This is a list of oldest and youngest National Basketball Association players. The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a men's professional basketball league in North America. The NBA was founded in 1946 as the Basketball Association of America (BAA). The league adopted its current name at the start of the 1949–50 season when it merged with the National Basketball League (NBL).
The oldest person ever to play in the NBA was Nat Hickey, a coach who activated himself as a player for a game two days before his 46th birthday. The youngest player ever to play in the NBA was Andrew Bynum, who played his first game six days after his 18th birthday. The oldest active player is Memphis Grizzlies guard/forward Vince Carter, who is currently 40 years old. The youngest active player in the NBA is Phoenix Suns forward/center Dragan Bender, the fourth pick in the 2016 NBA draft, who is currently 19 years old.
The oldest player ever to play in the NBA was Nat Hickey who played one game in the 1947–48 season when he was 45 years and 363 days old. Hickey, who was coaching the Providence Steamrollers at the time, decided to activate himself and played in a game for the Steamrollers. In his first and only game as a player for the Steamrollers, he missed all six of his shot attempts and only scored two points from three free throw attempts. The second oldest player is Kevin Willis. Willis, who had played 20 seasons (excluding the 1988–89 season he missed due to injury) in the league before he sat out the 2005–06 season and earned a contract with the Dallas Mavericks on April 2, 2007. He then played 5 games for the Mavericks at the age of 44. The third oldest player is Hall of Famer Robert Parish. Parish, who starred with the Boston Celtics in the 1980s, played his last season with the Chicago Bulls at the age of 43. He played in 1,611 regular season games during his 21-year career, more than any other player in NBA history. When the Bulls won the 1997 Finals, Parish became the oldest player ever to win the NBA championship. There are currently 25 players who played in the NBA after they turned 40.