As fans of the NBA, we are always looking for new NBA knowledge. We’re confident that most of you will have every champion memorised. We’re also sure that even if you don’t know every champion, you will still have your favourite team and their history embedded in your brain.
Are you always keen to know random trivia and dress like your favourite players? Well, we are here to help you out. Take a read of the top 10 curiosities of the NBA and get a 25% discount Nike products to look like your favourite players.
There was once a team for Providence, Rhode Island.
NBA started as the Basketball Association of America in 1946. One of the first teams was the Providence Steamrollers, who lasted for a grand total of three seasons, accumulating a record of 46-122.
We are surprised they didn’t last for more than three seasons with that track record. Also, with a name like Steamrollers, we can’t see them attracting players that are too talented.
The Raptors were not the first basketball team from Toronto.
Did you know that the Raptors, followed by the Vancouver Grizzlies, were not the first NBA teams from north of the border? That title belongs to the Toronto Huskies, who were one of the first teams in the league.
Shaquille O’Neal had a rap hit.
Yeah, you read that right. In 1993, O’Neal released a rap album called Shaq Diesel with his hit rap song, (I Know You Got) Skillz featuring Def Jef.
Listen and laugh, guys.
LeBron James was not the first great high school sensation.
Surprisingly, LeBron James was not the first high school basketball prospect to play in the NBA.
Moses Malone, a centre/forward who spent 19 years in the league, holds that label. Malone had an impressive career regardless of him not participating in any college ball. Throughout his 19-year career, he won 3 MVP awards, won a championship in Philadelphia 76ers in 1983 and made 12 consecutive All-Star teams. He averaged 21.9 points and 12.9 rebounds before retiring, and if that wasn’t enough, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2001.
In one season, the Phoenix Suns had 10-game winning and losing streaks.
In the 1996-1997 season, the team lost 13 games as an opening for the season. Jason Kidd then became part of the squad, transferring from the Dallas Mavericks, and got injured in the first game with the team.
Once recovered, he returned and led the team on a spectacular run to the playoffs with a 10-game winning streak.
Michael Jordan was not the first overall pick.
You may think this is common knowledge, but let us explain. Jordan, considered by many to be the greatest basketball player of all time, was picked third in the draft for 1984.
Drafted before him were Hakeem Olajuwon by Houston Rockets and Sam Bowie by the Portland Trail Blazers. We’re sure the Blazers were kicking themselves by passing on Jordan, especially aft the 1992 NBA finals, where they lost to him and the Chicago Bulls.
A title was won by the Celtics in the ’80s without Bird or Parish as finals MVP.
I was just as shocked to learn this as you are. It turns out the 1981 Finals MVP Award went to forward Cedric Maxwell.
Maxwell scored 71 points across games 3, 4 and 5 and provided a spark outside the Boston’s Big Three: Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish.
Kobe Bryant met his wife at a rap video shoot.
So a hip-hop music video set is better than Tinder! Kobe Bryant met his ex-wife Vanessa on location for a video by Tha Eastsidaz while on a break from recording his own album.
Vladimir Radmanovic in “The Nutcracker”???
We didn’t think there were any more reasons for us to laugh about Radmanovic, but we were wrong.
In 2003, Vladimir performed the role of the Grandmother in the Pacific Northwest Ballet production of The Nutcracker in Seattle.
Bill Russell was not always associated with the Boston Celtics.
We all know Russell as a fantastic centre who won 11 championships with Boston Celtics, also winning two games as a player-coach.
He also took the reigns of two more teams. He coached the Seattle SuperSonics from 1973 to 1977 and the Sacramento Kings for part of a season from 1987 to 1988.
His coaching career with these teams wasn’t bad. However, it was not as good as his time spent with Beantown. The furthest he got with Seattle was the conference semifinals; with Sacramento, he didn’t even last the whole season.