On The Night Deron Williams Set An NBA Record, Reggie Evans Made NBA History In A Weird Way

Reggie Evans, Keith Bogans
Reggie Evans, celebrating his final free throws. (AP)

Reggie Evans, celebrating his final free throws. (AP)
Unless you’ve been completely disconnected from the NBA these last few days while circumnavigating the globe, you’ve probably heard that Brooklyn Nets guard Deron Williams set an NBA record for most three-pointers in a half with nine Friday night in a 95-78 victory over the Washington Wizards. After hitting his first seven attempts — including six before the game’s first timeout — Williams eventually settled with 11 total three-point makes on the night, just one short of the NBA record for threes in a game.

But Brooklyn Nets forward Reggie Evans joined a much weirder, statistically odd group of players that night. Evans finished the game with a career-high 24 rebounds and, thanks to a fruitless Hack-A-Reggie strategy from the Wizards in the fourth quarter, 16 free throw attempts. That makes him just the seventh player since 1986 (when data is available) to join that list, joining the likes of Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O’Neal, Dwight Howard, and Charles Barkley. There are also a couple of duds on that list, but what makes Evans’s so impressive is that he did it in just 32 minutes — no one else on the list, including the Hall of Famers, reached those figures in less than 40. Check out the chart, courtesy of blog Dancing With Noah:

Evans is also the oldest player in NBA history to reach those numbers in a game, at 32 years and 294 days. Barkley was the only other player who did it after 30.

Hat tip to fendo of Dancing With Noah for doing the research.