NCAA Basketball: Famous celebs who played high school and college hoops

Notable Actors

Everyone has seen the shows and many of us grew up watching Will Smith as the Fresh Prince and Jaleel White as Steve Urkel playing basketball in their shows and doing it well. Neither of these actors actually played basketball in college though. The actors listed below did play college basketball.

Denzel Washington

In “He Got Game” Washington plays Jake Shuttlesworth who is the father of a five-star recruit Jesus Shuttlesworth who is played by Ray Allen. In that movie, there is the iconic scene of father and son playing one and one. Ray Allen and Denzel Washington did play basketball in that scene, and those skills were Washington’s own.

Washington grew up honing his skills at the Boys and Girls Club in New York and playing in the playgrounds. He was good enough to earn the watchful eye of PJ Carlesimo who at the time was the JV coach for the Fordham Rams. Washington played JV for Fordham for two years before leaving the sport and focusing on his acting career.

Sinbad

David Adkins who later would go on to be the very successful comedian named Sinbad, at one point played basketball at the University of Denver. While at Denver the comedian played in 50 games and averaged just under five points a game.

Sinbad always jokes about how he turned down an opportunity to learn the game from one of the best minds in the game. Gregg Popovich recruited Adkins out of high school while he was a coach at Air Force. The comedian instantly knew he was not going to attend there as they were going to make him shave and shave his afro.

Tom Selleck

Magnum P.I. is a huge sports fan and could have been a great athlete had he decided to play a different sport. He ended up with a basketball scholarship at USC where he played seven games. His final stats were not available, but he had the build of a safety and he loves baseball as he is a documented Detroit Tigers superfan.

Bob Barker

The 97-year-old former host of The Price Is Right went to Drury College on a basketball scholarship. Since he played so long ago it isn’t known how long he played or what his stats were. Barker was the host of the longest-running game show in history with the Price is Right. He left the show after hosting it for 35 years.

Jim Caviezel

Caviezel is best known for his work on the screen as he portrayed Jesus Christ in the 2004 movie Passion of the Christ and he also played a key role in the show Person of Interest. What many don’t know is that Caviezel is a great athlete and was a star high school basketball player in Washington. He was able to earn a scholarship to junior college Bellevue College.

He suffered a foot injury during his sophomore year and was never able to play basketball again. Caviezel played with a ton of basketball talent during his high school and college days most notably John Stockton.

Beau Bridges

Lloyd Bridges goes by the stage name Beau and he has had a very successful movie career. He is a three-time Emmy award winner, two-time Golden Globe winner, two time Screen Actors Guild award winner and one time Grammy Award Winner. His acting career speaks for itself, but before all of that he aspired of becoming a basketball star.

Bridges played his freshman year at UCLA for legendary coach John Wooden. That had such an impact on him, that he played John Wooden in a one-man play outlining the love the legendary coach had for his wife Nell.

Leslie Jones

The former Saturday Night Live and current Stand Up Comic played basketball at Colorado State University. She was good enough to play overseas and had she stuck with basketball it would have been a great career for her. Jones decided one day to enter a campus performance and was awarded the funniest student on campus and the rest is history. She has gone on to be a mainstay on SNL and was cast as one of the main characters in the latest Ghostbusters reboot.

Mahershala Ali

Ali has had an extremely successful acting career earning two academy awards, three Screen Actors guilds awards, a golden globe, and a BAFTA award. He was named one of the top 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine. That is quite an honor and before anyone saw Ali on the screen, he was a player in the St. Mary’s basketball program in Moraga, CA.

When he was playing for St. Mary’s he was known as Mahershala Gilmore. The actor played all four years in college for St. Mary’s for a total of 96 games and averaged just over three points per game. His senior year was the most productive when he averaged about seven points per game playing for head coach Ernie Kent.

Michael Warren

The actor had the best career of any one actor or rapper on this list. Warren absolutely could have played in the NBA as he was drafted in the 14th round and he played on some of the best college basketball teams of all time. Warren played at UCLA with Lew Alcindor and for legend John Wooden. In his time as a starter the team went 59-1 and won two National Championships.

His final year in Westwood Warren averaged a little over 12 points per game that season he was named an All American and for his efforts he is a member of the UCLA sports hall of fame. Once he earned the role on Hill Street Blues, there was no turning back.