 2014), the Chicago Bulls (from 2014 to 2016), the San Antonio Spurs (from 2016 to 2019), and the Milwaukee Bucks (2019).

Internationally, Gasol has won a FIBA World Cup title, three EuroBasket titles, two Olympic silver medals, and an Olympic bronze medal with the Spanish national basketball team. Gasol was named MVP of the 2006 FIBA World Cup, and MVP of the 2009 and 2015 FIBA EuroBasket. Gasol is also one of the all-time leading scorers in the EuroBasket.

In 2021, he became a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Listed at 7 feet 0 inches (2.13 m), Gasol is athletic for his size, allowing him to play both the power forward and center positions, much like fellow European players Toni Kukoč and Dirk Nowitzki. He is a refined scorer in the post and midrange; his overall game is near-ambidextrous and makes it difficult for opposing teams to defend. Gasol uses a variety of midrange jumpers, hook shots, up-and-under moves, and shot fakes to score very efficiently. In addition, his foot speed relative to his size allows him to run the fast break and finish effectively. He is also a skilled passer for a big man, earning 3.2 assists per game over his career. Defensively, he is an above-average shot blocker with a career average of 1.7 blocks per game. Former Lakers teammate Kobe Bryant said of Gasol: “You’d be hard-pressed to find a big man with his skill set in the history of the game”.

Gasol has recorded over 550 double-doubles in his NBA career. On April 2, 2016, he became the 36th player in NBA history to reach the 10,000-point/10,000-rebound mark. While Gasol became the 43rd player in NBA history to reach to the 20,000-point milestone, he is just the fourth with that many points, 10,000 rebounds, 3,500 assists and 1,500 blocks.

Jerry Lucas

Jerry Ray Lucas is an American former basketball player. He was a nationally awarded high school player, national college star at Ohio State, and 1960 gold medal Olympian and international player before later starring as a professional player in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

As a collegian, Lucas led the Ohio State Buckeyes to three straight NCAA finals (1960-1962), winning the national championship in 1960, and finishing as runner-up in 1961 and 1962. He is the three-time Big Ten Basketball Player of the Year, and was named the NCAA Player of the Year in 1961 and 1962 by the United States Basketball Writers Association (now Oscar Robertson Award), the Associated Press, and the Sporting News.

As a professional, Lucas was named All-NBA First Team three times, All-NBA Second Team twice, an NBA All-Star seven times (including six years in a row), was the 1964 NBA Rookie of the Year, and was named Most Valuable Player of the 1965 NBA All-Star Game among other honors and awards. He was inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1980.

In 1980, he was inducted into the Springfield Basketball Hall Of Fame with Oscar Robertson and Jerry West, all in their first year of eligibility. He was selected by the NBA in 1996 as one of its 50 Greatest Players in NBA History, and again in 2021 as part of the NBA 75th Anniversary Team. In 1999 Sports Illustrated named Lucas to their Five Man College Team of the Century.

As an all-time player, Lucas is remembered for his remarkable fame as an amateur player, his dominance as a rebounder, especially for his height, and as a big man with a dangerous long-range shot, a combination unmatched before and only becoming approached since.

Cliff Hagan

Clifford Oldham Hagan is an American former professional basketball player. A 6-4 forward who excelled with the hook shot, Hagan, nicknamed “Li’l Abner”, played his entire 10-year NBA career (1956–1966) with the St. Louis Hawks. He was also a player-coach for the Dallas Chaparrals in the first two-plus years of the American Basketball Association’s existence (1967–1970).

Al Attles

Alvin Austin Attles Jr. is an American former professional basketball player and coach best known for his longtime association with the Golden State Warriors. Nicknamed the “Destroyer”, he played the point guard position and spent his entire 11 seasons (1960–1971) in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the team, joining it when it was still based in Philadelphia and following it to the Bay Area in 1962. He took over as player-coach for the last season of his career, and remained as head coach until 1983 (save for 21 games in 1980).

Tom Sanders

Thomas Ernest “Satch” Sanders is an American former professional basketball player and coach. He played his entire professional career as a power forward for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Sanders is considered one of the leading players for most NBA championships with eight and he is one of the few NBA players with an unsurpassed 8–0 record in NBA Finals series outcomes. After his playing retirement, he served as a head coach for the Harvard Crimson men’s basketball team and the Boston Celtics.

Sanders was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor in 2011.