nate thurmond was the oldest player to ever play in the nba.
nate thurmond was the oldest player to ever play in the nba.
who is the oldest player to ever play in the nba?
nate thurmond
the oldest player ever to play in the nba was nat hickey who played one game in the 1947–48 season when he was 45 years and 363 days old. hickey, who was coaching the providence steamrollers at the time, decided to activate himself and played in a game for the steamrollers. in his first game as a player for the steamrollers, he missed all six of his shot attempts and only scored two points from three free throw attempts; he only played in one more game before retiring as a player two days shy of his 46th birthday. the second-oldest player is kevin willis. willis, who had played 20 seasons (excluding the 1988–89 season he missed due to injury) in the league before he sat out the 2005–06 season and earned a contract with the dallas mavericks on april 2, 2007. he then played 5 games for the mavericks at the age of 44. the third-oldest player is hall of famer robert parish. parish, who played with the boston celtics in the 1980s, played his last season with the chicago bulls at the age of 43. he played in 1,611 regular season games during his 21-year career, more than any other player in nba history. when the bulls won the 1997 finals, parish became the oldest player ever to win the nba championship. there are currently 27 players who played in the nba after they turned 40.
list of oldest and youngest national basketball association players
on august 24, 2018, carter signed with the atlanta hawks. in his debut for the hawks on october 17, 2018, carter started at forward and scored 12 points in a 126–107 loss to the new york knicks, becoming the second oldest player in nba history to start a season opener at 41 years and 264 days old. only robert parish (42 years and 65 days old) was an older opening-night nba starter than carter. on november 21, he scored 14 points off the bench in a 124–108 loss to the toronto raptors, thus becoming the 22nd player in nba history to reach 25,000 career points. on december 29, he scored an equal team-high 21 points in 111–108 win over the cleveland cavaliers. it was his first game with 20 points for atlanta and became the oldest player in history to lead or tie for the team lead in scoring. he also became the oldest player in nba history to score 20+ points at 41 years and 337 days old, breaking kareem abdul-jabbar's record by 6 days. on february 7, 2019, against the raptors, carter passed jerry west for 21st on the nba's all-time scoring list. on march 1, 2019, he logged the second-most minutes for the hawks in a 168–161 quadruple-overtime loss to the chicago bulls. at 42, carter became the oldest player in nba history to play at least 45 minutes in a game. on march 4, he scored 21 points, all on 3-pointers, in a 114–113 loss to the miami heat. he thus surpassed reggie miller for 20th on the all-time scoring list, passed jamal crawford for sixth on the all-time 3-point field goals made list, became the oldest player to shoot seven 3-pointers, and broke his own record of being the oldest player to score 20+ points in a game at 42 years old. on march 31, against the milwaukee bucks, carter passed karl malone for fifth place on the all-time games played list with his 1,477th game.
vince carter