How to sort a pandas dataframe by a custom order on a string index

Just reindex

df.reindex(reorderlist)
Out[89]: 
                 Age   G   Tm  Year     id
Player                                    
Maurice Baker     25   7  VAN  2004   5335
Adrian Caldwell   31  81  DAL  1997   6169
Ratko Varda       22  60  TOT  2001  13950
Ryan Bowen        34  52  OKC  2009   6141
Cedric Hunter     27   6  CHH  1991   2967

Update info you have multiple players with same name

out = df.iloc[pd.Categorical(df.index,reorderlist).argsort()]