Most Humble NBA Players
The life of an NBA player is, quite often, filled with luxury and excess. With NBA players averaging just over $7.5 million in annual pay, many NBA players find themselves living lavish and ostentatious lifestyles.
From luxury cars, to multi-million dollar homes, to excess jewelry and diamond pieces, these NBA players take luxury to the next level.
However, not all NBA players allow their newfound fame and wealth to change their personalities and selves. Rather, for some NBA players, their newfound fame and wealth simply provides them with additional opportunities to do good and continue their hard work and dedication to the sport, their team, and their family.
That is why, below, we are going to review and discuss the most humble NBA players. These are NBA players who didn’t allow their newfound fame and wealth to “get to their heads” and still remain dedicated to the sport and living a good, dedicated life.
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Giannis Antetokounmpo is, perhaps, one of the most humble NBA players currently in the league. A Greek basketball player, Giannis plays for the reigning NBA champions, the Milwaukee Bucks.
Nicknamed the “Greek Freak”, Giannis was born and raised in Athens to Nigerian immigrants. As immigrants, his parents could not easily find work in Greece, leading Giannis and his siblings to sell watches, handbags, and sunglasses on the streets of Athens.
And although Giannis and his siblings were born in Greece, they did not automatically receive Greek citizenship, leaving him essentially stateless, neither having papers for Greece or Nigeria.
However in 2007, at the age of 13, Giannis would begin playing basketball. Naturally gifted, Giannis would be drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks as the 15th overall selection in the 2013 NBA draft.
One of the NBA’s most decorated players, Antetokounmpo won back-to-back NBA Most Valuable Player Awards in 2019 and 2020, joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and LeBron James as the only players in NBA history to win two MVPs before turning 26.
In addition to the MVP award, he was also named the NBA Defensive Player of the Year in 2020, becoming only the third player after Michael Jordan (1988) and Hakeem Olajuwon (1994) to win both awards in the same season.
In 2021, Antetokounmpo led the Bucks to their first NBA championship since 1971 and was named Finals MVP. The same year, he was honored as one of the league’s greatest players of all-time by being named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team.
Kawhi Leonard
Kawhi Leonard is one of the most humble and hardworking players in the NBA. Currently playing for the Los Angeles Clippers, Kawhi Leonard is a two-time NBA champion and a five-time All-Star, with three All-NBA First Team selections.
With superior ball handling skills, Kawhi Leonard has been nicknamed the “Claw”.
Kawhi Leonard played two seasons of college basketball for the San Diego Aztecs and was named a consensus second-team All-American as a sophomore. Selected 15th overall in the 2011 NBA draft by the Indiana Pacers, he would go on to help the Toronto Raptors win their first NBA championship.
Mike Conley Jr.
Mike Conley Jr. is a current NBA player, playing for the Utah Jazz. Having been drafted in the 2007 NBA draft with the fourth overall pick by the Memphis Grizzlies, Conley would play 12 seasons with the Grizzlies, becoming the team’s all time leading scorer before being traded to the Utah Jazz in 2019.
Mike Conley played high school basketball at Lawrence North High School in Indianapolis. During his time there, he led the basketball team to three consecutive state championships and had an overall record of 103-7.
After high school, Conley committed to Ohio State University, where he would help the team to reach the NCAA Championship Game. Losing to the Florida Gators, Conley would make himself eligible for the NBA after only one season at Ohio.
Nikola Jokić
Nikola Jokić is one of the best players in the NBA right now. Nicknamed “the Joker”, Nikola Jokić was selected by the Denver Nuggets in the second round of the 2014 NBA draft.
A Serbian professional basketball player, he plays the center position for the Nuggets. A four-time NBA All-Star, he has also been named to the All-NBA Team on three occasions and has won the NBA’s Most Valuable Player Award in the 2020-21 and 2021-22 NBA seasons.
Nikola Jokić was born in Sombor, Serbia. There, he grew up in a cramped two-bedroom apartment, living with his two brothers, his parents, and his grandmother.
Jeremy Lin
Jeremy Lin was never supposed to be an NBA all-star player. A Taiwanese-American basketball player, Lin unexpectedly led a winning turnaround with the New York Knicks during the 2011-12 NBA season, being dubbed “Linsanity” for his accolades.
The first American of Chinese or Taiwanese descent to play in the NBA, he is the first Asian American to win an NBA championship, having won one with the Toronto Raptors in 2019.
Jeremy Lin grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and earned Northern California Basketball Player of the Year honors as a senior in high school.
However, after receiving no athletic scholarship offers, he attended Harvard University, where he was a three-time all-conference player in the Ivy League.
Lin was not drafted to the NBA out of college, rather, he would sign with the Golden State Warriors in 2010. He seldom played in his rookie season and received assignments to the NBA Development League (D-League).
In 2011, Lin was waived by both the Warriors and the Houston Rockets before joining the New York Knicks early in 2011–12.
And although Lin would have little playing time with the Knicks when he first joined the team, he was promoted to the starting lineup in 2012. He would help the Knicks to win a seven-game winning streak and propel them to the NBA playoffs.