A website devoted to the noble purpose of identifying every NBA player with a cat has resurfaced and is slowly but surely gaining steam.
NBAcatwatch.com and the corresponding Twitter account, @NBAcatwatch, has become quite active the past few weeks. The site has even added one more player, Golden State Warriors forward James Michael McAdoo, to its list of confirmed cat owners.
@NBAcatwatch we do! We rescued Macy our junior year of college pic.twitter.com/ynLRS6gAac
— Lauren McAdoo (@lo_mcadoo) June 20, 2015
McAdoo joins Nik Stauskas, Alexey Shved and a handful of others players who are also feline owners. Not surprisingly, both the quirky Lopez brothers care for a curiously named cat. Brook, the Brooklyn Nets center, has Poup. His brother, Robin, has Prince Edward Zephyr.
For what it's worth, lots of people associated with the NBA have cats. Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadive is one:
BREAKING: Sacramento Kings owner @Vivek Ranadivé owns two cats. via: @anjalidea | https://t.co/eSPPfB8sm5
— NBA CATWATCH (@NBAcatwatch) October 24, 2013
Still, the list of players who own cats remains relatively small. In fact, the list of NBA players who are scared of cats is nearly as long and much more notable. Carmelo Anthony, Eric Bledsoe, Draymond Green, Zach Randolph are all afraid of cats.
To compile the list, the feline fanatic behind the website has put in lots of detective work:
@NBAcatwatch not to my knowledge and I am terrified of cats.
— Deshawn Sims (@Peedi3416) October 6, 2013
BREAKING: The Gordon family owns two cats! That's 4 total family cats in the first 4 picks of the 2014 NBA draft! | https://t.co/KTDywtNbUw
— NBA CATWATCH (@NBAcatwatch) July 14, 2014
As for the future, it's unclear how many players in this year's NBA draft are cat owners. Jahlil Okafor, who will likely be one of the top picks Thursday, has said that he wants to be a veterinarian but has given no indication that he likes cats. Sam Dekker, the former Wisconsin forward who is also likely to be drafted Thursday, has been spotted with cats but has not confirmed ownership:
At this point, it seems safe to say there will be more Wildcats (as in, those from Arizona and Kentucky) entering the NBA than there will be cat owners.
(Hat tip to Deadspin)