Okay, so the other day, I got this random thought stuck in my head: which NBA players are actually Jehovah’s Witnesses? It just popped in there, maybe I heard someone mention it somewhere, or maybe I was just thinking about athletes and different walks of life. You know how the mind wanders.
Anyway, I decided to actually look into it. My first step, like most folks, was just hitting up the search engines. I typed in a few things, like “NBA players Jehovah’s Witnesses”, “famous Jehovah’s Witness athletes”, that kind of stuff.
What came back was… well, a mix. Lots of forum posts, old articles, people debating back and forth. It wasn’t as straightforward as I thought it might be. You see a few names pop up repeatedly, but then you try to pin down if it’s really true, and it gets tricky.
Digging a Bit Deeper
So, I started trying to sort through the noise. I looked for interviews where players might have mentioned their faith, or maybe articles from more reputable sports news sites, not just random fan forums. It’s tough because religion is a pretty personal thing, right? Not everyone’s going to broadcast it.
The names I saw most often were:
- Danny Granger: This one seemed pretty solid. Lots of sources mention him being raised as a Witness, and I think I remember reading about his family background being connected to the faith.
- Darren Collison: This was a big one. The guy literally retired from the NBA pretty abruptly, specifically saying he wanted to focus more on his faith and family, and his faith is Jehovah’s Witness. That’s about as clear cut as it gets. He even came back later, but his initial retirement reason was widely reported.
Beyond those two, things got fuzzier. I saw mentions of maybe some older players, guys like Donyell Marshall maybe? But finding solid confirmation, like an interview or a direct statement, was harder. A lot of it felt like speculation or “I heard from someone who heard…” type stuff. You gotta be careful with that.
What I Found (or Didn’t Find)
So, the process wasn’t super simple. You start with a basic question, you do some searching, you find some leads, and then you try to verify. Verification is the key part, and honestly, it’s the hardest part for something like this.
It seems like Danny Granger and Darren Collison are the most well-documented cases of NBA players associated with being Jehovah’s Witnesses. Collison’s retirement reason makes his situation pretty public knowledge in the basketball world. Granger seems widely acknowledged as coming from that background.
For others? It’s mostly guesswork or rumors, from what I could gather. It’s not a long list, which also got me thinking. The demands of being a pro athlete – the travel, the games on holidays or weekends, the whole lifestyle – might be challenging to balance with the commitments often associated with being an active Jehovah’s Witness. Maybe that’s why there aren’t more publicly known examples? Just a thought.
Ultimately, my little search mission showed me that while a couple of names are frequently and credibly linked, getting a definitive list is basically impossible. People’s faith is their own business, and unless they choose to share it openly and publicly, we’re often just left guessing. It was an interesting rabbit hole to go down for an afternoon, though!
