Useless but Interesting NBA Factoids Quiz

Answer: Miami

During the 1995 All-Star Weekend, Glen Rice (then in his dominant years with the Heat) won the shootout and Harold Miner (aka Baby Jordan) won his second dunk contest in three years.

Answer: Detroit

The Pistons had Grant Hill (3rd pick in 1994) and Jerry Stackhouse (3rd in 1995), who had just come over in a trade from Philadelphia.

Answer: 8

Allen Iverson won 1997 Rookie of the Year, with Stephon Marbury and Shareef Abdur-Rahim (all wearing number 3) coming second and third in votes. The following year, none of these three were in the All-Star game, and the only players drafted the previous year to make it on were Kobe Bryant and Antoine Walker (both number 8).

Answer: Rasheed Wallace

Interesting note: a very similar scenario occurred in the 1998 draft as well, with North Carolina power forward Antawn Jamison going fourth, and shooting guard Vince Carter going fifth. Useless but interesting.

Answer: Chicago and New York

Each team had three players on the Eastern squad (to make up 6 of the 12 players representing the East): Chicago sent Scottie Pippen (who was MVP of the game), Horace Grant and B.J. Armstrong, while New York sent Patrick Ewing, Charles Oakley and John Starks. Add two New Jersey Nets to that (Derrick Coleman, Kenny Anderson), and that left only four spots for the other 11 teams to fill.

It is usually unlikely a team will have two, let alone three all-stars on their roster in the same year, so this was a pretty memorable factoid.

Answer: False

The Rockets were the first team to have two straight #1 picks, but they never won the lottery (which wasn't instituted until 1985). The Orlando Magic were the second team to have two straight #1 picks (Shaq in 1992 and Chris Webber in 1993) and they were the first to win the lottery twice in a row.

Answer: Dikembe Mutombo

Mutombo (then with the Nuggets) was a rookie in the 1991-92 season and was named to the Western All-Stars in '92, however, later that year, it was Larry Johnson who was named the top rookie. This also happened in 2003, when Yao Ming was an All-Star, only to watch Amare Stoudemire take home Rookie of the Year. Jordan and Hill were rookie all-stars and Rookie of the Year winners. Glenn Robinson was neither.

Answer: Phoenix Suns

It was November 1996. The Suns' season had just begun (their first since trading Charles Barkley to Houston) and they were winless in their first 13 games. It looked like the season was already over. However, by the end of that same season, the Suns had crept into the seventh seed in the West after putting together a 10-game win streak near season's end. Credit Jason Kidd for turning their season around (he came to the team in December '96, was injured in his first game as a Sun, and came back in February '97 to turn a horrible team into a playoff team in just three months).

Answer: There was no game

There was no rookie game that year, and the very first rookie game was played the following year (Penny Hardaway won the first ever Rookie MVP). The format has changed somewhat over the years. At first the two teams involved were formed as pickup games (no East/West or Rook/Soph division), had catchy names like the Phenoms and Sensations, as well as specially made uniforms.

Then in 1996, the system changed to an East/West format with players donning their respective teams' uniforms. Finally, in 2000 they switched to the Rookies vs. Sophomores format (perhaps to include the rookies from the previous year, which did not have an All-Star Weekend due to the shortened season).

Answer: False

There have been instances where players played 83 or even 84 games, if they were traded during the season. For instance, going from a team that has played 45 games to a team that has played 43 means a player will play two extra games.