page_title: List of oldest and youngest National Basketball Association players
section_title: Oldest players
hierarchical_section_title: List of oldest and youngest National Basketball Association players / Oldest players
caption_attribution_description: English: Boston Celtics great Robert Parish
context_page_description: This is a list of oldest and youngest National Basketball Association players. The National Basketball Association is a men's professional basketball league in North America. The NBA was founded in 1946 as the Basketball Association of America. The league adopted its current name at the start of the 1949–50 season when it merged with the National Basketball League.
  The oldest person ever to play in the NBA was Nat Hickey, a coach who activated himself as a player for a game two days before his 46th birthday. The youngest player ever to play in the NBA was Andrew Bynum, who played his first game only six days after his 18th birthday. The oldest active player is Brooklyn Nets shooting guard Jamal Crawford, who is currently 40 years old. The youngest active player in the NBA is Detroit Pistons forward Sekou Doumbouya, the 15th overall pick in the 2019 NBA draft, who is currently 19 years old and was born on December 23, 2000.
context_section_description: 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.
  The oldest active player is Jamal Crawford, who is now 40 years old. Crawford played his first game in the 2000 season and is playing his 20th season. Crawford and Miami Heat power forward Udonis Haslem are the only players who were born in 1980 and who are still active and under contract with an NBA team.
caption: Robert Parish is the third-oldest player to ever play in the NBA
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