The most blatant example of "Statpadding" in NBA history

[Goudelock]

For context, the score of this Lakers win was 124-86 when this sequence began.

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Clipper players obviously weren't too offended by the Laker's scrubs trying to pad their stats, which is something that seems to be a theme in older games. But within the last ten years I've been watching, doing something like this would infuriate the losing team and would bring about a near-fight.

Examples:

Spoiler:

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[JN61]

i'm only offended by the bad quality of defense they played. This is the literal garbage time when players who don't play often play for significant minutes. It's okay to play 100 till the very end in such case, you get good experience and possible younger players get to play longer bursts. To me these cases are great learning experiences for bench guys and they should play hard.

Only thing I see is sore losers in modern day video clips offended when opposite side scores. As Chris Webber says in the last clip, when refering to scoring in the end: ''SO WHAT -- win the game''.

[Homer38]

This game by Kevin Durant in 2013 against the Heat

https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201302140OKC.html

The heat had the led by 19 points after 3 quarter,so the game was almost over,but KD has had 22 points on 8-10 in the 4th quarter to finish the game at 40 points even if this game has never been close,but LBJ(39 points in this game)had dominate the thunder in this game and KD had inflated his stats in the fourth quarter….KD was 4-14 for 18 points in the first 3 quarter

[Goudelock]

Only thing I see is sore losers in modern day video clips offended when opposite side scores. As Chris Webber says in the last clip, when refering to scoring in the end: ''SO WHAT -- win the game''.

I completely agree with this. But I also can't help but be surprised that players back in these days didn't take being "disrespected" nearly as seriously as players today do. Even though you'd think it would be the opposite. Like if if someone had a sick dunk at the end of a blowout, I didn't see players in the 1980s whining about the "unwritten rules" about not showing up an opponent. Like that seems to be a very new thing.

[NbaAllDay]

In all honesty, I kinda low key hate the whole "afk on the last position mindset"
If a dude wants to do an open 360 dunk to finish the game why should people care.
This unwritten rule were it's apparently blasphemous to consider playing the game out is garbage

[NbaAllDay]

It's gotten to the point where people stand around 2 posession before the game ends

[birdlives_ma]

Definitely expected this to be a Ricky Davis thread, gotta say I'm a little disappointed lol


but that clip was wild... Like how a 9-year-old would end a 2k game

[OfficialRef]

Steph Curry in the 2018 finals game 4.

The worst part of this is that the entire team tried to bring up his stats for the finals mvp trophy. No hate but that might be the worst finals moment ever.

[Homer38]

Definitely expected this to be a Ricky Davis thread, gotta say I'm a little disappointed lol


but that clip was wild... Like how a 9-year-old would end a 2k game

Watch on YouTube

[LukstapsDzingic]

Hard to top Andray Blatche going for the triple double

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[J-Wolves]

Hard to top Andray Blatche going for the triple double

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

[bisme37]

That Devin Booker 70 point game has to qualify. The whole game was garbage time (Celtics were up 25-5 a few minutes in and never looked back). Then the Suns kept fouling and calling timeout in the 4th quarter so the clock would stop and Booker would have time to get more shots up. Then the whole team celebrated their regular season loss like they won the title.

[OrangeBlueSkies]

This game by Kevin Durant in 2013 against the Heat

https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201302140OKC.html

The heat had the led by 19 points after 3 quarter,so the game was almost over,but KD has had 22 points on 8-10 in the 4th quarter to finish the game at 40 points even if this game has never been close,but LBJ(39 points in this game)had dominate the thunder in this game and KD had inflated his stats in the fourth quarter….KD was 4-14 for 18 points in the first 3 quarter

No

[levon]

Watch on YouTube

how Rondo plays all the time

[Pennebaker]

MICHAEL JORDAN IN 1988-89.
(related: Michael Jordan’s assists in the 1991 Finals)

1988-89 is the year Jordan averaged 8 assists and 8 rebounds. It was also the year Jordan famously put up 7 consecutive triple doubles.

When you look at his season averages his 32.5/8.0/8.0 from 1988-89 stands out.

A legendary season (long used as an example of how Kobe doesn’t stack up to MJ, and also why Jordan and LeBron are more similar than you think).

But the full reason for why Jordan's 1988-89 season was so different than his others is rarely talked about beyond the fact that Collins moved Jordan to point guard.



Jordan started stat padding in 1988-89 because he was trying to put up more triple doubles than Magic Johnson.

Some backgroud: In the previous two seasons Jordan averaged 37.1 points and 35.0 points and had acquired the ball-hog label and was criticized for having a selfish/losing approach, in contrast to Magic Johnson, who was a triple-double machine, usually the league leader in triple-doubles, and the dictionary definition of a winner.

So Jordan was playing point and getting assists and he started to get a few triple doubles. He realized that he could get a lot more triple doubles and perhaps even more than Magic Johnson.

Jordan started going over to the official scorer during games to see how many more assists and rebounds he needed to get another triple double.

This only stopped after the league got wind and ordered official scorers to refrain from giving out stats during the game.

Jordan started keeping track in his head.

In the end, Jordan lost the triple double battle with Johnson - 17 to 15.

But Jordan wasn’t done with trying to out-Magic Magic.



Enter the 1991 NBA Finals.

Ever wonder why Jordan put up so many assists in the 1991 Finals?



It was because the dude on the other side was Magic Johnson.



Blatant examples of stat padding by Jordan tied to a rivalry with Magic.

[C3H6N6O6]

MICHAEL JORDAN IN 1988-89.
(related: Michael Jordan’s assists in the 1991 Finals)

1988-89 is the year Jordan averaged 8 assists and 8 rebounds. It was also the year Jordan famously put up 7 consecutive triple doubles.

When you look at his career averages his 32.5/8.0/8.0 from 1988-89 stands out.

A legendary season (long used as an example of how Kobe doesn’t stack up to MJ, and also why Jordan and LeBron are more similar than you think).

But the full reason for why Jordan's 1988-89 season was so different than his others is rarely talked about beyond the fact that Collins moved Jordan to point guard.



Jordan started stat padding in 1988-89 because he was trying to put up more triple doubles than Magic Johnson.

Some backgroud: In the previous two seasons Jordan averaged 37.1 points and 35.0 points and had acquired the ball-hog label and was criticized for having a selfish/losing approach, in contrast to Magic Johnson, who was a triple-double machine, usually the league leader in triple-doubles, and the dictionary definition of a winner.

So Jordan was playing point and getting assists and he started to get a few triple doubles. He realized that he could get a lot more triple doubles and perhaps even more than Magic Johnson.

Jordan started going over to the official scorer during games to see how many more assists and rebounds he needed to get another triple double.

This only stopped after the league got wind and ordered official scorers to refrain from giving out stats during the game.

Jordan started keeping track in his head.

In the end, Jordan lost the triple double battle with Johnson - 17 to 15.

But Jordan wasn’t done with trying to out-Magic Magic.



Enter the 1991 NBA Finals.

Ever wonder why Jordan put up so many assists in the 1991 Finals?



It was because the dude on the other side was Magic Johnson.



Blatant examples of stat padding by Jordan tied to a rivalry with Magic.

Just stop. You're as bad as those Jordan fans who say LeBron wouldn't be able to handle physicality of the 80s and 90s.

[birdlives_ma]

Watch on YouTube

Ooooooof, that one was hard to watch. He started with it so early too, they could have made a run and made it close.

[birdlives_ma]

MICHAEL JORDAN IN 1988-89.
(related: Michael Jordan’s assists in the 1991 Finals)

1988-89 is the year Jordan averaged 8 assists and 8 rebounds. It was also the year Jordan famously put up 7 consecutive triple doubles.

When you look at his season averages his 32.5/8.0/8.0 from 1988-89 stands out.

A legendary season (long used as an example of how Kobe doesn’t stack up to MJ, and also why Jordan and LeBron are more similar than you think).

But the full reason for why Jordan's 1988-89 season was so different than his others is rarely talked about beyond the fact that Collins moved Jordan to point guard.



Jordan started stat padding in 1988-89 because he was trying to put up more triple doubles than Magic Johnson.

Some backgroud: In the previous two seasons Jordan averaged 37.1 points and 35.0 points and had acquired the ball-hog label and was criticized for having a selfish/losing approach, in contrast to Magic Johnson, who was a triple-double machine, usually the league leader in triple-doubles, and the dictionary definition of a winner.

So Jordan was playing point and getting assists and he started to get a few triple doubles. He realized that he could get a lot more triple doubles and perhaps even more than Magic Johnson.

Jordan started going over to the official scorer during games to see how many more assists and rebounds he needed to get another triple double.

This only stopped after the league got wind and ordered official scorers to refrain from giving out stats during the game.

Jordan started keeping track in his head.

In the end, Jordan lost the triple double battle with Johnson - 17 to 15.

But Jordan wasn’t done with trying to out-Magic Magic.



Enter the 1991 NBA Finals.

Ever wonder why Jordan put up so many assists in the 1991 Finals?



It was because the dude on the other side was Magic Johnson.



Blatant examples of stat padding by Jordan tied to a rivalry with Magic.

To be fair though, this kind of has a different feel to me than regular stat padding. He was doing it because he saw all the love Magic got and wanted to beat him. Still a little sketchy to be sure, but it came from a competitive drive.

[Pennebaker]

MICHAEL JORDAN IN 1988-89.
(related: Michael Jordan’s assists in the 1991 Finals)

1988-89 is the year Jordan averaged 8 assists and 8 rebounds. It was also the year Jordan famously put up 7 consecutive triple doubles.

When you look at his season averages his 32.5/8.0/8.0 from 1988-89 stands out.

A legendary season (long used as an example of how Kobe doesn’t stack up to MJ, and also why Jordan and LeBron are more similar than you think).

But the full reason for why Jordan's 1988-89 season was so different than his others is rarely talked about beyond the fact that Collins moved Jordan to point guard.



Jordan started stat padding in 1988-89 because he was trying to put up more triple doubles than Magic Johnson.

Some backgroud: In the previous two seasons Jordan averaged 37.1 points and 35.0 points and had acquired the ball-hog label and was criticized for having a selfish/losing approach, in contrast to Magic Johnson, who was a triple-double machine, usually the league leader in triple-doubles, and the dictionary definition of a winner.

So Jordan was playing point and getting assists and he started to get a few triple doubles. He realized that he could get a lot more triple doubles and perhaps even more than Magic Johnson.

Jordan started going over to the official scorer during games to see how many more assists and rebounds he needed to get another triple double.

This only stopped after the league got wind and ordered official scorers to refrain from giving out stats during the game.

Jordan started keeping track in his head.

In the end, Jordan lost the triple double battle with Johnson - 17 to 15.

But Jordan wasn’t done with trying to out-Magic Magic.



Enter the 1991 NBA Finals.

Ever wonder why Jordan put up so many assists in the 1991 Finals?



It was because the dude on the other side was Magic Johnson.



Blatant examples of stat padding by Jordan tied to a rivalry with Magic.

To be fair though, this kind of has a different feel to me than regular stat padding. He was doing it because he saw all the love Magic got and wanted to beat him. Still a little sketchy to be sure, but it came from a competitive drive.

That is regular stat padding.

The collection of statistics purely for selfish reasons is the definition of stat padding.

But all stat padding comes from a competitive drive. Why do you think players even care about increasing their totals? Because bigger numbers are more fun to look at?

[NBAFan93]

Steph Curry in the 2018 finals game 4.

The worst part of this is that the entire team tried to bring up his stats for the finals mvp trophy. No hate but that might be the worst finals moment ever.

Yep. Plus you had LeBron doing the same in a loss - wasn’t he trying to get a triple double for the series? Steph worse thorough - they were treating the finals like an all star game where you rig the MVP trophy for the hometown player.