Top 5 NBA players who served in the military

#3 George Yardley

60 Years Ago Today: This Date in @NBAHistory March 9, 1958: George Yardley of the @DetroitPistons became the first NBA player to score 2,000 points in a single season. Yardley broke the previous single-season record held by @Lakers George Mikan (1,932 points; 1950-51) pic.twitter.com/d0cqUNiNT3

— NBA History (@NBAHistory) March 9, 2018

George Yardley is an NBA Hall of Fame player. He played in the league for seven seasons. Yardley was a small forward and an offensive genius. He is the first player in the league to ever score 2000 points in a season.

Yardley served in the United States Navy straight out of Stanford in 1950. He would go on to serve for two years. He continued to play basketball during his time with the naval force and even won a national AAU championship.

While in the NBA, George, nicknamed "the Bird", played with the Fort Wayne Pistons for four seasons. The team would then move to Detroit to become the Detroit Pistons and also take Yardley along.

#2 Bill Bradley

The former New York Knicks player enjoyed success wherever he went. Before playing in the NBA, the 6'5" small forward studied at Princeton and Oxford. He was also a Rhodes scholar. With his gifted mind, he could have succeeded in any career but his first love was basketball and so he played in the league for ten long years.

But before joining the NBA, Bill served with the US Air Force Reserve for a brief period. He was drafted by the Knicks in 1965 but played his first match for the team in 1967. In his 742 career games, he averaged 12.4 points, 3.4 assists and 3.2 rebounds per game. He won the ring twice in his career and also appeared in an All-Star game.

#1 Elgin Baylor

Elgin Baylor speaks at the Sports Spectacular 2013

If we consider the list of the best scorers in the history of the NBA based on points per game, Elgin Baylor stands third, only behind Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain. His career average of 27.4 points per game still stands unbeaten by any current player. The most awe-inspiring factor of Baylor's scoring genius lies in the fact that he did all of this before the existence of the three-point line.

In Game 5 of the 1962 Finals, Elgin Baylor put the Lakers up 3-2 in the series by scoring 61(!) points.Back up against the wall, Bill Russell pulled the Celtics through with 19pts/24reb/10ast in Game 6 and 30pts/40reb in Game 7: https://t.co/Z86yoQcRJH

— ProHoopsHistory, PhD (@ProHoopsHistory) August 28, 2021

Despite his scoring and rebounding abilities, where he averaged 13.5 rebounds in his career, the LA Lakers legend never won an NBA championship. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame for his achievements in the league.

Baylor also served in the United States Army while still being an active NBA player. He would play for the Lakers over the weekend and serve at Fort Lewis during the week.