Mine was Glenn Robinson. I remember playing NBA Live 2002 when I was real young (born in the mid 90s). I just thought it was really cool how the announcers in the game would refer to him as Big Dog. Also, he was really good at dunks in the game if I recall correctly. I think I even had his jersey in a really small kids size.
Glenn Robinson was what got me into basketball. I knew the Bucks won the lottery and I knew Glenn was basically touted as a sure fire hall of famer. All I could think was, “Wow, a team in Milwaukee is going to have the next Jordan! I need to start watching this team!”
And that seems dumb with hindsight but he absolutely dominated college basketball. He averaged 30 and 10 his junior year, 58%ts. Turns out I’m not sure he cared enough to ever really be great.
Also, fuck that guy because he was convicted of domestic abuse. So I don’t like him at all now, but he was the first person to get me to care about basketball and I’ve been hooked ever since.
To be fair, he averaged 20+ points most of his career, and that was when scoring was much lower than it is today. He just never really evolved beyond his really good rookie year statistically.