James Worthy Biography

Fast Facts

• Broke the NBA record for the highest field goal percentage in a five-game playoff series in 1985
• Was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003
• Was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996
• Despite an injury early on in his college career at the University of North Carolina, he went on to play in a legendary team during his junior year that featured Sam Perkins and Michael Jordan
• His basketball exploits were already starting to make front-page news by the time he was a ninth-grader at Grier Junior High in Gastonia, N․C
• Was drafted first overall by the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1982 NBA Draft
• Quote: "I can remember coming into the league and being under the likes of Kareem, Jamaal Wilkes, Magic, Norm Nixon and Bob McAdoo․ Now I find myself in that situation․ Guys are telling me how there were in junior high, watching us beat the Celtics in '85․"
• Quote: "[on a college injury] "I wasn't traveling with the team, I wasn't going to all the practices, and I wasn't a part of the day-to-day routine․ It really made me wake up and expose myself to all kinds of people - not confine myself to just basketball․""
• His trademark move on the basketball court was a one-handed swooping dunk
• Spent his whole career in the NBA playing for the Los Angeles Lakers