NBA's 72 "Greatest" Moments: The Longest Thanksgiving
This qualifies as one of the 72 “Greatest” Moments in NBA History
Whenever a sports league starts up, it’s fairly easy to set new records. Like when the NBA had its first game on October 29, 1949, the Denver Nuggets’ Bob Brown was the game’s leading scorer with 16 points. So, that also meant he was the NBA’s all-time leading scorer for a couple days.
Give it up for Bob Brown, ladies and gentlemen! In a class with George Mikan, Wilt Chamberlain, Bob Pettit, Dolph Schayes, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as claimants to the “NBA’s all-time leading scorer” throne.
Well, the first NBA Thanksgiving gave us some legit records that have stood for years as the Syracuse Nationals hosted the Anderson Packers on November 24, 1949.
The Nationals won, 125-123, in quintuple overtime. The box score is pretty silly and fits Bill Reddy’s 72-year-old assessment that the contest was “truly indescribable[.]”
Syracuse’s 125 points set an NBA record for points in a game and Anderson garnered second-place in that category. Those records have obviously since been surpassed many times, but surprisingly the Sheboygan (racist) Redskins in the 1949-50 season did the trick quite well. They racked up 141 points against the Nuggets on March 10, 1950.
Well, let’s move on to the free throws. Cuz there’s a lot going on there.
Syracuse attempted 86 free throws while the Packers attempted 74. Well dear reader, the Nats still hold this NBA record 72 years later and counting. Honestly, I hope they keep that record. Nobody needs to witness 86 free throws in a game from both teams combined, let alone from a single team.
As for Anderson, their 74 FTAs are now tied for third in NBA history. The Phoenix Suns in 1990 were able to hoist 80 FTAs, while the San Francisco Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers each got 74 FTAs in a game in 1964.
Obviously, the combined 160 free throw attempts are an NBA record for a single game. Good God, one hundred and sixty free throw attempts. Can you imagine how many fouls it took to get that number?
Oh, yeah, that’s another record.
There was a shit load of fouls! The Packers committed 66 fouls and the Nationals 56. Our intrepid Packers from Indiana still hold that record while Syracuse’s tally is now third place. The Nationals later committed 59 fouls in a game versus the Baltimore Bullets in 1952 to snatch second place from themselves.
And if you look at all the times that teams have “garnered” 50+ fouls, they were all between 1949 and 1953. Except that one game from 1990 where the Suns got all them FTAs that I mentioned earlier. You can see why the NBA was growing restless with the fouling and stalling and implemented the shot clock in 1954. Who wants to watch a foul fest?
BTW, thank you, Leo Ferris for the shot clock.
Don’t worry folks, we have more records still!
Given all those FTAs and fouls, the Nationals and Packers unsurprisingly set records for most free throws made in a game. Combined they nailed 116 of their 160 attempts. So, not the greatest conversion rate (.725), but not miserable.
Individually, they’ve each been passed. Those Suns from 1990 now own the most FTMs (61) just a step ahead of the Washington Bullets (60 FTMs in 1987) and our dear Nats who made 59 FTs in this Thanksgiving from hell are now third. The Packers’ 57 FTMs are now tied for fourth with a Phoenix Suns team from 1971.
Okay, so considering all those records, let’s take into account that this was a QUINTUPLE overtime game with LOTS of fouling and TONS of free throws.
This was the game that just wouldn’t end.
Fans didn’t pay for this shit. Well, they did pay for this shit, but they probably wish they hadn’t.
Regulation ended with the game tied at 76.
Syracuse’s Ray Corley, of course, made a free throw to tie the game at 83 to send it to a second OT.
Anderson’s Ed Stanczak, of course, made a free throw to tie the game at 87 to send it to a third OT.
Anderson’s Walt Kirk, of course, made a free throw to tie the game at 95 to send it to a fourth OT.
Syracuse’s Andrew “Fuzzy” Levane DID NOT make a free throw! Instead, with two seconds remaining, ole Fuzzy “swished a set shot to make it 107 apiece” sending the game to its fifth and final overtime.
Paul Seymour and Corley each made three FTs, of course, in the fifth OT to give Syracuse enough breathing room to finally end this marathon game that took over four hours of real time to complete.
Before we leave this turkey bloated game, I should mention one final record…
THE NUMBER OF DUDES WHO FOULED OUT!
TEN players for Anderson fouled out. Six players fouled out for Syracuse. The Nats’ “fouled out” players were indeed fouled out, but Anderson ran up against a problem. Since 10 of their 11 players had six fouls, they couldn’t field a team unless the “fouled out” players were allowed to still play. So, that’s what happened. Of course, they couldn’t stop fouling, so you have the strange occurrence of John Hargis and Rollie Seltz each with SEVEN fouls in this game.
No matter how bad your Thanksgiving is, just be thankful it couldn’t be this bad.
PS - Let’s keep setting the record straight on the NBA’s founding.
Notice that Bill Reddy of the Syracuse Post-Standard writes “the National Basketball association and its major league predecessors.” Yep, predecessors. Plural. NBL and BAA, not just the BAA.