Michael "Sugar" Ray Richardson is a former NBA player for the New York Knicks, Golden State Warriors, and New Jersey Nets. A former All-Star, he is (in)famously known as being the first basketball player to be banned for life from the league for numerous substance abuse violations. Though he was reinstated two years later, Richardson would go on to have a stellar career overseas, playing in such countries as Italy, Croatia, and France. Currently residing in Oklahoma, Richardson now hosts youth basketball programs with former teammate and longtime friend Otis Birdsong. 

Jake Uitti's work has appeared in Vanity Fair, the Guardian, Interview, the Nation, the Athletic, and numerous other publications. A Seattle-based writer, Jake has loved and followed the NBA since the early 1990s. Once humorously dubbed "the best under six-foot center in the country," his playing career didn't last past his high school days, but that's when writing took over. The co-author of Muggsy and Earl the Twirl, Banned is his third NBA memoir. Uitti resides in Seattle, Washington, with his beautiful and brilliant wife Eva.