6 interesting facts about the NBA: Air Jordan was once banned; 60% of players go bankrupt after 5 years

Let’s learn about 6 interesting facts you may not know about the NBA.

6 interesting facts about the NBA

There is a women’s NBA league

For those who don’t know, besides the globally famous NBA tournament, where the world’s most famous male athletes compete, the NBA also has a similar tournament for women. That is the WNBA, a tournament founded in 1996. There are 12 teams participating and the competition format is similar to the men’s tournament.

The Celtics and Knicks have never “moved”
Throughout NBA history, most teams have “moved house” at least once. There are many reasons why football teams leave their current city and move to another place, such as the number of spectators, business strategies or cost savings. Some teams even share training facilities with other local teams to take advantage of available resources.

And the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks are rare cases that have never “moved house” since their inception until now.

Air Jordan was once banned by the NBA

Today, Air Jordan is a global brand and famous around the world, far beyond the borders of basketball. However, in the past, Air Jordan was on the NBA’s banned list.

At that time, the NBA required teams to wear shoes that matched the color of their uniforms. However, Nike ignored that request to launch Air Jordan. They were even willing to pay a fine so Michael Jordan could use those shoes. That was a successful strategy, initially making Air Jordan the world’s leading basketball shoe brand.

The shortest and tallest NBA players ever played for the same team

Muggsy Bogues (1m60) and Manute Bol (2m31) were teammates at the Washington Bullets in 1987. Bogues could even walk straight through Bol’s groin without bowing. To date, this is still the pair of teammates with the greatest height difference in NBA history.

60% of NBA players go bankrupt after 5 years

Here’s the sad reality: NBA players have pretty poor financial management. They receive huge salaries while playing, but do not have good financial knowledge and use those funds inefficiently. Some players even become homeless after retiring.

However, there are still a few players who continue to develop and become more successful after retirement. Typical examples are Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal. In recent years, the rate of NBA players going bankrupt after retirement has been decreasing, as players begin to pay more attention to their post-retirement life.

In NBA history, there have only been 2 games played on Christmas Eve

Christmas is an important holiday in the NBA, where tournament organizers will entertain fans with the most exciting and anticipated matches. However, the truth is that over the past 70 years, only two matches have taken place on Christmas Eve.

Players often want to spend Christmas day with relatives and family, they also need time to rest and recover both physically and mentally. As a result, Christmas matches are rarely played on the same day, instead, matches may take place before, or after, the holiday.

However, there are exceptions, which are two matches: Detroit Pistons 119-126 Cincinnati Royals (predecessor of Sacramento Kings) in the 1960/61 season and San Francisco Warriors 124-112 Cincinnati Royals in the 1966/67 season.