For years, Sonia Raman thought coaching was just a hobby. Her choice to follow that passion led her to make basketball history.Raman worked in the N.B.A. before becoming the head coach of the Seattle Storm.

A four-time All-Star, he dazzled fans, and fellow players, with his intense play for the New York Knicks, only to become the league’s first player to be barred for drug use.Michael Ray Richardson as a New York Knick around 1980 in a game against the Washington Bullets in Landover, Md.

The journeyman played for eight N.B.A. teams and won one championship. But he is best known for a brief stretch on the Knicks where he electrified fans and the nation.Jeremy Lin, center, flanked by Steve Blake, left, and Andrew Bynum of the Lakers, when the Knicks’ sensation scored 38 points in 2012.