Obscure sports trivia

Well, according to his stats on Basketball Reference, Hondo never started a game. So either they are incorrect, or incomplete. I think they just didn't include that stat back then.

John Havlicek Stats | Basketball-Reference.com

 

I don't know the answer, but I can't imagine there's another Hall of Famer who never started a game.

 

According to Basketball Reference, KC Jones, Tom Heinsohn, and Bill Russell never started a game.

 

So their B-R site is basically on par with their Hall of Fame.

 

NBA.com, too. Did they not always track starts because apparently Wilt never started a game either

John Havlicek

Bill Russell

Wilt Chamberlain

 

79-80 appears to be the start according to Basketball Reference

I wonder if there will be an army of people picking over newspaper boxscores to find out the stats like was done for early baseball history.

 

How far back does your data go?
Our advanced stats go back to the 1996-97 season; however our base stats go back to the inaugural 1946-47 season. Every box score has been digitized and those go back to the 1946-47 season as well. Our lineup data goes back to 2008. Certain stats were not recorded from the beginning of the NBA. Here’s a list of years when some base stats began being recorded:

Rebounds: 1950-1951 Minutes: 1951-1952 Games Started: 1970-1971
Steals: 1973-1974 Blocks: 1973-1974 Off Rebounds: 1973-1974
Def Rebounds: 1973-1974 Turnovers: 1977-1978 3 Point Field Goals: 1979-1980

FAQ

 

That’s surprising. World was basically asleep to the game until the 1970s.

 

I was curious and ran a Google search. An article came up about Williams getting the record

 

Who was the first player to rush for more than 1,000 yards in a single season for two different teams?

 

Ottis Anderson?

 

Last white American player to make more than five NBA All-Star Games.