Sports Envoy
Sports Envoy Program

Sport: Basketball

Bo Outlaw

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2011  –  Democratic Republic of Congo
  • 2015  –  Poland

Charles “Bo” Outlaw (born April 13, 1971) is a retired American professional basketball player. Outlaw was known for his athleticism, tenacious defensive approach and sub-par free-throw shooting (.521 for his career).

He was born in San Antonio, Texas, and is a 1989 alumnus of John Jay High School, where he led the Mustangs to the Texas state finals before they were defeated by Houston Clear Lake High School.

Outlaw played for South Plains College and the University of Houston. During his time in Houston, he averaged 14.0 ppg., 9.1 rpg., and led NCAA Division I with a field goal percentage of .684. In 1993 he declared eligibility for the NBA draft but was not selected.

Outlaw began his professional career in the CBA, where he averaged a league-leading 3.8 blocks per game in the half-season he played for the Grand Rapids Hoops.

On February 15, 1994, Outlaw began his NBA career with the Los Angeles Clippers, recording 13 points and 7 rebounds in a 100-89 win over the Los Angeles Lakers. He played three full seasons for the Clippers, who made the playoffs in 1997 but were defeated by the Utah Jazz in the first round.

Outlaw left Los Angeles as a free agent and signed a two-year deal with the Orlando Magic on September 5, 1997. During Outlaw’s 1997–98 season, he started in 76 of 82 regular season games and recorded what would remain career-high averages in every statistical category except for assists. However, the Magic failed to reach the playoffs in 1998. After Hall of Fame coach Chuck Daly retired and was replaced by Doc Rivers, Outlaw signed another contract with the Magic in the off-season, after which he played two and a half more seasons for the team.

On April 17, 1998, Outlaw recorded 25 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists in a 121-109 win over the New Jersey Nets. After the game, reporters asked him how he felt about his first triple-double, to which Outlaw famously replied “What’s that, some kind of hamburger?”.

Outlaw was released in November 2001 and acquired by the Phoenix Suns. After one and a half seasons with them, Outlaw left for Memphis where he was reunited with former Magic teammate Mike Miller. In 2004, after one season in Memphis, Outlaw returned to Phoenix where he was hampered by nagging injuries and his playing time was restricted by the strength of the team. Accordingly, in the 2005–06 season, he returned to the Magic, appearing in 75 additional games in the course of three seasons. Outlaw was waived in November 2007 after playing 7 minutes over 2 games in the 2007-08 season.
Over his NBA career (914 games) he averaged 5.4 points and 4.9 rebounds. He currently resides in Orlando.

Billy Owens

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2010  –  Malawi

Billy Owens, a 6’9” shooting forward, spent 10 years successful years in the NBA, making stops with the Detroit Pistons, Philadelphia 76ers, Seattle SuperSonics, Sacramento Kings, Miami Heat and Golden State Warriors. He was an unanimous selection to the 1991-92 NBA All-Rookie First Team, averaging 14.3 ppg, 8.0 rpg and 1.13 spg for the Warriors and finished third in Rookie of the Year balloting behind Larry Johnson and Dikembe Mutombo.

He was drafted third overall in the 1991 NBA Draft after a stellar Junior year at Syracuse University. He was named Big-East Player of the year, Consensus All-American and averaged over 20 points per game.

Owens was also a member of the USA national team during the 1990 World Championship, taking home the bronze medal.
The Carlisle, Pennsylvania, native led his hometown to four consecutive Pennsylvania AAA state titles and was considered to be one of the top two prep players in his class alongside Alonzo Mourning.

Alexander English

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2014  –  China
  • 2014  –  South Korea
  • 2015  –  Italy

Alex English was born January 5, 1954 in Columbia, South Carolina. English stayed true to his homegrown roots, starring at local Dreher High School before moving on to play collegiately at the University of South Carolina.

Following his career at South Carolina, English was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks with the 23rd overall pick in the 1976 NBA Draft. During his time in Milwaukee, English learned the game as a backup as the team tried to rebuild following Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s departure. English was traded to the Indiana Pacers in 1978, where he began to show flashes of his scoring ability, averaging 16 points per game. Midway through the 1979-80 season, he was traded once more to the Denver Nuggets where he would solidify his reputation as a prolific scorer. From 1980-1990, his entire tenure with the Nuggets, English averaged 26 points per game, earned 8 All-Star bids, became a 3-time All-NBA Second Team selection, led the league in scoring in 1983 and became the franchises’ all-time leading scorer. To add to the list of impressive feats, English led the Nuggets in scoring in 55% of the games he played for Denver. Following this decade with the Nuggets, he signed with the Dallas Mavericks in 1990, where he would play for one season before finishing his NBA career.

After being away from the game for a few years, English got into coaching, spending one season each with the Philadelphia 76ers and Atlanta Hawks as an assistant coach prior to joining the Toronto Raptors organization. There, he would spend 2004 – 2011 as the Director of Player Development and as an assistant coach. In the summer of 2011, English finished with the Raptors and spent one season with the Sacramento Kings.

Adonal Foyle

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2014  –  Morocco
  • 2014  –  Spain

Adonal Foyle is a retired NBA player, who was the eighth overall pick in the 1997 NBA draft. He played a total of 13 seasons, the first ten with the Golden State Warriors and last three with the Orlando Magic. Upon his retirement from playing professional basketball, Adonal served for 2 seasons with the Orlando Magic as their Director of Player Development. A published author, national speaker, and consultant, Adonal currently serves as the Community Ambassador for the World Champion Golden State Warriors.

Despite being recruited by several top basketball colleges, Adonal made the unorthodox decision to attend Colgate University, a small liberal arts college in upstate New York. A major factor in this decision was his desire to leave college with a strong academic grounding. At Colgate, he set an NCAA record with 492 career blocks which was only broken in 2002. Although he left Colgate early to join the NBA, he maintained his commitment to education and graduated in 1999.

During his NBA playing days, Adonal was a defensive specialist, collecting over 3,400 rebounds, and bringing toughness and tenacity to every game. He holds the Warriors franchise record for blocked shots at 1,140. He was a member of the 2009 Eastern Conference Champion Orlando Magic.

Adonal has received many honors, including induction into the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame, and the CoSIDA Academic All-America Hall of Fame, NBA Players Association Community Contribution All-Star Award, Social Change Agent (Greenlining Institute), NBA Community Assist Awards (multiple years) and named Runner Up Central Floridian of the Year by the Orlando Sentinel in 2010. He has also been appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador for St. Vincent & the Grenadines and has been honored with his own national postage stamp.

Abdel Nader

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2020  –  Virtual

Abdel Nader is an Egyptian-American professional basketball player for the Oklahoma City Thunder of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nader was born in Alexandria, Egyptin 1993.Nader moved with his family to the United States at the age of 3 to Skokie, Illinois. He speaks fluent Arabic. He majored in liberal studies at Iowa State University. He played college basketball for the Northern Illinois Huskies and the Iowa State Cyclones before being drafted by the Boston Celtics with the 58th overall pick in the 2016 NBA draft. On July 14,2017, Nader agreed to a 4-year, $6M deal with the Celtics. He made his NBA debut on October 18 against the Milwaukee Bucks. On July 23, 2018, Nader was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for Rodney Purvis. Oklahoma City also received cash considerations in the deal. On November 28, 2019, Nader scored his career-high 23 points with two rebounds in a 136–119 loss against the Portland Trail Blazers.