Did you know these NBA facts Part 4?

• It has been a week or so since I have gave some NBA facts, so I decided to come back with some things you may not have known. 1) Did you know that the only man to ever win the rookie of the year while averaging less then 10 ppg was Tony Parker. Parker averaged 9.2 and 4.3 assists. What is funny is that Pao Gasol was a rookie the same year and put up 17 ppg and 8 RPG. Is the fact that Parker played on a winning team that much of a difference. 2) Did you know that there was never a player in the NBA with the letter X at the beginning of his last name. I challenge you to find me one. Did you know that only 3 players in NBA history last names begin with Q. Bob Quick, Chris Quinn, Brian Quinett. Seems like a stupid fact, but I thought it was interesting nonetheless. 3) Did you know that after the Celtics and the Lakers that the San Antonio Spurs have more division titles than any team with 17. What is amazing about that stat is that they have only been in the NBA since 1976. Basically 17 of the 33 seasons the Spurs have played in the NBA resulted in a division title. Oh and btw the way the Lakers have won 31 division titles in 60 years of their history. Celtics 27 in 63 years. Sucks for the teams in those divisions. 4) I wanted to find a stat about Kobe Bryant that I thought people would find interesting. I found one that completely boggled me. I can't figure this stat out at all. Kobe's best season with passing was 6 apg. What is amazing is that the 6 apg year came in 2004-05 which is when Shaq left and he had no one around him and the Lakers only mustered a 34-48 season. What is amazing is that people say his is less selfish now when if you look at the assist numbers he is virtually the same as he was when he had Shaq which was around 5 apg. 5) For those who compare Kobe and Jordan, I want to give a interesting stat about them. Kobe's best shooting season was 46.9% and has a career shooting % of 45.5%. Michael's best season was 53.8% and had 6 seasons over 50% and 10 seasons above Kobe's best 46.9%. Please also understand that the defense was tougher then. So when people make comparisions, please factor in shot selection next time as well. Remember I am not trying to stir a debate, just stating ACTUAL facts. 6) I wanted to give people an idea of the front court dominance of the Boston Celtics of the 80's. Did you know that Bird,Mchale,and Parish consistantly averaged about 10 rpg per game throughout the 80's which means that the 3 of them combined were grabbing 30 rebounds. It is like having 3 Marcus Camby's on the boards at the same time. Pretty insane when you think about it. 7) I personally love dream matchups. Here are some dream matchups you may have never known actually took place. For those of you who know then it may not be a big deal. In the 1988 playoffs we saw the defending champion Lakers with Magic, Kareem, and Worthy take on a youthful and prime Karl Malone and John Stockton. The Lakers needed the full 7 to beat them. People seem to forget this actually took place. So much for the 90's teams not being able to compete with the 80's teams. Another dream matchup people may not have realized took place was in 1978 when the 76ers led by Dr. J took on the legendary bullets team with Elvin Hayes and Wes unseld. The Bullets prevailed in 6 games. Interesting considering how the 76ers on paper had a better team. Never underestimate team ball. Another dream matchup for the ages took place in both 1971 and 1972. The Lakers stacked with Jerry West, Gail Goodrich, Wilt Chamberlain took on the Bucks with Kareem, Oscar and Dandrige. In 71 the Bucks prevailed 4-1 and in 72 it was the Lakers 4-2. Kareem and Wilt sqaured off. Pretty amazing. One last dream matchup occured in 1980 when the defending champion Sonics with Gus Williams, Dennis Johnson, and Jack Sikma, played the Lakers with Kareem and a rookie Magic. The Lakers prevailed 4-1 ending the Sonics run as West elite. 8) Did you know that the most fouls committed in one playoff run was Dwight Howard this year with 102. This guy is the defensive player of the year and has a huge height and ability advantage on most, but he committed 102 fouls in the playoffs history for one run. I thought you weren't supposed to use your hands on defense. Just another reason why Dwight Howard is not as polished as people think. 9) Get ready for an insane stat. Shaq holds the record for most free-throws shot in a playoff game with get ready....... 39. Yes in the 2000 NBA finals game 2 against Indiana Shaq shot 39 free-throws. The Pacers committed 38 personal fouls which is an average of 4 fouls a game for the 10 players who played in that game. The real boggling stat is Shaq missed 21 of the 39 attempts, lucky for them they still won the game.

• Answer:

  No prob dude. Awesome facts as usually. Especially ; No. 9 - shows you how dominant Shaq really was. The Pacers felt like they had no chance of stopping Shaq. No. 8 - Howard is a bigger more athletic Ben Wallace. Not much offensive skill at all and defensively he relies mostly on athleticism. No. 6 - I'm willing to bet that will NEVER happen again. Your C, PF, and SF getting 10 boards a game (30 collectively). NBA teams usually get just over 40 a game today. No. 5 - Yeah, most Kobephiles are in denial about this stat. Truth is Kobe never had the strength and athleticism to get to the rim and play the post like Jordan, so he has to take more outside shots and can't convert most tough shots. Which is why he's a 5% worse shooter than MJ.