NFL Tickets
In honor of #ThrowBackThursday, we decided to take a look at some of the strangest and most interesting NBA facts you probably don’t know.
While these facts go way back into NBA history, its only a matter of time before new players break these records. See history be made in person by getting NBA All-Star Tickets, and ensure that you are there to witness the magic in person (and win that trivia debate!). Read on to learn which All-Star barely made his high school team, who wowed crowds before they could legally vote, and who broke records by breaking backboards.
1. Michael Jordan wasn’t a No. 1 pick in 1984. In fact, he was passed over by the Houston Rockets and the Portland Trail Blazers. The Chicago Bulls finally picked him at No. 3. Charles Barkley went that same year at No. 5 to the Philadelphia 76ers.
2. Muggsy Bogues was just 5’3” and the shortest player to ever play in the NBA , but he was still a first-round pick by the Washington Bullets (12th overall) in the 1987 draft. The best part? During the 1987-88 season, he played with the tallest man to ever appear in the NBA, Manute Bol, who stood at 7’7”. Shortest and tallest ever players on the same team at the same time. It made for some excellent photos.
3. Some do say that Manute Bol was only 7’6” and that the tallest man to ever play in the NBA was Gheorghe Muresan, a Romanian who was 7’7” and who is famous for starring alongside Billy Crystal in the film “My Giant.”
4. Michael Jordan is also one of the most superstitious guys to ever play the game. During his career with the Chicago Bulls, he wore his University of North Carolina shorts under his uniform during every game because he led the Tar Heels to the NCAA Championship in 1982 and thought those shorts brought him luck. In order to hide his lucky shorts, he wore his uniform shorts longer, which inspired the trend we still see today.
5. Before Wilt Chamberlain played in the NBA, he spent one year (1958-59) on the Harlem Globetrotters. He wanted to play ball before he finished his senior year in high school, but at the time, the NBA did not allow players who hadn’t graduated, so that was his way around it. His signature trick was picking 210-pound Meadowlark Lemon up off the ground, throwing him several feet into the air, and catching him. Chamberlain died in 1999 and in March 2000, his No. 13 was retired by the Globetrotters. Oh, and when Wilt the Stilt finally did enter the NBA? He became the only Rookie of the Year to lead in scoring with an average of 36.7 points per game.
6. Charles Barkley didn’t make his high school basketball team his freshman or sophomore year. He made the reserve varsity team when he was a 5’10” / 220 pound junior, but it wasn’t until he grew to 6’4” the summer after his junior year that he finally earned a starting position on the varsity team his senior year – bet those coaches never thought they’d see him playing in an NBA All-Star Game.
7. There are only two teams from the original NBA that exist today: the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks. Every other team has either moved or folded.
8. The lowest scoring game in NBA history was played in 1950. The Fort Wayne Pistons beat the Minneapolis Lakers that day 19-18.
9. The NBA did not have a shot clock until 1954. Whereas the lowest scoring game up until that point had a total of 37 points, the lowest scoring game after the addition of the shot clock was in 1955 when the Boston Celtics beat the Milwaukee Heat 62-57 for a combined total of 119 points.
10. The first NBA player to shatter a backboard didn’t do so by dunking the ball. Rather, in 1946 Celtic’s player Chuck Connors took a set shot during pregame warmups that shattered the backboard because someone failed to place a protective piece between the rim and the backboard. Talk about anticlimactic. Much more exciting was in the ABA on November 6, 1970, when 6’5” forward Charlie “The Helicopter” Hentz shattered two backboards while dunking in the same game. There were no more replacement backboards, so the game was called.
Getting your facts straight is only half the battle, because without NBA Tickets in your hand, your credibility as an expert drops dramatically. With ScoreBig, you can save up to 60% off box office prices, with no fees and free shipping.
By Daisy Barringer
Share 
