November is one of my favorite months.  Thanksgiving feasts notwithstanding, the greater significance of the 11^th month of the year (at least for me) is the intersection of the college football and basketball seasons.  Taking full advantage, I attended three games in each sport in November.  

Athletics and agriculture seem to go hand in hand. We’ve documented how former football players have turned to farming as hobbies or second careers.  The same can be said for basketball stars when their hoops days are over. In fact, there are some big roundball names of the past now tilling the soil and raising livestock. The entry cost to agriculture is not as daunting for former professional players. Some carry on family traditions, while others build something from scratch. 

The connection seems even more fitting since the inventor of basketball, James Naismith, grew up on a farm. Raised by an uncle in Ontario, Canada, he was assigned farm chores before and after school. He invented the game in 1891 at Springfield College in Massachusetts after being tasked to create an indoor game to keep athletes in shape during winter months.  

Perhaps the most stellar name on agriculture’s basketball roster is former University of Virginia and NBA star Ralph Sampson.  The former center, along with family members, formed an LLC to keep the family farm, located in McGaheysville, Va. Sampson’s maternal grandfather purchased the farm in the 1940s. The USDA reports that it is now providing Sampson with technical assistance to develop the farm into a successful operation, with eventual agritourism in mind. Sampson is working with the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service to learn how farm management impacts the land.  

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Also on basketball’s all-star ag team is Amar'e Stoudamire, a power forward who went directly from high school into the NBA’s 2002 draft. He played for four teams during a 14-year career. Stoudamire now sustainably and ethically raises Black Angus cattle and other livestock on his nearly 200-acre farm in Duchess County, N.Y., according to an article in Barron’s. Stoudamire, who became an Israeli citizen in 2019, has also created Stoudamire Wines, a collection produced in Israel. 

Will Allen, who was the first African American basketball player at the University of Miami in the late 1960s, and had a brief pro career in the ABA, has been a farmer since the early 1990s. An urban farmer who grows organic vegetables in Milwaukee, he also operates Will’s Roadside Farms and Markets. His autobiography, The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People and Communities, was well-received and has been used as a college textbook. More recently, he has developed a line of organic CBD products. 

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Another big man, Bryant “Big Country” Reeves, became a cattle rancher in Oklahoma after his NBA career was cut short by injuries. Reeves, who played at Oklahoma State University, bought a 300-acre ranch following retirement.