Opening week in the 2025-2026 NBA season was overshadowed by high-profile arrests and allegations of illegal gambling. But what doesn’t always make headlines is the strong contingent of Christians who play professional basketball. Previously, ChurchLeaders has featured faith-filled NBA players including Steph Curry, Jonathan Isaac, and Tyrese Haliburton.
The inventor of basketball would be pleased to hear about modern-day players who glorify God. James Naismith (1861-1939) was a seminary graduate and chaplain seeking to combine physical activity with Christian formation. His game—which started with two peach baskets, one soccer ball, and 13 rules—was intended to shape godly character.
James Naismith Merged Sports & Faith
In “The Spirit of the Game: American Christianity and Big-Time Sports,” Paul Putz explained that Naismith’s goal at the YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, was to “win men for the Master through the gym.” As Naismith invented basketball in 1891, the new “Muscular Christianity” concept was rejecting the popular notion that sports was a distraction or even a tool of Satan.
RELATED: 9 NBA Players Who Boldly Share Their Christian Faith
Muscular Christianity “pushed back against the dualism that separated the spiritual and physical,” Putz wrote. Proponents believed that “the body itself had sacred value…and human beings should be understood holistically—mind, body, and soul intertwined.”
In 2023, Putz gave a talk at Baylor University’s Truett Seminary titled “Jesus and James Naismith: The Christian History of Basketball and Its Lessons for the Church Today.” Someone sent a link of that talk to Jim Naismith, the last surviving grandson of basketball’s inventor. That led to an invitation for Jim and his wife to visit the seminary’s Faith & Sports Institute.
The Naismiths met members of Baylor’s athletics staff, including men’s basketball coach Scott Drew, known for his culture of J.O.Y. (Jesus, Others, Yourself).
Putz was moved by the opportunity to meet James Naismith’s descendants—and to hear their “heart for the sport,” he said. “Basketball was created at a Christian institution and inspired by spiritual values,” Putz added, “but the beautiful thing about the game is that it is for everyone.”
More than a century after Naismith first nailed those peach baskets, his vision of sport as a tool for faith formation lives on. Today’s NBA still features players who see basketball as ministry and their platform as a pulpit.
8 Christian NBA Players Who Proclaim Their Faith
Here are 8 current Christian NBA players who have a heart for basketball and for Jesus.
1. VJ Edgecombe
NBA rookie V.J. Edgecombe benefited from Coach Scott Drew’s J.O.Y. culture at Baylor. After one season there, the shooting guard was drafted third overall this June by the Philadelphia 76ers.
In his first pro game on Wednesday (Oct. 22), Edgecombe scored 34 points—the most in a rookie debut since Wilt Chamberlain in 1959. “This is my dream,” he told reporters afterward. “I prayed for this.”
Edgecombe grew up in the Bahamas, where his family lived off a generator for seven years. His message to young people who face tough obstacles? “If you have faith in yourself and in the Lord,” he said, “I promise you, you’re going to be just fine.”
Edgecombe, 20, lists “Christ follower” in his Instagram bio. He hopes to have a lengthy basketball career but said he knows that “basketball is going to stop” at some point. “How I’m going to approach life after that, I just want to be the best man I can be,” said Edgecombe. “I just want to stay connected to God.”
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