Tuesday, Jan 19, 2021

Harden & KD’s start — Steph’s dagger — 7th round, ‘77 NBA Draft

Tuesday, Jan 19th, 2021

  The Opening Tip

  • So, having Kevin Durant and James Harden on the same team is a good thing?

  • Steph Curry was vintage Steph Curry last night. 

  • Remembering the fallacy of the seventh round of the 1977 NBA Draft. 

Tonight's (only) games

 1. Wilt Chamberlain & York Larese > James Harden & Kevin Durant   

The Bucks and Nets played a classic regular season game last night, which was decided by Kevin Durant’s game-winning 3-pointer.Brooklyn is now 2-0 since James Harden joined the team (Kyrie Irving should return at some point this week), and his stats have been predictably great.Through two games ... 

  • He’s averaging 33 points, 13 assists and 9 rebounds (plus 7.5 turnovers), and is running 14 pick-and-rolls per game, which would lead the league over the course of a season. He’s the perfect pass-or-shoot ball handler alongside Durant, another one of the league’s greatest offensive players. 

In fact, the duo’s 138 combined points through their first two games together on a new franchise is the second most in NBA history.The most ever by one duo, according to Elias Sports, is 151, done by Wilt Chamberlain (of course) and York Larese, who had just been signed by the Philadelphia Warriors after eight games with the Chicago Packers (now the Wizards).Here are Chamberlain and Larese’s point totals from those two games: 

  • 12/08/1961: Chamberlain had 68. York had zero. 

  • 12/09/1961: Chamberlain had 61. York had 12. 

Poor York, who played just that season in the league, passed away in 2016.Otherwise, it would be a great time to give him a call about the most egregious case of one classmate doing all the work in a group project the NBA has ever seen.[READ: Inside the frantic finish of the Brooklyn Nets-Milwaukee Bucks thriller]

York Larese while at North Carolina

 2. Daily GIF: Steph Curry had a Steph Curry night against LeBron   

Believe it or not, the Golden State Warriors used to run this league ... then they abandoned their loyal fanbase in Oakland to sell some suites to CEOs in San Francisco, and the basketball gods haven’t been kind to them ever since.Steph Curry is still capable of having a night, though. He dropped 26 last night, including the dagger above, in the Warriors’ 19-point comeback win over the Lakers.

3. Trivia time

Which NBA player has the most amount of points without an All-Star appearance?Hint: Sixth man.

 4. From the annals of Basketball Reference: The seventh round of the 1977 NBA Draft  

Lusia Harris (left) and Bruce Jenner (right)

An occasional series on fun oddities we’ve stumbled upon on basketball-reference.com.One of us was recently browsing the list of selections from the 1977 NBA Draft (don’t worry about why).The first few rounds are fairly normal. There are familiar names: Cedric Maxwell, Bernard King, Norm Nixon. And also a few interesting names: Terrible Wizards GM Ernie Grunfeld, mediocre Wizards coach Eddie Jordan, greatest-name ever contestant Otis Birdsong.All, though, fall under the umbrella of normal basketball fodder, except two selections in the desolate seventh round: 

  • Pick No. 137, New Orleans Jazz: Lusia Harris, Delta State University.

  • Pick No. 139, Kansas City Kings: Bruce Jenner, Graceland University. 

One of those names is a woman's name. (They both are now.) The other is that of the winner of the decathlon event at the 1976 Olympics.Uh ……To Google.The explanation for the Jazz drafting Lusia Harris (via The Salt Lake Tribune):

“Obviously, the attention-hungry Jazz drafted Harris as a publicity stunt. Years later, however, coach and general manager Frank Layden only half-jokingly said Harris was ‘better than anybody [New Orleans] had at the time, other than Pete Maravich.’ In another twist to the episode, Harris was pregnant at the time, which prompted Jazz officials to suggest they owned the future draft rights to her unborn child. ‘We got two players for the price of one,’ Layden said.”

(It’s a funny story, but also a little sad that Harris, a three-time All-American who averaged 25.9 PPG in college, had no pro prospects after graduating besides being a sideshow.)The explanation for the Kings drafting Bruce Jenner (via The Coronado [Ca.] Eagle and Journal):

“By the time 1976 rolled around … the Chiefs as a franchise still had a bit of an attitude of superiority. (GM Jack Steadman) and (HC Hank Stram) when asked who they planned to select in the NFL Player Draft each year, invariably replied that they planned to select, ‘The best athlete available.’ ….

“So to poke a little fun at our cross-town friends who occupied Arrowhead Stadium, in the seventh round of the 1977 NBA Draft, (Kings GM Joe Axelson) drafted the athlete who was truly the best player available, Bruce Jenner. I’m not sure if the Chiefs ever realized they were being playfully needled, but all of us at the Kings front office thought the concept and execution were a riot.”

(The winner of each Olympics’ decathlon is given the moniker ‘World’s Greatest Athlete.’)Also: Jenner was 100 percent down with the stunt, going so far as to attend a Bruce Jenner Night at a Kings home game the following season: 

“He spent some time in the office the afternoon of Bruce Jenner Night, where he was presented with his own Kings jersey, complete with his professional number of 8,618.”

 5.  Quick hits 

  • CJ McCollum, who was having a career-best season, is out for at least four weeks with a fractured left foot.

  • According to Stephen Jackson (who, nevermind), Kyrie Irvingbought George Floyd’s family a house last year. 

  • OG Knicks fan Lloyd Banks has been fighting with bandwagon Nets fans on Twitter. 

  • The Knicks swept a back-to-back on Sunday and Monday for the first time since the 2017-18 season. 

  • Paul George gets a lot of flack, but he can still do things like this.

  • The Inside the NBA crew had fun with a Mic’d Up miscue last night.

  • Here’s Brook Lopez with a cartoon-like reaction to a crafty James Harden pass.

  • Cleveland guard Kevin Porter Jr. is no longer with the team after throwing a tantrum because his locker was given to the recently acquired Taurean Prince.

 6.  Off the press 

  • The new-look Nets are playing space-age basketball [The Ringer]

  • ‘I’m not gonna stop until I’m the best’: Inside Brandon Ingram's rise [ESPN]

  • The Celtics must use their $28.5 million trade exception wisely. Here are some candidates to ponder [The Boston Globe]