The proper way to judge a player is to look at their whole season - regular season and
the playoffs, but for the players that have already established themselves, NBA Legends
and nowaday superstars, I’ve always wondered, were they superstars right away?
More specifically I wanted to know how did they perform in their very first NBA Game.
So here we are!
Hey guys.
PRPLPRNCH here, and today we’re looking at NBA Legends, Superstars and we’ll see
how they did in their very first NBA Game.
As most of the great players lists, we’ll start with Michael Jordan.
Michael had his first NBA game on 26th October in 1984.
He was 21 years old.
On that day, Chicago Bulls played against the Washington Bullets.
It was a home game for the Bulls and they ended up winning the game 109-93.
Michael Jordan didn’t have his most effective game though.
He was on the court for 40 minutes, which was the highest playing time on the team,
however, he wasn’t the best player on that day.
Jordan finished the game with 16 points, 7 assists, 6 rebounds, 5 turnovers, 4 blocks
and 2 steals.
He shot 5 of 16 from the field and did not attempt a three-pointer.
3 players scored more points than Jordan.
I’m sure that didn’t happen again.
Next we have Lebron James who played his first NBA Game when he was still just 18 years old.
It was October 29th, 2003 when Cleveland Cavaliers met with the Sacramento Kings.
The Cavaliers lost the game by 14 points, but not because of Lebron.
Lebron was the clear best player on the team and finished the game with 42 minutes and
50 seconds of game time, 25 points, 9 assists, 6 rebounds, 4 steals and 2 turnovers.
He shot 12 of 20 from the field and missed his 2 three-point attempts.
More importantly, I think everyone started to notice that the hype train is justified.
Next legend on this list is Kareem Abdul Jabbar.
Kareem, or at that time still known as Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor first set a foot on NBA court
when he was 22 years old.
His first game came on October 18th, 1969, so that happened almost 50 years ago.
Milwaukee Bucks faced off against the Detroit Pistons.
Kareem played the whole 48 minutes, made 12 of 27 field goals and collected 29 points,
12 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals and 3 blocks.
Kareem was the best player on the court and helped the Bucks to win in a high-scoring
game, 119 - 110.
He won that day and won a whole lot more during his career.
Another winner we’re gonna talk about here is Magic Johnson.
Magic Johnson had first NBA experience at 20 years of age.
His first game was on October 12th, 1979 against the San Diego Clippers.
The Lakers won that game by one point - 103 to 102.
Magic Johnson had a great supporting cast in his first game, but he himself wasn’t
half bad either.
In 41 minutes of action, Johnson scored 26 points, grabbed 8 rebounds, had 4 blocks,
3 turnovers and 1 steal.
Probably the most surprising stat of his first game is the fact that he had only 4 assists.
Who knew that for his career he would become one of all-time leaders in assists.
We move on to the most dominant player in NBA History Wilt Chamberlain.
Chamberlain played his first NBA game on October 24th, 1959.
That’s almost 60 years ago.
Wilt was 23 years old and his Philadelphia Warriors were facing off against the New York
Knicks.
Philadelphia won and Wilt was do-mi-nant.
Wilt finished the game playing all 48 minutes, scored 43 points, grabbed 28 rebounds and
dished out 1 assist.
He made 17 out of 27 field goals and shot 9 from 15 from the FT line.
Amazing performance, but only one of the many dominant performances Wilt had over his career.
Back to the Lakers!
Kobe Bryant.
For an all-time legend Kobe Bryant had a very slow start to his career.
Technically he first suited up for the Lakers on November 1st, 1996, but he didn’t play
in that game.
Kobe was 18 years old at the time and his first game action came 2 days later on November
3rd, 1996 when his Los Angeles Lakers played against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Lakers won the game 91 to 85, but Kobe’s impact was minimal as he played just 6 minutes
and 22 seconds, missed his only field goal attempt , had 1 rebound, 1 block and 1 turnover.
Just so you know, Kobe’s first extended playing experience came in his fourth game
as a Laker when he played 17 minutes and 15 seconds and scored 10 points and grabbed 3
rebounds.
And just so you know some more, Kobe had only 3 20+ point games in his whole rookie season.
From the Lakers to their biggest rivals - the Boston Celtics.
Larry Legend wasn’t so legendary in his first ever NBA Game.
By the time his first NBA game rolled around Larry Bird was already almost 23 years old.
On October 12th, 1979, Bird made his NBA debut as his Boston Celtics were facing the Houston
Rockets.
Boston won the game by 8 points and Larry definitely helped.
In 28 minutes, Bird scored 14 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, assisted the ball 5 times and
had 2 turnovers.
He shot 6 of 12 from the field.
Missed his only three-point attempt and made his both free throws.
He didn’t have to wait long for a breakout performance though as in the very next game
Bird scored 28 points.
Now we go to the San Antonio Spurs legend Tim Duncan.
The first pick of the 1997 NBA Draft had a chance to play alongside another all-time
great David Robinson.
Maybe that’s why his first game statline doesn’t look so impressive.
Anyway, Tim Duncan played his first NBA Game being a 21-year old against the Denver Nuggets.
Spurs won the game by 11 points and Duncan made his mark with 15 points, 10 rebounds,
4 turnovers, 2 assists and 2 blocks.
He played 35 and a half minutes, made 6 of 9 field goals and 3 of his 5 free throws.
Then he took a step back in his second career game with only 9 points and 5 rebounds, but
had a MONSTER game 3 with 19 points and 22 rebounds.
Another all time dominant player was Shaquille O’ Neal who had somewhat of a sloppy first
NBA game.
On November 6th, 1992, a 20-year old Shaquille O ‘ Neal and his Orlando Magic were facing
off against the Miami Heat.
Shaq was dominant on the glass, but didn’t quite provide that much offense yet.
Shaq played 32 minutes, scored 12 points, grabbed 18 rebounds and also had 3 blocks,
2 assists and 1 steal.
On the negative side, he also had 6 personal fouls and turned the ball over 8 times.
He made 4 of 8 field goals and 4 of his 7 free-throw attempts.
Orlando won the game by 10 points.
And to conclude our first 10 players list we go to the all-time champion in Bill Russell.
Bill Russell first appeared on an NBA court when he was almost 23 years old.
On December 22nd, 1956, the Boston Celtics were playing against the St. Louis Hawks.
5 Celtics on that day scored double-digit points, but Bill Russell wasn’t one of them.
To be honest though, scoring was never his emo.
On his first NBA Game ever, Bill Russell played 21 minutes, scored 6 points and grabbed 16
rebounds with 4 personal fouls.
Boston won by 2 points.
Unfortunately I couldn’t find any defensive stats, but I’m sure there were some because
Russell was always a defensive-minded center.
Here’s an amazing fact though.
Of 48 games played in his rookie season, Bill Russell had only 1 game with single digit
rebounds.
On the contrary he had four 30+ rebound performances and had at least 24 20+ rebound performances.
A legend indeed.
That’s it for this one guys.
Hope you enjoyed the video.
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Which legend was the most impressive in his first game and which one disappointed?
Make sure to leave a comment and let’s have a discussion.
As always, thanks for the support!
This was PRPLPRNCH and I’m out!