NBA facts

Surprising NBA facts and records: teams, players, the draft and stories even big basketball fans do not know.

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11 Bill Russell won 11 NBA titles with the Boston Celtics in 13 seasons, more than any other player.

8 The Celtics won eight titles in a row from 1959 to 1966, the longest championship streak in North American pro sports.

73 The 2015-16 Golden State Warriors went 73-9, the best regular-season record in NBA history, one win better than the 1995-96 Bulls.

24 The 24-second shot clock arrived in 1954. Syracuse Nationals owner Danny Biasone came up with the number.

1979 The NBA added the three-point line in the 1979-80 season. Chris Ford of the Celtics made the first one.

2,31 m At 7 ft 7 in (2.31 m), Gheorghe Mureșan and Manute Bol are the tallest players in NBA history.

1,60 m Muggsy Bogues, the shortest player in NBA history at 5 ft 3 in (1.60 m), lasted 14 seasons in the league.

#3 Michael Jordan went third in the 1984 draft. Houston took Hakeem Olajuwon first and Portland picked Sam Bowie second.

4 Vince Carter is the only player to appear in NBA games across four different decades, from 1998 to 2020.

40 000 In March 2024 LeBron James became the first player to score 40,000 regular-season points.

6 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won six regular-season MVP awards, the most in NBA history.

15 806 John Stockton's 15,806 career assists are still the NBA record.

1989 Šarūnas Marčiulionis joined the Golden State Warriors in 1989, one of the first players from the Soviet Union in the NBA.

2016 In 2016 Stephen Curry became the first unanimous MVP in NBA history.

1984 The NBA championship trophy has been named after former commissioner Larry O'Brien since 1984.

1946 The first game in league history was played in Toronto on 1 November 1946. The New York Knicks beat the Toronto Huskies 68-66.

1949 The NBA got its name in 1949, when the BAA merged with the rival NBL. The first NBA season had 17 teams, including the Sheboygan Red Skins and the Waterloo Hawks.

19:18 The lowest-scoring game in NBA history ended 19-18. In November 1950 the Fort Wayne Pistons beat the Minneapolis Lakers by holding the ball for minutes at a time.

186:184 The highest-scoring game in NBA history: in December 1983 the Detroit Pistons beat the Denver Nuggets 186-184 after three overtimes.

75:73 The longest game in NBA history went to six overtimes. In January 1951 the Indianapolis Olympians beat the Rochester Royals 75-73.

33 The 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers won 33 games in a row, still the longest winning streak in NBA history. The Milwaukee Bucks ended it in January 1972.

9 The 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers won only 9 of their 82 games, one of the worst seasons in NBA history.

7 The 2011-12 Charlotte Bobcats won just 7 of 66 games in a lockout-shortened season. Their winning percentage of .106 is the worst in NBA history.

28 In 2023-24 the Detroit Pistons lost 28 games in a row, the longest losing streak within a single season in NBA history.

1950 On 31 October 1950 Earl Lloyd of the Washington Capitols became the first Black player to appear in an NBA game. Chuck Cooper and Nat Clifton debuted within days.

1966 In 1966 Bill Russell became the Celtics' player-coach and the first Black head coach in NBA history. He won two more titles in that double role.

1964 In December 1964 the Boston Celtics became the first NBA team to start five Black players in a game.

1947 Japanese-American guard Wataru Misaka broke the league's colour barrier in 1947, playing three games for the New York Knicks, three years before the first Black player.

1956 Bob Pettit of the St. Louis Hawks won the first NBA MVP award, handed out for the 1955-56 season.

1951 The first NBA All-Star Game was played at the Boston Garden in March 1951. The East beat the West.

5 George Mikan led the Minneapolis Lakers to five titles between 1949 and 1954. He was so dominant that the league doubled the width of the lane in 1951 to slow him down.

Lakers The Lakers' name makes little sense in Los Angeles. It comes from Minnesota, the Land of 10,000 Lakes, where the team played until moving west in 1960.

Jazz Utah's team is called the Jazz because it was founded in New Orleans, the home of jazz, in 1974. The club moved to Salt Lake City in 1979 and kept the name.

1994 Toronto picked the name Raptors in a 1994 fan vote, when dinosaurs were everywhere after the hit film Jurassic Park.

1976 When the ABA folded in 1976, four of its teams joined the NBA: the Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, New York Nets and San Antonio Spurs.

500 In 1976 the owners of the ABA's Spirits of St. Louis folded their team for a share of NBA TV money, forever. In 2014 the league paid them 500 million dollars to end it.

100 Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors against the Knicks on 2 March 1962 in Hershey, Pennsylvania. No video of the game exists.

48,5 An NBA game lasts 48 minutes, yet in 1961-62 Wilt Chamberlain averaged 48.5 minutes per game, playing almost every second including overtimes.

0 Despite his size and physical style, Wilt Chamberlain never fouled out of an NBA game in his 14-season career.

1958 Before joining the NBA, Wilt Chamberlain spent the 1958-59 season touring the world with the Harlem Globetrotters.

1968 In 1967-68 Wilt Chamberlain led the NBA in total assists. He is still the only center ever to do it.

1960 Only two players have been Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same season: Wilt Chamberlain in 1960 and Wes Unseld in 1969.

32 In 2018-19 James Harden scored at least 30 points in 32 straight games. Only Wilt Chamberlain, with 65 in a row, has had a longer streak.

81 Kobe Bryant scored 81 points against the Toronto Raptors on 22 January 2006. For twenty years it was the second-highest total in NBA history, behind Chamberlain's 100.

60 Kobe Bryant scored 60 points in his very last NBA game, against the Utah Jazz in April 2016.

63 Michael Jordan scored 63 points against the Celtics in the 1986 playoffs. Chicago still lost in double overtime, and Larry Bird called him God disguised as Michael Jordan.

#12 On Valentine's Day 1990 in Orlando, Michael Jordan's number 23 jersey was stolen. He played in a nameless number 12 shirt and scored 49 points.

43 In February 2003, days after turning 40, Michael Jordan scored 43 points for the Washington Wizards. He was the first player aged 40 or older to score 40 in an NBA game.

23 The Miami Heat retired Michael Jordan's number 23 in 2003, even though he never played a single minute for them.

1980 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played co-pilot Roger Murdock in the 1980 comedy Airplane!, arguing with a boy who insists he is a basketball star.

#6 In 2022 the NBA retired Bill Russell's number 6 for every team in the league, the first time it honoured a player that way.

9 Red Auerbach coached the Celtics to nine titles and liked to light a victory cigar on the bench once a win was safe, infuriating opponents.

1965 John Havlicek's late steal in Game 7 of the 1965 Eastern finals saved Boston against Philadelphia. Radio voice Johnny Most's cry, Havlicek stole the ball, became legendary.

1970 Willis Reed limped onto the court with a torn thigh muscle before Game 7 of the 1970 Finals, hit the Knicks' first two baskets and inspired their first ever title.

128:126 Game 5 of the 1976 Finals needed three overtimes. Boston beat Phoenix 128-126 in what is often called the greatest game ever played.

42 In Game 6 of the 1980 Finals, 20-year-old rookie Magic Johnson started at center for the injured Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and had 42 points and 15 rebounds to clinch the title.

3 Larry Bird won three MVP awards in a row, from 1984 to 1986. Only Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain had done that before him.

97 Micheal Williams of the Minnesota Timberwolves made 97 free throws in a row in 1993, still the NBA record.

25 Isiah Thomas scored 25 points in one quarter of Game 6 of the 1988 Finals while playing on a badly sprained ankle, still a Finals record.

8,9 In the 1995 playoffs Reggie Miller scored 8 points in 8.9 seconds at Madison Square Garden, turning a sure loss into an Indiana win over the Knicks.

0,4 With 0.4 seconds left in a 2004 playoff game against San Antonio, Derek Fisher caught the ball, turned and hit the winner for the Lakers.

13 In December 2004 Tracy McGrady scored 13 points in the final 35 seconds, including four threes, to give Houston an 81-80 win over San Antonio.

68 Pete Maravich scored 68 points for the New Orleans Jazz against the Knicks in 1977, before the NBA even had a three-point line.

73 On the last day of the 1977-78 season David Thompson scored 73 points. That evening George Gervin scored 63 and snatched the scoring title by a tiny margin.

71 On the final day of the 1993-94 season David Robinson scored 71 points against the Clippers and beat Shaquille O'Neal to the scoring title.

70 In March 2017 Devin Booker, aged 20, scored 70 points in Boston, becoming the youngest player ever to reach 70. His Phoenix Suns still lost.

37 In January 2015 Klay Thompson scored 37 points in a single quarter against Sacramento, making all 13 of his shots from the field.

21 In December 2022 Luka Dončić had 60 points, 21 rebounds and 10 assists against the Knicks, the first 60-20-10 game in NBA history.

2025 In February 2025 Dallas shocked the league by trading 25-year-old Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers in a deal built around Anthony Davis.

50 Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 50 points in Game 6 of the 2021 Finals to give Milwaukee its first title since 1971.

2023 The Denver Nuggets won their first NBA title in 2023, 47 years after joining from the ABA. Nikola Jokić was Finals MVP.

2019 Kawhi Leonard's buzzer-beater in Game 7 against Philadelphia in 2019 bounced four times on the rim before dropping. It was the first Game 7 buzzer-beater in NBA history.

1995 The 1995 Houston Rockets won the title as the sixth seed in the West, the lowest-seeded champion in NBA history.

8 In 1994 the eighth-seeded Denver Nuggets knocked out top seed Seattle, the first time that had ever happened. Dikembe Mutombo lay on the floor hugging the ball in celebration.

27 In Game 7 of the 2018 Western Conference finals against Golden State, the Houston Rockets missed 27 three-pointers in a row.

152:79 The biggest win in NBA history: in December 2021 the Memphis Grizzlies beat Oklahoma City 152-79, a 73-point margin.

61 Elgin Baylor scored 61 points against Boston in Game 5 of the 1962 Finals. More than six decades later, no one has scored more in a Finals game.

17 Elmore Smith of the Lakers blocked 17 shots in one game in October 1973, the first season blocks were officially counted. The record still stands.

3830 Hakeem Olajuwon blocked 3,830 shots in his NBA career, the most in history. Growing up in Lagos he played football and handball, and only took up basketball as a teenager.

1974 Nate Thurmond recorded the first official quadruple-double in 1974, in his very first game for the Chicago Bulls. Blocks and steals had only just become official stats.

1192 A.C. Green played 1,192 NBA games in a row between 1986 and 2001, earning the nickname Iron Man.

18 Andrew Bynum is the youngest player in NBA history. He made his Lakers debut in November 2005 aged 18 years and 6 days.

20 In 1995 Kevin Garnett went fifth overall straight out of high school. No NBA team had drafted a high-schooler in the previous 20 years.

2 Darryl Dawkins shattered two backboards with dunks within a month in 1979. The damage helped push the NBA to adopt breakaway rims.

2086 Manute Bol blocked 2,086 shots but scored only 1,599 points in his NBA career, a rare case of more blocks than points.

170 At 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in), Spud Webb won the 1986 Slam Dunk Contest, beating his Atlanta teammate Dominique Wilkins in the final.

1977 In 1977 the New Orleans Jazz drafted Lusia Harris in the seventh round, the only woman ever officially drafted by an NBA team. She never went to camp.

1/66 In 1993 Orlando won the draft lottery with a 1-in-66 chance. They took Chris Webber and traded him that night for Anfernee Hardaway and three future first-round picks.

2005 In 2005 Andrew Bogut became the first Australian taken first overall in the NBA draft, by the Milwaukee Bucks.

57 Manu Ginóbili was the 57th pick in 1999, one of the last names called. He went on to win four NBA titles and play in two All-Star Games.

30 Arvydas Sabonis played his first NBA game in November 1995, aged 30, nine years after he was drafted. Many say America never saw him at his peak.

2011 Arvydas Sabonis entered the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011, and his national team teammate Šarūnas Marčiulionis joined him in 2014.

61 In 2023-24 Domantas Sabonis recorded 61 double-doubles in a row, the longest streak since the ABA-NBA merger in 1976.

1988 In July 1988 the Atlanta Hawks became the first NBA team to play in the Soviet Union, facing the Soviet national team in Tbilisi, Vilnius and Moscow.

2002 Serbian sharpshooter Peja Stojaković won the NBA three-point contest two years running, in 2002 and 2003.

2013 In 2013 Marc Gasol of the Memphis Grizzlies became the first European to be named NBA Defensive Player of the Year.

1996 Ben Wallace went undrafted in 1996, yet won Defensive Player of the Year four times and the 2004 title with Detroit.

38 During Linsanity in February 2012, little-known Knicks guard Jeremy Lin outscored Kobe Bryant with 38 points against the Lakers.

183 At 1.83 m (6 ft), Allen Iverson, MVP in 2001, is the shortest player ever to win the award.

4 Steve Nash had four 50-40-90 seasons, shooting at least 50% from the field, 40% from three and 90% from the line. No one else has more than two.

1 Shaquille O'Neal attempted 22 three-pointers in his NBA career and made exactly one, in February 1996.

3-peat Pat Riley trademarked the word three-peat in 1988, hoping for a third straight Lakers title. It never came, but the phrase later earned him money from other teams' merchandise.

2006 In 2006 the NBA replaced its leather ball with a synthetic one. Players complained so much that the league went back to leather on 1 January 2007.

2020 In 2020 the NBA season was finished inside a bubble at Walt Disney World in Florida, with no fans in the stands.

1990 The first NBA regular-season games outside North America were played in Tokyo in November 1990, between the Phoenix Suns and the Utah Jazz.

211:186 The 2024 All-Star Game in Indianapolis ended 211-186 to the East, the most points ever scored in an All-Star Game.

1979 In 1979 the Lakers won a coin flip with the Chicago Bulls for the first pick in the draft and used it on Magic Johnson.

45 In January 1948 Providence coach Nat Hickey put himself into the lineup, two days before turning 46. He is still the oldest player in league history.

30 Bob Cousy scored 50 points in a 1953 playoff game against Syracuse that went to four overtimes. His 30 made free throws, from 32 tries, are still an NBA record.

88 Walt Bellamy played 88 games in the 82-game 1968-69 season, still an NBA record. A midseason trade sent him from the Knicks to Detroit, who had more games left.

1978 In 1978 the owners of the Boston Celtics and the Buffalo Braves simply swapped franchises. The new Braves owner moved the team to San Diego, where it became the Clippers.

1981 In December 1981 guard Lloyd Free legally changed his first name to World. It came from his playground nickname All-World, earned with 360-degree dunks as a teenager.

56 On 3 March 1985 Kevin McHale scored 56 points, a new Celtics record. Nine days later Larry Bird took the record back with 60 points against Atlanta.

71 cm In 1987-88 the Washington Bullets had the shortest player in NBA history and one of the two tallest. Muggsy Bogues and Manute Bol were 71 cm (28 in) apart.

41 Rasheed Wallace of Portland collected 41 technical fouls in the 2000-01 season, the NBA single-season record. That is roughly one every two games.

39 In January 2012 Golden State fouled Dwight Howard on purpose all night. He took 39 free throws, made 21 and broke Wilt Chamberlain's 1962 record of 34 attempts.

14 min In February 2018 Nikola Jokić completed a triple-double against Milwaukee in 14 minutes and 33 seconds. He broke a record of 17 minutes set by Jim Tucker in 1955.

2024 On 22 October 2024 LeBron James and his son Bronny took the court together for the Lakers. They became the first father and son to play together in an NBA game.

4000 In March 2025 Stephen Curry became the first player to make 4,000 three-pointers. James Harden, second on the all-time list, was nearly 900 behind.

6 Kobe Bryant lived in Italy from age 6 to 13, while his father Joe played for four Italian clubs. That is where Kobe learned to speak Italian.

167 In 1970 the Atlanta Hawks drafted Varese's Mexican star Manuel Raga with the 167th pick. He was the first player from a league outside the USA ever drafted by an NBA team.

2014 On 26 November 2014 four-time EuroLeague champion Ettore Messina became the first European-born head coach in an NBA game, standing in for the Spurs' Gregg Popovich.

2 Of the 11 teams that started the league in 1946, only the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks still play in the same city. The Philadelphia Warriors moved west in 1962.

247 The Celtics' famous parquet floor was born of a post-war lumber shortage: in 1946 it was pieced together from 247 panels of oak scraps. The same floor lasted 53 years.

1946 In 1946 Chuck Connors of the Celtics became the first pro player to shatter a backboard, with a simple shot during warm-ups. He later found fame as the star of the TV western The Rifleman.

Italija Italian-born Canadian Hank Biasatti played for the Toronto Huskies on 1 November 1946, making him the first international player in the league's history. He later played Major League Baseball too.

63 In 1949 Joe Fulks scored 63 points in a game, a record that stood for ten years until Elgin Baylor scored 64 in 1959. Fulks was one of the pioneers of the jump shot.

125:123 Game 7 of the 1957 Finals is the only Finals Game 7 ever to go to double overtime. Boston beat the St. Louis Hawks 125-123 for their first title.

50 Bob Pettit scored 50 points in Game 6 of the 1958 Finals, including 19 of his team's last 21. It remains the only title in Hawks history.

2 St. Louis took Bill Russell with the second pick in 1956. Red Auerbach immediately traded Ed Macauley and Cliff Hagan to get him.

1959 In January 1959 Elgin Baylor refused to play a game in Charleston, West Virginia, because a local hotel would not take the team's Black players.

23 In January 1960 the Minneapolis Lakers' plane lost its instruments in a snowstorm and landed in an Iowa cornfield. All 23 people on board survived, and months later the team moved to Los Angeles.

40 With five seconds left in Game 7 of the 1962 Finals, Lakers guard Frank Selvy missed an open shot that would have won the title. Boston won in overtime, and Bill Russell grabbed 40 rebounds.

55 In November 1960 Wilt Chamberlain grabbed 55 rebounds against Boston, still the NBA record. His Warriors lost anyway, 132-129.

1964 The 1964 All-Star Game, the first shown on national TV, nearly did not happen: the players threatened to strike unless the owners recognised their union. The owners gave in.

1963 In 1963 the Syracuse Nationals moved to Philadelphia. The new name, 76ers, a nod to the Declaration of Independence of 1776, came from a fan in a naming contest.

1966 In 1966-67 the Chicago Bulls became the first new pro team to make the playoffs in its very first season. Johnny Kerr, who had never coached before, was named Coach of the Year.

1957 The Pistons got their name from Fred Zollner's factory in Fort Wayne, which made engine pistons. The team moved to Detroit in 1957.

1951 The Sacramento Kings have just one NBA title, won back in 1951, when they were the Rochester Royals.

1967 The ABA's red, white and blue ball was the idea of its first commissioner, George Mikan. He also pushed for the three-pointer and a 30-second shot clock.

3 In 1968 jockey Penny Ann Early played for the ABA's Kentucky Colonels. She inbounded the ball once and was taken off. She wore number 3.

1975 In 1975 the ABA's Baltimore Claws played only three preseason games before being thrown out of the league, because the owners ran out of money.

1976 The first slam dunk contest was held at the 1976 ABA All-Star Game in Denver. Julius Erving won it, taking off from the free-throw line.

3 mln. To pay their way into the NBA, the New York Nets sold Julius Erving to Philadelphia in 1976 for 3 million dollars. Without him they won just 22 games.

1967 In 1967 Rick Barry jumped from the Warriors to the ABA's Oakland Oaks, coached by his father-in-law. A court made him sit out a whole season.

1968 The Pittsburgh Pipers won the first ABA title in 1968 and immediately moved to Minnesota. A year later they were back in Pittsburgh, later renamed the Condors.

1971 In 1971 Spencer Haywood won the right at the US Supreme Court to play in the NBA before four years had passed since high school. It led to the 'hardship' exception.

3 Bill Sharman is the only coach to win titles in three pro leagues: the ABL (1962), the ABA (1971) and the NBA (1972). He also invented the game-day morning shootaround.

1978 In 1978 Bahamas-born Mychal Thompson became the first foreign-born player taken first in the NBA draft. His son Klay later won four titles.

105:99 In 1978 the Washington Bullets won Game 7 of the Finals 105-99 in Seattle. Until 2016 it was the only title won in a Game 7 on the road.

1985 In 1985 Bulgaria's Georgi Glouchkov became the first player from an Eastern Bloc country to play in the NBA. He appeared in 49 games for the Phoenix Suns.

2 Dutch-born Swen Nater is the only player to lead both the ABA and the NBA in rebounding. In college he was Bill Walton's backup and never started a game.

14 Tom Meschery, born in Harbin in Manchuria, became the NBA's first foreign-born All-Star in 1963. The Warriors even put his number 14 into their logo for a few years.

40-42 In 1981 the Houston Rockets reached the Finals with a losing record of 40 wins and 42 defeats. They lost the Finals to Boston.

0-8 Before 1985 the Lakers had lost all eight of their Finals against Boston. In 1985 they finally won, the first visiting team ever to clinch a title at the Boston Garden.

208 In 1984 the Chicago Bulls drafted sprinter Carl Lewis in the 10th round, 208th overall. That summer he won four gold medals at the Los Angeles Olympics.

31 420 In April 1984 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar passed Wilt Chamberlain as the NBA's all-time leading scorer. It happened in Las Vegas, where the Utah Jazz played some home games at the time.

1980 Cleveland owner Ted Stepien traded away so many first-round picks in 1980-83 that the NBA banned trading first-rounders in consecutive years. It is still called the Stepien Rule.

2 In the 1970 Finals Jerry West hit a 60-foot shot at the buzzer to tie the game. The NBA had no three-point line yet, so it counted for two, and the Knicks won in overtime.

19 Hal Greer shot his free throws as jump shots. At the 1968 All-Star Game he scored a then-record 19 points in one quarter and was named MVP.

108:106 Before Game 7 of the 1969 Finals the Lakers' owner hung thousands of 'World Champion Lakers' balloons from the roof. Boston won 108-106, and the balloons never came down.

68 323 In 2023 a Spurs game at the Alamodome drew 68,323 fans, an NBA regular-season record. The old mark of 62,046 came from a 1998 Bulls-Hawks game in Atlanta.

1970 In 1970 Oscar Robertson, president of the players' association, sued the NBA. The case held up the NBA-ABA merger for six years, and the 1976 settlement brought free agency.

3 338 Lakers broadcaster Chick Hearn popularised the terms 'slam dunk' and 'air ball'. From 1965 to 2001 he called 3,338 Lakers games in a row.

83 On 10 March 2026 Bam Adebayo scored 83 points against the Washington Wizards. Only Wilt Chamberlain has scored more in an NBA game.

4:1 In June 2026 the New York Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs 4-1 to win the NBA title. Jalen Brunson was Finals MVP.

29 In Game 4 of the 2026 Finals the Knicks came back from 29 points down and won 107-106 on OG Anunoby's tip-in with 1.2 seconds left. It was the biggest comeback in Finals history.

1 297 In December 2025 LeBron James's run of 1,297 straight games in double figures ended. He scored 8, but set up Rui Hachimura's game-winning three at the buzzer.

1,8 % In 2025 the Dallas Mavericks won the draft lottery with just a 1.8% chance and took Cooper Flagg first overall.

1-2 In 2024 two Frenchmen, Zaccharie Risacher and Alexandre Sarr, went first and second in the NBA draft. A year earlier their compatriot Victor Wembanyama had gone first.

98,1 % In 2008-09 José Calderón made 98.1% of his free throws, the best single-season mark in NBA history.

2015 At the 2015 All-Star Game Pau and Marc Gasol became the first brothers to start, and they jumped the opening tip against each other in New York.

2002 In 2002 Pau Gasol became the first foreign player to win NBA Rookie of the Year.

2004 In 2004 Mehmet Okur became the first Turkish NBA champion, with Detroit, and in 2007 the first Turkish All-Star.

1996 In 1996 Romania's Gheorghe Mureșan became the first non-American to win the NBA's Most Improved Player award.

4 In 2004 Yuta Tabuse, 1.75 m tall, became the first Japanese player in the NBA. He played four games for Phoenix and scored 7 points on debut.

2024 Some Knicks fans booed when Kristaps Porziņģis was drafted in 2015. In 2024 he became the first Latvian NBA champion, with Boston.

1997 In 1997 Sacramento drafted Tariq Abdul-Wahad 11th, the first player raised in France to reach the NBA. He was born Olivier Saint-Jean.

2 In 2013 and 2014 Cleveland used the first pick on a Canadian two years running: Anthony Bennett, then Andrew Wiggins.

2007 In 2007 Dirk Nowitzki became the first European NBA MVP. Then his 67-win Mavericks lost in the first round to the eighth-seeded Warriors.

2005 In 2005 Yao Ming received 2,558,278 fan votes for the All-Star Game, breaking Michael Jordan's record.

51,9 In March 2008 the Hawks and Heat replayed the last 51.9 seconds of a December game, because Shaquille O'Neal had wrongly been given a sixth foul. By then he had been traded to Phoenix.

52 In 2015 Dallas drafted 2.18 m Satnam Singh 52nd, the first Indian ever picked in the NBA draft. He never played an NBA game.

15 Joel Embiid only took up basketball at 15; he had wanted to be a volleyball player. In 2023 he became the second African-born NBA MVP, after Hakeem Olajuwon.

1997 In 1997 the Washington Bullets became the Wizards. Owner Abe Pollin felt the old name was too violent, especially after the murder of his friend, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

49 In April 1999 the Chicago Bulls scored just 49 points against Miami, the fewest by any team since the shot clock arrived in 1954.

35 Argentina's Pablo Prigioni made his NBA debut for the Knicks in November 2012, aged 35, the oldest rookie in NBA history.

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