James Worthy

James Worthy is the rare star whose nickname tells the whole story. "Big Game James" wasn't marketing; it was a description of a man who saved his best for the biggest stages, capped by that 1988 Finals MVP run. Spending his entire career with the Lakers during the Showtime era, he chose loyalty and team success over individual spotlight, and three championships vindicated that choice. What I love about his game is how a 206 cm forward could move with such grace in the open court. He represents an old-fashioned ideal of basketball excellence that I find quietly heroic.

Name (English)

James Worthy

Name (Japanese)

ジェームズ・ウォージー

Reading

じぇーむず・うぉーじー

Born

February 27, 1961 (age 65)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Pisces / Ox

Origin

Gastonia, North Carolina, United States

Height

206 cm

Occupation

basketball player

High school

Ashbrook High School

University

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Awards & achievements

• 1983 NBA All-Rookie Team
• 1990 All-NBA Team
• 1991 All-NBA Team
• 1988 Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award
• 1997 North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame

• Official sitehttp://www.jamesworthy42.com/
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James%20Worthy
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B8%E3%82%A7%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A0%E3%82%BA%E3%83%BB%E3%82%A6%E3%82%A9%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B8%E3%83%BC
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q362872

Tags

• North Carolina
• basketball player

Last updated

2026-06-17

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.