Friday, March 26, 2021

Every Gary gets traded — Woj vs. Shams — Rick’s 64-point game

March 26, 2021

Friday, March 26th, 2021

  The Opening Tip

  • If you play in the NBA and your name is Gary, you got traded yesterday. 

  • Woj vs. Shams: Who won yesterday’s trade deadline?

  • Remembering Rick Barry and his 64-point game.

The weekend's best matchups

 1. Like father, like son      

The NBA has three Garys -- Trent Jr., Clark and Harris. (For the full database of NBA Garys, click here.) All three got traded yesterday during the NBA’s trade deadline.Kind of a funny coincidence, right?WELL, it wasn’t even the strangest Gary/NBA thing to happen on Thursday. That distinction belongs to a pair of related Garys, one of which hasn’t played since 2004.Here was the Gary Trent Jr. trade that went through yesterday: 

  • Gary Trent Jr. goes from Portland to Toronto for Norm Powell. 

Here was a trade involving Gary Trent Jr.’s father, Gary Trent Sr., that happened on Feb. 23, 1998: 

  • Gary Trent Sr. goes from Portland to Toronto for Damon Stoudamire and others.

So … the father-son package of Gary Trents almost certainly became the first to both be traded from the same team to another same team. Even stranger, both Trents had played 41 games for Portland before being traded to the Raptors.What does all this mean? Nothing .. we think. It’s still weird, though.Anyways: You’ve probably read about every other non-Gary related deadline trade by now, but here’s a good breakdown of all the movement.

 2. Daily GIF: The crossover, step-back, 4-point play     

Last night, viewers of the Kings and Warriors witnessed the systematic destruction of Damion Lee by rookie Tyrese Haliburton, who coaxed Lee into stumbling then fouling on a made 3-pointer.Sacramento won, 141-119, to drop the Warriors to 22-23 on the season.The Kings, meanwhile, are 20-25 and chose not to sell at the deadline. They have four really valuable NBA players -- Haliburton, Harrison Barnes, Da’Aaron Fox and Buddy Hield -- but, alas, will likely miss the playoffs for a 17th-straight season.

 3. Trivia time  

The highest scoring average in NCAA Division I history is 44.5. Who did it?Hint: LSU.Answers at the bottom.

 4. Woj vs. Shams: Yesterday’s scoop-off ended with a win for the senpai 

The most intense matchup of yesterday’s trade deadline was ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski vs. his protegee, The Athletic’s Shams Charania.(For the not-on-Twitter folk: “Woj” and “Shams” once worked in beautiful harmony together at Yahoo, scooping NBA news like two in-sync jazz musicians. Then, Woj bolted for ESPN and Shams went to The Athletic. They’ve been battling for scoops on NBA transactions ever since.)When the dust was settled, though, senpai outscooped kohai, 10-6, in the 16 trades that went down. Perhaps the ultimate testament to these two, is that no other NBA reporter got even one.Notes:

  • With the Aaron Gordon-Denver trade, both Woj and Shams tweeted that the deal had been finalized at 12:28 p.m. Unsatisfied with calling it a tie, we reached out to the @tweet_stamp bot on Twitter to figure out the exact second each tweet was sent. Our findings: Shams confirmed the deal at 12:28 + 11 seconds, while Woj did so at 12:28 + 57 seconds. Shams wins -- with 45 seconds to spare. 

  • The biggest deal of the day -- Nikola Vucevic to Chicago -- was another close one, but Woj outscooped Shams by a single minute. No seconds-parsing necessary. 

  • Woj actually broke the Delon Wright-to-Detroit trade on-air. Watch here.

[READ: How basketball’s reporting machine gets his scoops]

 5. 05/26/1974: Rick Barry drops 64  

On this day 47 years ago, Rick Barry, one of the all-time great forwards who gets no historical respect entirely because of his own crass narcissism, scored 64 points in a 143-120 win for his Warriors over the Trail Blazers.It’s tied for the 24th highest scoring game in NBA history, though not the highest ever by a white guy. That distinction goes to Pistol Pete Maravich, who went for 68 against the Knicks in 1977.Barry’s line:

  • 30-of-45 from the field, 10 rebounds, 9 assists, 4-of-5 from the line, 64 points. 

  • The 30 made field goals is tied for third all-time, behind only Wilt Chamberlain’s 31 and 36. 

If you don’t know much about Rick, may we suggest

1983 S.I. profile written by a young fella named Tony Kornheiser.

 6.  Quick hits 

  • Terrance Mann, new teammate of Rajon Rondo, showed the card of Rondo he’s kept in his wallet since high school yesterday. You love to see it.

  • Evan Fournierclearly has a sense of humor.

  • Bo Burnham is apparently playing Larry Bird in HBO’s Showtime series about the ‘80s Lakers. 

  • Meyers Leonard, who got real anti-Semitic on a gaming stream a few weeks ago, has been waived by the Thunder after being traded by the Heat. 

  • Terrence Ross, the last man left on the Magic, live-tweeted all of his teammates getting shipped away.

 7.  Reads and podcast pick