CRAZY NBA FACTS: Elfrid Payton vs Shaq + T-Mac

What if I told you that an NBA player managed to pull off the impossible. A statline of 0 seconds played and 1 turnover. How is that even possible?
At the end of a close game against the Lakers, Toronto’s coach at the time Dwyane Casey inserted Rasual Butler for the first time to inbound the ball.
Butler couldn’t find anyone so he called a time out. But the refs decided this was a 5 second violation. So Rasual was then subbed back out and since the clock doesn’t start until he passes the ball Butler finished the game with the stats of 0 seconds and 1 turnover.
Crazy right? Sit back I’ve got much more of these. What up everybody, my name is Stefan and this is Heat Check. Let’s get into it.
Watching these highlights of the 2004 All Star game, the nostalgia hits hard. Superstars like Kobe, Lebron, Iverson, Mcgrady, KG, Yao Ming.
At the time the high flying Vince Carter was always the top vote getter for this game.
But who would you say was a close second? Well let me help you out and tell you that it’s none of the guys I just mentioned.
Unbelievably right behind Vince was Ben Wallace. Yeah a defensive minded center with 9 points per game. It’s crazy how popular he was, as well as that Detroit Pistons squad.
They actually led the league in attendance for 8 straight seasons.
In March 2007, Kobe went ballistic and scored 4 consecutive 50+ point games. In Fact he started off with 65 against the Blazers, a 50 piece against the Timberwolves the night after,then 3 days later got another 60 point game on the road against the Grizzlies, and the next day another 50 on the Hornets in New Orleans.
On the other hand, Dwyane Wade only had 3 such games in his entire career. Vs the Magic, Jazz and the Knicks. So as wild as it sounds, Kobe had more 50+ games in 1 week, than Wade had in his entire career.
Moving on. Throughout the years, the Magic have had a few superstars on their team. From Shaq and Penny, to Tracy Mcgrady to Dwight Howard.
All of these have managed to record a triple double for this franchise.
But none of them is the all time leader in this category.
Believe it or not, that is Elfrid Payton.
Payton had 8 triple doubles in an Orlando uniform which is more than all of these legends combined.
Speaking of unexpected, Kelly Oubre has a game with 9 made 3’s which is more than Kevin Durant and LeBron James who have games with 8 made triples. This sounds extremely weird even tho James is not known for his 3 point shooting, and that is especially the case when we talk about KD who is lethal from outside.
Bruce Bowen was a crucial piece of the Spurs’ championship runs in 2003, 2005, and 2007 as one of the league’s best defenders. However, one strange fact about him is his inability to make his free throws.
Bowen shot a horrific 57.5% for his career despite being a terrific 39.3% shooter from downtown.
The most improbable thing would happen for him during the 2002-2003 season when Bowen led the league in 3 point efficiency with a fantastic 44.1% But on the flip side, his free throw shooting was abysmal at only 40.4%. And with that, he had a season where he shot better from outside, than from the free throw line. Unbelievable.
One of the teams that I wish won a championship was the Russ and KD Thunder. They were amazing to watch in their last season together.
But did you know that in their first season together the 08-09 OKC Thunder started 3-29. That’s right 3 wins in 32 tries. By the end of that season, they finished with a 29-53 record.
But the very next year exploded for a 50-32 record. One of the craziest single season turnarounds of +21 wins. They got to the playoffs and even tho lost to the champions that year, the Los Angeles Lakers, the league took notice and saw the incredible talent that was on this team. That season the 9 rotation players had an average age of 23 years.
And Wilt Chamberlain was 50 when he got an offer to come back to the NBA.
13 years after his retirement, the New Jersey Nets contacted Wilt’s agent to see if he was willing to play out the remaining 7 games of that season for an offer of 360 thousand dollars.
As Chamberlain would say it himself, he kept himself in phenomenal shape. Working out and playing some kind of sport almost every day. That’s incredible.
Tho this was never finalized and he didn’t make a comeback, you can see from these clips that he would have been able to play even at 50.
Speaking of all time greats, we all know that the Finals MVP award is named after the late great Bill Russell, but as counterintuitive as this sounds, during his 11 championships with the Boston Celtics, Russell was never named the MVP of the finals series. Wow.
Next, here’s a nice little trivia for you: Who do you think has the most 3 pointers made in the last 5 seasons?