Norm Van Lier is among the players born on April 1.
With over 5,000 players in NBA history, at least one player was born on every day of the calendar year – including four leap day ballers. Our day-by-day breakdown of the players born on each day of the year continues.
Below are the most notable NBA players born on April 1.
Norm Van Lier (1947)
“Stormin’ Norman” was one of the best defensive players in the NBA during his era. It all started when he was selected 34th overall in the 1969 NBA Draft by the Chicago Bulls. He was traded to the Cincinnati Royals before the season began but was traded back to the Bulls in November 1971. Van Lier was clearly on the Bulls’ radar after leading the league with 10.1 assists in his final year with the Royals.
Van Lier went on to make three All-Star appearances with the Bulls over the next seven seasons, receiving MVP votes in four of those. Van Lier was also an eight-time All-Defensive Team selection, averaging 1.8 steals throughout his career. The defensive stud closed his professional tenure with one season in Milwaukee before officially retiring in 1979. Van Lier averaged 11.8 points, 4.8 rebounds, 7.0 assists and 1.8 steals throughout his 10-year career.
Mark Jackson (1965)
Jackson is a true basketball lifer who had an impressive 17-year career in the league before coaching the Warriors and later carving out an impressive broadcasting career. The St. John’s product stayed in New York to start his career after being picked in the first round of the 1987 draft by the Knicks. Jackson won the Rookie of the Year and was an All-Star the following season.
After five years with the Knicks, Jackson had stints with the Clippers, Pacers, Nuggets, Raptors, Jazz and Rockets. He was a key part of some highly successful Pacers teams in the late 1990s and early 2000s, including the one that made the 2000 NBA Finals against the Lakers.
Brook Lopez (1988)
Lopez was the 10th overall pick in the 2008 NBA Draft by the New Jersey Nets. He finished third in Rookie of the Year voting in his debut season and then made his one and only All-Star appearance in 2013. The big man spent his first nine seasons playing for the Nets, leading the franchise with 10,444 career points, without hitting a 3-pointer until his final season in Brooklyn in 2015-16, a year before joining the Los Angeles Lakers in 2017.
Lopez quickly became one of the best seven-foot shooters in NBA history, averaging 1.7 threes and 1.9 blocks per game over the last nine years. There haven’t been many players in NBA history with that type of skill set, doing most of that damage with the Milwaukee Bucks from 2018 to 2025.
Want to see every NBA player born on April 1? Here is the rest of the list in chronological order:
- Bobby Cook (1923)
- Norm Van Lier (1947)
- Gene Williams (1947)
- Tim Bassett (1951)
- James Wilkes (1958)
- Ken Bannister (1960)
- Kevin Duckworth (1964)
- Mark Jackson (1965)
- Etan Thomas (1978)
- Atonis Fotsis (1981)
- Erik Daniels (1982)
- Gustavo Ayon (1985)
- Brook Lopez (1988)
- Robin Lopez (1988)
- Justin Hamilton (1990)
- Mitchell Robinson (1998)
