About This Quiz
"Are you a basketball fanatic looking for a challenge? Put your NBA knowledge to the test with our hard nba trivia! From legendary players to iconic moments, this quiz covers it all. Think you can handle the heat?
With over 75 years of history, the NBA has become a global phenomenon. From high-flying dunks to precision shooting, this league has it all. Do you know who holds the record for the most championships? How about the player with the most MVP Awards? Get ready to dive deep into the world of basketball and see if you have what it takes to pass this ultimate test.
Don't miss out on the chance to prove your NBA expertise. Whether you're a die-hard fan or just enjoy playing sports trivia, this quiz is sure to keep you on your toes. So gather your friends, grab a ball, and get ready to show off your basketball IQ!
"The NBA was founded in New York City in June of 1946 as the Basketball Association of America (BAA). In 1949 the league merged with the National Basketball League (NBL) and began calling itself the National Basketball Association (NBA).
The Seattle SuperSonics became the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2008, the Charlotte Hornets eventually became the New Orleans Pelicans in 2007 and the Vancouver Grizzlies became the Memphis Grizzlies in 2001.
The Dallas Rockets was never an NBA team. The Houston Rockets were once called the San Diego Rockets and the Dallas Mavericks have been in Dallas since 1980. The only other rockets in the league were the Denver Rockets from 1967-74.
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Michael Williams made 97 free throws in a row for the Minnesota Timberwolves in 1993 over two seasons. He hit 84 of them consecutively in a single season, and the second-place leader (Calvin Murphy in 1981) hit 78 in a row.
Shaquille O'Neal is not only Superman on the hardwood but also Superman in the entertainment industry. He released five studio albums, and his 1993 debut album went platinum. He's made songs with a number of legendary musicians.
The NBA's all-time leading scorer is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with 38,387 points. LeBron James is the only current player in the top five and needs more than 6,000 points to catch Jabbar. Karl Malone is in second place and M. Jordan is in fifth.
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Shaq has only hit one three-pointer in his entire career. He only attempted 22 in 20 seasons in the league. He shot 11 in his first four years in Orlando and hit one. He shot four his first year with the Lakers and only shot seven over the next 15 seasons.
The 1987-88 Washington Bullets starred both Muggsy Bogues (the shortest player in NBA history at 5'3'') and Manute Bol (tied for the tallest player in NBA history at 7'7''). Bogues went to the Charlotte Hornets the next year.
In 1969 an up-and-coming communications specialist founded a branding firm called Siegel + Gale, and one of his first clients was the NBA. He was tasked with designing a logo, and he used a silhouette of Lakers great Jerry West to do so.
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There has never been a quintuple-double in the NBA, and there have only been four quadruple-doubles. Nate Thurmond (1974), Alvin Robertson (1986), Hakeem Olajuwon (1990) and David Robinson (1994) are the only players to do it.
Only six players in NBA history have ever scored 70 or more points, and Kobe Bryant has the second-highest scoring game in NBA history with 81 points. Kobe Bryant was against the Toronto Raptors during this time way back 2006. Wilt Chamberlain is in first and third place with 100 and 78 points.
Ray Allen holds the record of most career three-pointers with 2,973. Reggie Miller is in second place with 2,560, and Steph Curry and Kyle Korver have 2,483 and 2,351, respectively, and are still actively playing.
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Until 1966, the NBA offered teams the chance to forfeit their first-round draft pick and pick any player within a 50-mile radius of the team's headquarters before the draft began. Both Wilt Chamberlain and Oscar Robertson were territorial draft picks.
Wataru Misaka is a Japanese-American former professional basketball player who played three games for the New York Knicks in the 1947-48 season, making him the first non-white person to play in the NBA.
Three black players were selected in the 1950 NBA draft: Earl Lloyd to the Washington Capitals, Chuck Cooper to the Boston Celtics and Nat Clifton to the New York Knicks. Lloyd's game was played one day before the others.
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Robert Parish was the first player ever to play 21 seasons in the NBA, and there is a total of six players who have done so. If Vince Carter of the Atlanta Hawks plays one more year, he will have played 22 seasons.
In the entire history of the NBA (the MVP Award began in 1955), there have only been seven white players to win the MVP Award. Larry Bird won it three times in a row, and Dirk Nowitzki won it for the 2006-07 season.
The New Orleans Jazz drafted Luisa Harris in the seventh round of the 1977 draft, making her the first and only woman to officially get drafted to the NBA. She declined interest and didn't attend tryouts because she was pregnant at the time.
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There have been 72 NBA Championships in the league's history. Western Conference teams won 34 of them and Eastern Conference teams won 38 of them. There is no such thing as the Northern or Southern Conference.
Wilt Chamberlain holds a lot of records in the NBA. If you're not impressed by his 100-point game, or his 55-rebound game or any one of his 72 NBA records (which is a record amount of records), maybe you'll be surprised to know he never fouled out in his entire career.
A lot of players have won back-to-back MVP Awards, but Bird, Russel and Wilt are the only three to three-peat the award. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has won the most MVPs with six. Russell has five, Wilt has four and Bird has three.
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Eleven players have won back-to-back MVP awards in the history of the NBA, including three players who won back-to-back-to-back awards. LeBron, Jordan and Kareem, among others, have done it more than once.
The game of basketball was invented by James Naismith in 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts. Naismith was a YMCA instructor and was looking for physical activity to keep his students busy. The first hoops he used were peach baskets.
Hakeem Olajuwon holds the record for most career blocked shots with 3,830 over 18 seasons in the NBA. Dikembe Mutombo is a close second with 3,289. Dwight Howard is the only active player in the top 20 leaders.
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The Los Angeles Lakers went on a 33-game winning streak during the 1971-72 season when they went on to a 69-13 regular season record and an NBA championship. The Warriors won 28 in a row over two seasons and the '96 Bulls won 18 in a row when they went 72-10.
Wilt Chamberlain has the record for most rebounds in a game when he grabbed 55 against the Boston Celtics in 1960. Chamberlain went on to average more than 27 rebounds per game that season. The Celtics went on to win the championship.
The Golden State Warriors won the first 24 games of the 2015-16 season where they went on to win 73 games with only nine losses. The 1995-96 Bulls had a record of 72-10 for the league's previous best.
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Michael Jordan just barely beat out Wilt "The Stilt" for most career points per game with an average of 30.12 ppg. Wilt averaged 30.07 in his career. LeBron James and Kevin Durant are the only active players in the top 10 with 27.16 and 27.02 ppg, respectively.
The New York Knicks and Boston Celtics are the only two teams that have never relocated or changed names since 1946. The Knicks are technically called the Knickerbockers — named after the style of pants Dutch settlers wore in the 1600s (aka knickers) — but nobody calls them that.
If you've ever watched a basketball game, you know that getting dunked on can be quite subjective. Did they get dunked on? Or was the dunk just near them? According to Shaq, Derrick Coleman, Tim Perry and Michael Jordan are the only players who dunked on him, and Coleman is the only person he admits "posterized" him. The next time they played each other, Shaq dunked so hard he ripped the rim off the backboard.
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In the 1988-89 season the LA Lakers were on the verge of winning three championships in a row. Lakers guard Byron Scott coined the phrase "three-peat" and shortly thereafter, Lakers coach Pat Riley trademarked the phrase to be used on merchandise. The Lakers did not three-peat that year.
One of the biggest regrets in the history of sports is not drafting Michael Jordan first overall and then not even drafting him second. He went third overall - behind Sam Bowie and Hakeem Olajuwon - to the Chicago Bulls in the 1984 draft. Today he is considered the greatest to ever play the game.
North Carolina only has one NBA team — the Charlotte Hornets. California has the most of any state with the Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers and the Sacramento Kings. Texas has three and Florida has two.
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Legend has it that Shaq has the biggest shoe size in NBA history. He wears a size 22 shoe but sometimes can wear a size 24-EEE shoe, which is about double the size of the average male. He weighed 370 pounds at one point in his career and is seven feet tall.
The Boston Celtics have won the most NBA championships with 17. The Los Angeles Lakers are close behind with 16 rings, furthering the rivalry between the two organizations. The Bulls and Spurs are third and fourth with six and five championships, respectively.