That Guy Scored 50??

A few days ago I posted a blog listing the best scorers in the NBA today that have yet to have a 50-point scoring game.

While researching that post, I had an even more interesting idea for a post.

It’s a list of guys who, unbelievably, had a 50-point game in their career.

Since I was using www.basketball-reference.com to research the list, we’re only going back to the 1986-87 season. It’s far enough back in time to make some of the guys on the list obscure, but not far enough back to where you won’t remember them.

In no order, here are some of the more random players to score 50 points in an NBA game over the past 24 seasons.

Vernon Maxwell

Before Ron Artest and the “Malice at the Palace”, there was Vernon Maxwell running into the stands and punching a fan. While “Mad Max” will be remembered most for that, he also finds himself in elite company as one of only 60 players to score 50 or more points in a game since the start of the 1986-87 season.

Maxwell may be most remembered for his volatility, but at one point he was very dangerous on the court as well. He dropped for 30 points in the fourth quarter on January 26th, 1991 against the Cavs en route to a career-high 51 points.

Charles Smith

The former number three overall pick had a solid first few seasons with the Clippers, but a series of knee injuries cut his career short after a few other stops. For his career, he averaged 14.4 points per game.

Though he never developed into a big time NBA player, Smith dropped 52 on the Nuggets in December of 1990. It was the only time in his nine year career the Smith scored more than 40 points in a game.

Cliff Robinson

Though he played for roughly 41 NBA seasons, at no point did I ever consider “Uncle Cliff” to be an elite NBA scorer. He did average 20 or more points per game three different times early in his career, but he was still far from explosive.

Still, on January 16th, 2000, Cliff Robinson, playing for the Suns, scored 50 points in a win over the Nuggets. In the 1,380 NBA games Robinson played in during his 19-year career, he scored 40 points in a game only four times, yet he has a 50-point game to his credit.

Tracy Murray

I’m not sure if he’s best known for being the ultimate journeyman or being Lamond Murray’s cousin (I would say those accomplishments are about equal).

Tracy Murray was traded twice on draft day, played for eight different NBA teams, two different Greek teams, and spent a season in France.

There’s two ways to look at that: Either he was not very good and everyone kept giving up on him or he was good enough to where people kept giving him an opportunity.

Either way, Murray was never much to write home about. He started just 80 of the 658 NBA games he played in, averaging double figures four times in his career, and finishing his career at 9.0 points per game.

On February 10th, 1998, Murray scored 50 points for the Wizards in a win over the Golden State Warriors. It was the 6th and final time that Murray would ever score at least 30 points in a game.

The starting point guard for the Warriors in that game…

Tony Delk

Despite a great college career, like Tracy Murray, Tony Delk was a journeyman. He played for eight NBA teams in ten seasons and also mixed in a stint in Greece.

As a point guard, Tony Delk was never a player that you would consider to be a “scorer”. He averaged 9.1 points per game for his career, and his career high was 12.3 points per game in 2001.

Still, hell hath no fury like a journeyman released.

Delk, in his first game against the Kings since signing with the Suns in the summer of 2000, dropped for 53 points in an overtime loss against his former team.

Delk’s second highest scoring outburst in his 545 game career: 27.

Jim Jackson

It wouldn’t be a list about journeymen players having a completely out of character and ridiculously high scoring game without mentioning Ohio State star Jim Jackson.

It’s easy to just say that Jackson was from Ohio State than to name of the twelve different NBA teams he played for.

Though his 14.3 points per game career average is respectable, what I find more impressive is the list of players that have been included in trades for Jim Jackson.

Shawn Bradley, Ed O’Bannon, Robert Pack, Khalid Reeves, Michael Cage, Lucious Harris, Don Maclean, Keith Van Horn, Brian Shaw, Joe Smith, Ed Gray, Steve Smith, Brevin Knight, David Wesley, Casey Jacobson, Maciej Lampe, and Jackson Vroman.

Look at that list. That’s a who’s who of 12th men over the past two decades of NBA basketball.

But in November of 1994, Jackson was no 12th man, scoring a career high 50 points for the Mavericks in an overtime win over the Nuggets in Denver.

Willie Burton

The ninth overall pick by the Heat in 1990, Burton managed to drag out a career in which he played just 316 games over eight NBA seasons.

But like I said before, hell hath no fury like a journeyman scorned.

Just 39 days after being waived by the Miami Heat, Burton, now with the Sixers, scored 53 points against the Heat in his first game against the team that drafted him.

Burton would never again score 30 points in a game in his career.

Dana Barros

Dana Barros was a pretty good role player in the NBA for a long time. He could shoot the lights out, and there’s always room on the roster for a guy like that. He was a career 41% shooter from behind the three point line, good for 14th best all-time.

Despite his long distance accuracy, Barros was hardly a volume scorer. He was mostly a bench player, starting more than 25 games in a season just twice in his career.

But in December of 1994, Dana Barros got hot.

In his 14-year, 850-game NBA career, Dana Barros only scored 30 points or more in a game eight times. All of those eight occurrences came during a three month stretch from December 16th, 1994 to March 14, 1995.

Barros capped his out-of-this-world scoring spree with a 50 point explosion against the Rockets on March 14th. Barros would never score 30 points in a game again in his career.