William Warren "Bill" Bradley (born July 28, 1943) is an American hall of fame basketball player, Rhodes scholar, and former three-term Democratic U .S . Senator from New Jersey . He ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic Party's nomination for President in the 2000 election . While at Oxford, Bradley played one season of professional basketball in Europe, and eventually decided to join the New York Knicks in the 1967–68 season, after serving six months in the Air Force Reserve . He spent his entire ten-year professional basketball career playing for the Knicks, winning two championship titles . Retiring in 1977, he ran for a seat in the United States Senate the following year, from his adopted home state of New Jersey, winning in his first try at elective office . He was re-elected in 1984 and 1990, and declined to run again when his third term expired, leaving the Senate in 1997 . He began working on a campaign for the 2000 presidential election, announcing his candidacy in mid-1999 . When he did not secure the Democratic nomination, he supported Al Gore's candidacy, and declined to run again for the Senate in 2002 . Considered the top high school player in the country, Bradley initially chose to attend Duke University in the fall of 1961 . However, after breaking his foot in the summer of 1961 during a baseball game and thinking about his college decision outside of basketball, he decided to enroll at Princeton University instead . He had been awarded a scholarship at Duke, but not at Princeton (the Ivy League does not allow its members to award athletic scholarships) . In his freshman year at Princeton, Bradley averaged more than 30 points per game for the freshman team, and at one point during his freshman season, he made 57 consecutive free throws . The following year, as a sophomore, he was a varsity starter, in Butch van Breda Kolff's first year as the Princeton coach . .