An exclusive NBA club

The Tuesday Newsletter Extravaganza, beyond the usual Numbers Game goodness, features a full list of players who hold the distinction of playing for only one franchise for at least a decade

The basketball romantic at this address couldn’t resist getting into this one.

On Wednesdays this season I’m appearing on The Raptors Show on Sportsnet 590 AM The Fan in Canada. During last week’s appearance, co-host Blake Murphy hit me with the sort of stat that I find irresistible.

Murphy’s research turned up that only 50 players in league history — including active players — have played for only one NBA franchise and for of a span of at least 10 seasons. I knew as soon as I heard him bring up in the topic as part of an ode to Klay Thompson’s special stature with the Golden State Warriors that I would want to feature the whole list in the next Tuesday Newsletter Extravaganza … including the four active players listed in italics.

So here goes:

21 seasons: Dirk Nowitzki (Dallas from 1998-98 through 2018-19)

20 seasons: Kobe Bryant (Los Angeles Lakers from 1996-97 through 2015-16)

20 seasons: Udonis Haslem (Miami from 2003-04 through 2022-23)

19 seasons: John Stockton (Utah from 1984-85 through 2002-03)

19 seasons: Tim Duncan (San Antonio from 1997-98 through 2015-16)

18 seasons: Reggie Miller (Indiana from 1987-88 through 2004-05)

16 seasons: John Havlicek (Boston from 1962-63 through 1977-78)

16 seasons: Manu Ginóbili (San Antonio from 2002-03 through 2017-18)

15 seasons: Dolph Schayes (Syracuse Nationals/Philadelphia 76ers from 1949–50 through 1963-64)

15 seasons: Hal Greer (Syracuse Nationals/Philadelphia 76ers from 1958-59 through 1972-73)

14 seasons: Elgin Baylor (Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lakers from 1958-59 through 1970-71)

14 seasons: Jerry West (Los Angeles Lakers from 1960-61 through 1973-74)

14 seasons: Joe Dumars (Detroit from 1985–86 through 1998-99)

14 seasons: David Robinson (San Antonio from 1989-90 through 2002-03)

14 seasons: Nick Collison (Seattle SuperSonics/Oklahoma City Thunder from 2004-05 through 2017-18)

14 seasons: Stephen Curry (Golden State from 2009-10 to present)

13 seasons: Bill Russell (Boston from 1956-57 through 1968-69)

13 seasons: Satch Sanders (Boston from 1960-61 through 1972-73)

13 seasons: Wes Unseld (Baltimore/Capital/Washington Bullets from 1968-69 through 1980-81)

13 seasons: Calvin Murphy (San Diego/Houston Rockets from 1970-71 through 1982-83)

13 seasons: Fred Brown (Seattle from 1971-72 through 1983-84)

13 seasons: Alvan Adams (Phoenix from 1975-76 through 1987-88)

13 seasons: Larry Bird (Boston from 1979-80 through 1991-92)

13 seasons: Magic Johnson (Los Angeles Lakers from 1979-80 through 1990-91 and 1995-96)

13 seasons: Isiah Thomas (Detroit from 1981-82 through 1993-94)

13 seasons: Kevin McHale (Boston from 1980-81 through 1992-93)

13 seasons: Jeff Foster (Indiana from 1999-2000 through 2011-12)

12 seasons: Sam Jones (Boston from 1957-58 through 1968-69)

12 seasons: Michael Cooper (Los Angeles Lakers from 1978-79 through 1989-90)

12 seasons: James Worthy (Los Angeles Lakers from 1982-83 through 1993-94)

12 seasons: Nate McMillan (Seattle from 1986-97 through 1997-98)

12 seasons: Rik Smits (Indiana from 1988-89 through 1999-2000)

11 seasons: Bob Pettit (Milwaukee/St. Louis Hawks from 1954-55 through 1964-65)

11 seasons: Jack Twyman (Rochester/Cincinnati Royals from 1955-56 through 1965-66)

11 seasons: Al Attles (Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors from 1960-61 through 1970-71)

11 seasons: Rudy Tomjanovich (San Diego/Houston Rockets from 1970-71 through 1980-81)

11 seasons: Julius Erving (Philadelphia from 1976-77 through 1986-87)

11 seasons: Mark Eaton (Utah from 1982-83 through 1992-93)

11 seasons: Draymond Green (Golden State Warriors from 2012-13 through present)

10 seasons: Vern Mikkelsen (Minneapolis Lakers from 1949-50 through 1958-59)

10 seasons: Paul Arizin (Philadelphia Warriors from 1950-51 through 1951-52 and 1954-55 through 1961-62)

10 seasons: Al Bianchi (Syracuse Nationals/Philadelphia 76ers from 1956-57 through 1965-66)

10 seasons: Cliff Hagan (St. Louis Hawks from 1956-57 through 1965-66)

10 seasons: Willis Reed (New York from 1964-65 through 1973-74)

10 seasons: Bill Bradley (New York from 1967-68 through 1976-77)

10 seasons: Tom Boerwinkle (Chicago from 1968-69 through 1977-78)

10 seasons: Allen Leavell (Houston from 1979-80 through 1988-89)

10 seasons: Darrell Griffith (Utah from 1980-81 through 1984-85 and 1986-87 through 1990-91)

10 seasons: Klay Thompson (Golden State from 2011-12 through 2018-19 and 2022-23 through present … with Thompson losing two full seasons to injury)

10 seasons: Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee from 2013-14 through present)

I like the logo for The Raptors Show so much that I felt compelled to include it.

The four active players in this exclusive club, of course, are Giannis and the three pillars of Golden State’s four championship teams in a space of nine seasons: Steph, Klay and Dray.

Yet it should be noted that five current players are one season away from joining the club: Denver’s Nikola Jokić, Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns, Phoenix’s Devin Booker, Indiana’s Myles Turner and one more Warrior: Kevon Looney.

The basketball romantic in me likewise can’t help but wonder about various Hall of Famers (Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon and Tony Parker among them) who forfeited their one-team legacies by indulging in a late-career dalliance with another team.

Great list, Blake.

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More single-elimination please

I’m really not trying to sound like a know-it-all here, but I think you could see in both games Monday night why I’ve been endlessly harping on the league to make more of its In-Season Tournament a single-elimination event going forward.

That is the surest route to injecting the IST with some meaningful novelty, as opposed to the cosmetic stuff like gaudy court designs and alternate jerseys, to set it apart from the NBA’s regular-season and playoff product. The clunky group stage format that the league has adopted, even though I totally understand why this ultra-safe route was chosen in Year 1, has been the primary turn-off for me (and what I hope is tweaked first as changes are instituted).

I’ve been pretty confident from the start that the knockout rounds of the IST would be well-received. This thing will undoubtedly feel like a tournament at last later this week when Indiana, New Orleans and two more teams join them for the neutral-site semifinals in Las Vegas, but even Monday night’s first two quarterfinals (Indiana dominating visiting Boston late and New Orleans upsetting host Sacramento) were intensity-charged and had tangible win-or-go-home feel.

I’ve also been convinced from the start that the NBA knows this, too. It knows that a single-elimination concept, which is so different from everything else #thisleague does, is what generates the juice … or else the script for the short film (The Heist) linked below to hype up the IST starring Michael Imperioli wouldn’t have made such a big deal about single-elimination inside the first 10 seconds:

The Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton had never played a game on TNT before his first career triple-double (26 points, 10 rebounds and 13 assists … and amazingly with zero turnovers) inflicted a fresh helping of crunch-time misery for the Celtics to digest and dissect. The Pelicans’ Zion Williamson has likewise never played in an NBA playoff game, so New Orleans’ third successive victory over the Kings this season was a significant deal for Zion and Co. as well.

What awaits this weekend in the desert will hopefully be even better.

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Numbers Game

🏀 8

The Detroit Pistons went 0-15 in November to become just the eighth team in league history, according to research from my fellow Substacker

Justin Kubatko

, to go winless in a month in which they played at least 15 games.

🏀 7

The previous seven teams on that list courtesy of Kubatko:

• Philadelphia (November 2015)

• Charlotte (April 2012)

• Cleveland (January 2011)

• Vancouver (March 1996)

• Orlando (December 1991)

• Golden State (January 1985)

• Utah (March 1982)

🏀 1

Victor Wembanyama lost out to Oklahoma City's Chet Holmgren for Rookie of the Month honors in the Western Conference but still had a solid October/November despite 3-16 San Antonio's obvious struggles. Wembanyama averaged 20.1 points and 10.3 rebounds per game in his first month in the NBA to become the first teenager in league history, per Kubatko, to hit those benchmarks over the course of a month. The last rookie to average at least 20 points and 10 rebounds for a month, according to Kubatko, was Minnesota's Karl-Anthony Towns in March 2016.

🏀 8

Denver's Nikola Jokić leads the league with eight double-doubles this season. Dallas' Luka Dončić is next in line with three.

🏀 30

Saturday night's ridiculous 30-0 run by the Mavericks against visiting Oklahoma City before the Thunder steadied themselves to beat injury-depleted Dallas after blowing that massive lead? I sadly didn't see any of it in person because I was working in a nearby TV studio that night on the broadcast of New Orleans' loss at Chicago.

🏀 2

Dončić's 36 points, 15 rebounds and 18 assists in that game marked the second 35-15-and-15 of his career. The only other player in league history with multiple 35-15-and-15 games besides Dončić is Oscar Robertson, who did it five times.

🏀 3

Only three other players in league history, Kubatko notes, have posted a 35-15-and-15 game: Wilt Chamberlain (February 1968), James Harden (December 2016) and Jokić (December 2022) have one each. 

🏀 91.4

Philadelphia's Joel Embiid averaged 32.2 points, 11.5 rebounds and 6.5 assists per game in November while also shooting a remarkable 91.4% from the free throw. The last player to hit each of those benchmarks for an entire month, according to Kubatko's research, was Boston's Larry Bird in February 1988.

🏀 6

Thanks to Tuesday's Suns-at-Lakers matchup in the quarterfinals of the NBA's inaugural In-Season Tournament, LeBron James and Kevin Durant will square off for the third time in six weeks after they did not play against each other for a span of nearly five years coming into the season. After the stars dueled in Cleveland at Golden State on Christmas Day 2018, either James or Durant missed their teams’ next 13 meetings.

🏀 404

Good stat from the NBA's new Starting 5 newsletter: From Oct. 24, 2022, through Dec. 1, 2023 — spanning just 404 days — Durant moved from No. 21 to No. 10 on the league's all-time scoring list. Here is a list of the 10 players Durant passed: 

• 20th: Alex English on Oct. 24, 2022

• 19th: Vince Carter on Oct. 31, 2022

• 18th: Kevin Garnett on Nov 23, 2022

• 17th/16th: John Havlicek and Paul Pierce on Dec 18, 2022

• 15th: Tim Duncan on Dec. 26, 2022

• 14th: Dominique Wilkins on Jan. 8, 2023

• 13th: Oscar Robertson on Mar. 3, 2023

• 12th: Hakeem Olajuwon on Oct. 26, 2023

• 11th: Elvin Hayes on Nov. 21, 2023

• 10th: Moses Malone on Dec. 1, 2023

🏀 1,147

With 1,147 more points, which would appear within reach this season if Durant stays healthy, Phoenix's high-scoring forward will pass No. 9 Carmelo Anthony (28,289) and No. 8 Shaquille O'Neal (28,596) on the all-time scoring list.

🏀 3-17

Quite a stat from another fellow Substacker (

Tom Haberstroh

) that has been making the rounds for good reason:

🏀 97.1

I’m on the radio Saturdays from noon to 1 PM CT on 97.1 (FM) The Freak in Dallas with an hour of live NBA talk presented by Panini Trading Cards and Collectibles. Join us online by clicking the link embedded in this sentence or via the iHeart radio app to listen to The Saturday Stein Line on this or any Saturday ... or catch the podcasted version of the show once it drops via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or #whereveryougetyourpodcasts: