100 Interesting Facts About NBA

Shaquille O’Neal has made one 3-point shot in his entire NBA career.

27. The creator of NBA Jam hated the Chicago Bulls so much that he embedded a special code that made them miss last-second shots

28. When Wilt Chamberlain became the first NBA player to earn $100,000 in salary in 1965, his longtime rival Bill Russell demanded that his own salary is raised to $100,001. His salary was immediately raised.

29. It is possible to score a "quintuple-double" in basketball. Though this has never happened in the NBA, it has happened twice in girls high-school play.

30. Kobe Bryant's parents had to co-sign his first NBA contract because he was only 17 when he was drafted.

In 1987-88, the shortest man (Muggsy Bogues) to ever appear in the NBA played on the same team (Washington Bullets) as the tallest man (Manute Bol) to ever appear in the NBA.

32. Manute Bol, the tallest player in the history of the NBA was also the only player in the NBA to have killed a lion with a spear and to have paid 80 cows for his wife.

33. Latrell Sprewell (famous for choking his coach) turned down a $21 million contract offer claiming it wasn't enough to feed his family. He never played again and went bankrupt.

34. In 1999, Ron Artest applied for a part-time job at Circuit City during his rookie season with the Bulls just to get an employee discount there.

35. Six-time NBA All-Star and 2003 Rookie of the Year Amare Stoudemire is Jewish and speaks Hebrew on the basketball court so that no one can understand him.

The NBA will no longer be testing for marijuana use in the off season.

37. Randy Foye has a rare condition called Situs Inversus, where a person's internal organs are mirror images of a normal body.

38. The owners of a professional basketball team, Spirits of St. Louis that hasn’t played since 1976 still make several million dollars yearly.

39. Shaquille O'Neal challenged Hakeem Olajuwon to one on one after losing the 1995 NBA Finals with a typewritten, signed and hand-delivered note.

40. The guy featured in the NBA logo is former Laker Jerry West.

There is a Chinese company by the name of Qiaodan (pronounced cheow-DAN) that illegally named itself after Jordan and used a modified 'Jumpman' logo to sell basketball shoes. They have grown so big that they now advertise in actual NBA games.

42. The maximum possible salary in the WNBA is $101,500 compared to over $20 million in the NBA

43. Jeremy Lin's 89 points in his first three starts are the most by any NBA player since the NBA and ABA merged in 1976.

44. Paul Pierce was stabbed 11 times in the face, back, and neck and still played all 82 games of the 2000-2001 NBA Season

45. A 2013 survey showed 91% of Chinese people in support of a nationwide ban on the trade in shark fins, largely as a result of campaigning by ex-NBA player Yao Ming.

A man who was sentenced to 30 years in prison for shooting with intent to kill and robbery requested that his sentence was extended to 33 years, to match Larry Bird's NBA jersey number. The request was granted.

47. Physicists proved that shooting "granny style" is the absolute best technique to consistently score points on the line, but NBA players refuse to do it because it looks stupid.

48. When a 7ft NBA player named Reggie Harding attempted to rob a Detroit gas station with a mask, the attendant said "I know it's you, Reggie.", to which he replied "No, man, it ain't me"

49. Johnny Chan won the World Series of Poker in 87 & 88. After his 2nd win, Chan met Lakers owner Jerry Buss (who's team also won championships in 87 & 88) and Jerry promised Johnny he'd get him an NBA championship ring if he could win three in a row. Both Chen and Buss loss the following year.

50. The trend of baggy shorts in the NBA was started by Michael Jordan because he wanted to wear his UNC shorts under his Bulls shorts.