It's supposedly the worst birthday a kid could have (combined presents!), but these guys focused that childhood disappointment into a pro basketball future.
1) Eric Gordon (1988)
Born and raised in Indianapolis, Gordon fell in love with the game of basketball at an early age. He would spend countless hours playing pick-up ball at a local Jewish Community Center, and he returned to that facility in 2008 to announce that he was departing Indiana University for the NBA Draft. Drafted seventh overall by the Clippers, Gordon was 2nd-Team All-Rookie, but hampered by injuries over the next few seasons causing him to miss extensive time. Right before his birthday in 2011, Gordon was traded by the Clippers to New Orleans, as a centerpiece of the blockbuster Chris Paul deal. After several injury plagued seasons with the Hornets, Gordon finally came into his own as an elite bench scorer for the Rockets, winning Sixth Man of the Year in ’16-’17, and helping them almost reach the NBA Finals in 2018. He’s the only player on this list to actually play in an NBA game on his birthday and he’s done it twice, as a member of the Clippers in 2009 and again as a member of the Rockets in 2017 (with a third scheduled appearance with the Rockets again this year).
2) Brett Vroman (1955)
Born and raised in Indianapolis, Gordon fell in love with the game of basketball at an early age. He would spend countless hours playing pick-up ball at a local Jewish Community Center, and he returned to that facility in 2008 to announce that he was departing Indiana University for the NBA Draft. Drafted seventh overall by the Clippers, Gordon was 2nd-Team All-Rookie, but hampered by injuries over the next few seasons causing him to miss extensive time. Right before his birthday in 2011, Gordon was traded by the Clippers to New Orleans, as a centerpiece of the blockbuster Chris Paul deal. After several injury plagued seasons with the Hornets, Gordon finally came into his own as an elite bench scorer for the Rockets, winning Sixth Man of the Year in ’16-’17, and helping them almost reach the NBA Finals in 2018. He’s the only player on this list to actually play in an NBA game on his birthday and he’s done it twice, as a member of the Clippers in 2009 and again as a member of the Rockets in 2017 (with a third scheduled appearance with the Rockets again this year).
2) Brett Vroman (1955)
One of the few players John Wooden ever personally recruited, Vroman and his family in Provo, Utah got a visit from the legendary coach who was looking to snag a replacement for Bill Walton at UCLA in 1974. Originally born in Los Angeles, the seven-footer was convinced to return to the city for college, and was part of Wooden’s final national championship team in 1975. Vroman eventually transferred to UNLV to play for Jerry Tarkanian, who would later claim that Vroman drove to Las Vegas in a car that UCLA had paid for illegally. He was eventually a fourth round pick of the 76ers in 1978, but couldn’t make the roster for the regular season. He signed with the Jazz in 1980 and made 11 appearances, averaging just 3.1 points and 2.3 rebounds per game. Those 11 games would ultimately comprise Vroman’s entire NBA tenure, as he spent the rest of his career in Europe. His son, Jackson, was born in June of 1981 and lasted a bit longer in the NBA, playing 87 total games for the Suns and Hornets.
3) Wilbert Robinson (1949)
In a small town called Uniontown, on the border of Pennsylvania and West Virginia, Robinson was a revelation in high school, leading the Laurel Highlands Mustangs to the 1968 state title. He chose to attend West Virginia (the campus was just 30 miles from Uniontown) and racked up 29.4 points per game his senior year, which is still a single-season school record (it had previously been held by Jerry West). Though he dropped to the fourth round of the 1972 NBA Draft, Robinson was so confident in making the Houston roster that he was even thrown a congratulatory party by star point guard Calvin Murphy. But the Rockets had a surplus of guards already, including Murphy, and Robinson was cut right before the season began. He signed a three year contract with the Pittsburgh Condors of the ABA, who then folded before he could take the court. Robinson finally got a chance to play pro ball with another ABA franchise, the Memphis Tams, averaging 8.6 points per game off the bench in the ’73-’74 season. When the Tams then folded that summer, Robinson decided he was finished with the capricious world of pro basketball, and retired to return home to West Virginia. He was inducted into the West Virginia sports hall of fame in 1997, and in 2010 ESPN placed him on the West Virginia University All-Time team, in the back court with West.
4) Chris Richard (1984)
Named "Mr. Florida" his senior season at Kathleen High School in the Tampa Bay area, Richard received the award one year after it had been bestowed on his prep rival Amare Stoudemire. Though he was one of the top power forward prospects in the country and could have started immediately for most schools, Richard accepted a sixth man role to stay close to home and attend Florida. Providing rebounding, defense, and boundless energy off the bench behind Al Horford and Joakim Noah, Richard helped the Gators to back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007. He won the SEC Sixth Man of the Year award for his efforts, and was selected in the second round of the 2007 Draft, long after his college teammates Noah, Horford, and Corey Brewer had been taken off the board as lottery picks. Richard made appearances in 52 games his rookie season, even starting three, but was waived by Minnesota in 2008. He eventually signed with the Bulls in 2010, where he helped fill in for an injured Noah, and even earned some postseason playing time in a first round loss to Cleveland. After being cut by the Bulls and spending a year playing for the sublimely named Liaoning Dinosaurs in China, Richard retired from basketball in 2012 and returned his hometown of Lakeland, where he started a non-profit called The Rich Kids Project to mentor at-risk youth.
5) Leo Kubiak (1929)
Though his NBA career was brief, it was entirely spent as one of the best players on a team that’s an interesting footnote in NBA history. The Waterloo Hawks were, and likely will forever be, the only NBA team in the state of Iowa, and Kubiak was their fourth-leading scorer for the ’49-’50 season, with 11.5 points per game. An expansion team in the final year of the NBL, the Hawks were an unlikely inclusion in the 1949 merger with the BAA that spawned the NBA. They finished 19-43 in their one and only NBA season, the second worst record in the league, and were one of two teams to get dropped from the NBA in the ensuing offseason (along with the Sheboygan Red Skins, a fellow NBL transfer). A 5”11’ point guard with a solid set shot, Kubiak was a star at Bowling Green (he was the school’s first player to be drafted by the NBA), and finished in the top ten in free throw percentage in his one NBA season (at 81.4%). He was actually taken in the 1948 NBA Draft by the Rochester Royals, but opted to sign a bigger contract in the NBL with Waterloo. Owner Pinkie George (who was also the founder of the National Wrestling Alliance, the first major American pro wrestling league) took the Hawks from the NBA to the newly formed NBPL in 1950, but the league lasted only one season with a de facto co-title handed to the Hawks and Red Skins. Kubiak was actually traded from the Hawks to a different NBPL franchise for that season, the Denver Refiners. In addition to playing professional basketball, Kubiak also spent some time in minor league baseball with the Green Bay Bluejays of the Wisconsin State League.
6) Bernie Fryer (1949)
He’s mostly remembered now for his three decades plus career as an NBA official, but Fryer was once a legendary player at BYU, and spent two seasons in the NBA and ABA. Born in Port Angeles, Washington (also the birthplace of John Elway and Raymond Carver), Fryer initially stayed in his hometown to play junior college ball at Peninsula College before eventually transferring to BYU. He was an All-WAC selection three times as a Cougar, and led the team in scoring in ’70-’71. Selected in the far reaches of the 1972 NBA Draft by Phoenix, Fryer eventually made his debut for Portland, averaging 7.0 points and 3.5 assists per game in the ’73-’74 season. He made later stops with the Utah Jazz (where he was buried deep behind Pete Maravich on the depth chart) and the Spirits of St. Louis of the ABA before quitting as a player to become a ref. His officiating career spanned over 1,700 games, including several NBA Finals, but as is often the case with referees, his most notable moment was an infamous one. In a 2002 playoff game between the Hornets and Magic, Fyer disallowed a game-winning three-pointer by Baron Davis, stating that he didn’t get the shot off in time, despite replays showing the contrary. Luckily for Fryer (a late Christmas/birthday present?) and the NBA, the Hornets ended up winning that game in overtime, rendering the call moot. However, it did inspire David Stern to finally push the league to institute instant replay reviews the next season. After 29 years as a referee, Fryer retired in 2007 and became the league’s Director and Vice President of Officiating.
7) Jimmie Baker (1953)
A true cautionary tale of the pitfalls of the pro basketball lifestyle in the '70s, Baker was one of so many promising players in the decade that had his career cut short by substance abuse. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Baker was a high school star at Olney, and then at UNLV, where the power forward still holds the school records for rebounds per game in a single season and a career. But in addition to racking up rebounds, Baker was also developing a dependency on alcohol and cocaine, and he was hopeful that a 1974 to transfer to Hawaii would clear his head and get his career back on track. (Baker’s transfer from UNLV to Hawaii is generally regarded as the first “trade” in NCAA basketball history, as Boyd Batts transferred in return. It’s hard to tell what really happened, and if it was at all sanctioned by the NCAA, as the top source of information about this transaction was the notorious fabulist Jerry Tarkanian. Tarkanian also once called Baker the most talented player he coached before Larry Johnson, but “goofy”). He had a strong senior season with the Rainbows, but was already seen as damaged goods by the conservative NBA and dropped to the third round of the 1975 Draft. After just missing out on making the 76ers roster for the ’75-’76 season, Baker signed a contract with the Kentucky Colonels, but lasted just five games in the ABA before a knee injury that required surgery. He returned to Hawaii, hoping to rehab his knee and return strong the next season, but instead Baker slipped into a spiral of drug and alcohol abuse. Things went from bad to worse on the day before his 24th birthday, Christmas Eve of 1977, when Baker was assaulted, leaving him with a broken neck and an arm that had to be amputated. The accident and subsequent medication exacerbated Baker’s drug dependency, but he did eventually clean up and kick the habit, and is now back in his native Philadelphia, working as an addiction counselor. His son, Isaiah, was a stand-out high school basketball star that went on to play for Holy Cross.