A historic night

I've been watching the NBA for a little over 21 years. I've seen many great players, many great plays, many historical events. Last night set a new record. Second year player Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns put up 70 points on the Boston Celtics. It is the most I've seen scored by a single player in a single game in my entire time watching the sport. It wasn't enough...the Celtics held on to win 130-120, but this is a pretty big deal. He becomes only the 6th player all-time to hit 70 in a game. Only the second to do so in the time I've been watching, but...I didn't get to see Kobe Bryant's 81 point night against the Raptors in 2006. I was keeping up with the scoring online, but I didn't get to see it. This one, I saw. I watched it on the repeats. I have both NBA's League Pass and the NHL's Center Ice (Thanks Ma!) and I usually watch hockey live as it doesn't repeat, and then I watch the NBA games as they repeat over night. This game happened to be the 6th game I watched all or a portion of on the 24th-25th of March. (And since the repeat went off I found a 7th game to watch- I'm writing this at 4:49 AM but I will publish it later) The great thing too, is that even though the game had been done for hours, I had no idea what was going to happen in the game. I had seen the final score, but I didn't know the details. I love the sport itself so much that I will watch games where I know the final score already. I'm sure glad I did this time!

I'm not a huge fan of the Suns or Booker to be honest, but I'm still really thrilled I got to watch that game. I love to see history.

This was the most ever scored against the Celtics. One of the NBA's original teams, the previous record for points scored against them was 64 by Elgin Baylor, who did it in the 1960s, long before I was born. This was the first 70 point game this decade. The NBA averages only one per decade, so it's pretty special. There have been games where the entire team scored less, I think the Mavs put up 67 earlier this season, for example, when most of their best players were out injured.

Any time a player can score into the 40s is special (Many never do in their whole career) so to put up 70 in a single game is nothing short of incredible.

I don't have a whole lot of cards from the last two seasons, but this is, by far, my best Booker card.

The autographs in the Complete set are significantly rare, but I managed to pull his; I don't think I've ever shown it on the blog before. I believe the autographs are one per case in last year's Complete, but maybe not. The math involved is more than I want to do for fun :) They fell one in every 720 packs, and there are 36 packs per box. Luckily, I still have the box I opened last year still at arm's reach away.

Booker held one record that he's held since opening day of 2015-16, also. He's the first player to be born after I discovered the sport. He was born in late 1996, after the start of the 1996-97 season. I discovered the NBA late in the 1995-96 season. 

It's not too often I am compelled to make a post about current events, but this...seeing the most points I've ever scored in a game in my favorite sport- this was enough to do it! I already had a post planned for today, but it can wait.

It's not every day you see 70.

In case you are wondering, the 5 players to hit 70 before last night are: Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, David Thompson, David Robinson, Kobe Bryant. That's in chronological order. Even Michael Jordan never did it, his career high was 63 (69 in the playoffs).