###### Abstract  
Concerns have been raised recently by players' associations regarding the risk of death among retired players. Using a retrospective cohort study, we analyzed factors associated with the mortality of National Basketball Association (NBA) players and compared their life expectancy with that of the general population. We analyzed a cohort of 3985 players who participated in the NBA from its inception in 1946 to April 2015 (481 active and 3504 former players). We used the data for the 3504 former NBA players, of whom 687 (19.1%) died before 15 April 2015, to study the elapsed time between the end of their NBA careers until death. Cox proportional hazards models were employed in the multivariate survival analysis. After adjusting for age at the end of the NBA career and calendar year, we found that mortality is associated with height and ethnicity. Taller players and African-American players had a higher instantaneous risk of death than shorter players or white players. In addition, the life expectancy of players (regardless of height and ethnicity) has increased since the inception of the NBA. This is one of the first studies using such an extensive cohort of professional basketball players and Cox proportional hazards models. Results confirmed that height is associated with mortality. In addition, ethnicity is also linked to mortality; white players and small players live longer. Our study is useful for devising strategies for health interventions and the proper allocation of resources with respect to the general population. prevention; survival analysis; basketball; mortality; NBA; sports medicine 2019 9 500 (); doi:10.3390/app90305  
professional leagues [1; 2], and other studies have focused on the longevity and life expectancy (LE) of elite athletes [3; 4; 5; 6]. Shortly after the 50 th anniversary of the NBA, in 1996, a study was carried out to analyze mortality among NBA players [7] between 1946 and 1994, covering 2810 players, of whom 175 had died. Professional basketball players have had favorable mortality rates, despite adverse publicity following the (early) death of a very small number of players [7]. African-American players were shown to live nine years longer than their reference population group, and longer than white men in the general public [8]. Additionally, white NBA players live longer than the white US population, and longer than African-American players. However, the literature also shows that basketball players may be at special risk of some fatal diseases. The incidence of sports-related sudden cardiac death (SCD) in the United States is highest among basketball players, and the most common cause of SCD in this population is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy [9]. In addition, research on the relationship between mortality and height has shown that height is positively associated with increased risk of cancer [10; 11; 12] and lower LE [6; 13]. Moreover, height is positively associated with risk of venous thromboembolism [14], and professional basketball players have a higher risk of pulmonary embolism [15]. In recent years, there has been media concern about the early mortality of former NBA players [2; 16; 17], with numerous deaths in 2015 of well-known ex-professional basketball players before the age of 60 years. For instance, [PERSON] (aged 60 years), [PERSON] (58), [PERSON] (52), [PERSON] (51), [PERSON] (50), and [PERSON] (48) died between February and September of 2015. All of these players shared three similar features: They were >2 m tall, had had had a long NBA career, and had died from a heart/circulatory system-related event. Some former players made public comments about this issue [16], such as [PERSON] (2.06 m; \"I tell my wife all the time: You don't see many 7-footers (2.13 m) walking around at the age of 75\") and [PERSON] (2.11 m; \"We athletes are our own worst enemies. We don't listen to our bodies, we don't listen to our doctors. We don't realize until later in life that health is everything\").