Lakers Shaquille O'Neal Scores 61 On Birthday

On March 6, 2000, Shaquille O’Neal scores 61 points on his birthday. Turning 28 years old, the Los Angeles Lakers ‘big man’ O’Neal scores a career high 61 against the Los Angeles Clippers ‘on the road’.

Los Angeles Lakers Shaquille O'Neal (left) backing down Detroit Pistons Ben Wallace (right).

A side note of the story was O’Neal had asked the Clippers to give seats for his family on his birthday, the Clippers denied his request and O’Neal was forced to spend money to purchase seats for his family.

In 45 minutes against the Clippers, O’Neal scored 61 points going 24-35 from the field, made 13-22 free throw attempts, pulled down 23 rebounds as the Lakers beat the Clippers 123-103.

O’Neal’s 61 points on his birthday, were the most the NBA had seen any player score on his birthday, and the first 60-20 performance since 1969, when Wilt Chamberlain accomplished the same feat.

O’Neal would end up winning his only MVP award of his career that season.

NBA Suspends Rodman Indefinitely

On Jan. 17, 1997, ESPN reports bad boy Dennis Rodman was suspended indefinitely by the NBA season due to the first lockout that actually went on during the NBA season.

Rodman kicked a courtside cameraman and was fined $25,000 for the incident. Rodman was reinstated and went on to become one of the top rebounders in the league.

Rodman started his career in Detroit with the Pistons, after being drafted 27^th overall in the second round of the 1986 NBA Draft. On the Pistons, Rodman was part of the “Bad Boys” for their hard-nosed approach to basketball.

The squad featured Isaiah Thomas and Joe Dumars at the guard positions, Adrian Dantley and Sidney Green at forward, and center Bill Laimbeer.

Rodman would play with the Pistons from 1986-1993 and would earn two NBA Championships with the Detroit franchise. He would earn two NBA Defensive Player of the Year awards, two All-Star nominations, one All-NBA Third Team nomination in 1992, five NBA All-Defensive First Team nominations and two NBA Rebounding Champion awards.

The Detroit Pistons would retire his no. 10 jersey in 2011.

After his first five years with the Pistons, Rodman would move to the San Antonio Spurs for three years from 1993-1995. With the Spurs, Rodman would continue his dominance as a defensive presence, winning another All-Defensive First Team award in 1995, as well All-Defensive Second Team award in 1994, while earning the NBA Rebounding Champion every year in San Antonio. He would also earn another All-NBA Third Team award in 1995.

After his short stint with the Spurs, Rodman would make his best career move, joining the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan on his first return from retirement. During his four years with the Bulls, Rodman would win four more NBA Rebounding Champion awards, one more All-Defensive First Team award, and most importantly three more NBA-Championships from 1996-1998.

After the 1998 season Rodman would leave the Bulls for the Los Angeles Lakers. He would only play one year with the Lakers, during the lockout-shortened season he would only see action in 23 games before being released.

In the 2000 season Rodman would join the Dallas Mavericks. For the Mavericks, he played 12 games, was ejected twice and alienated the franchise with his erratic behavior until he was waived again; then Dallas guard and teammate Steve Nash commented that Rodman "never wanted to be [a Maverick]" and therefore was unmotivated.

After leaving the NBA in 2000, Rodman went on a hiatus from basketball for three years until picking up with Long Beach Jam of the newly-formed American Basketball Association during the 2003–2004 season, with hopes of being called up to the NBA midseason.

In the following 2004–2005 season, he signed with the ABA's Orange County Crush and the following season with the league's Tijuana Dragons.

After retiring from wrestling, Rodman became Commissioner of the Lingerie Football League in 2005.

In 2005, Rodman also made two visits to Finland. At first, he was present at Sonkajärvi in July in a wife-carrying contest. However, he resigned from the contest due to health problems. In November, he played one match for Torpan Pojat of the Finland's basketball league, Korisliiga.

That same year, Rodman published his second autobiography I Should Be Dead By Now and promoted this by sitting in a coffin.

The return to the NBA never materialized, but on Jan. 26, 2006, it was announced that Rodman had signed a one-game "experiment" deal for the UK basketball team Brighton Bears of the British Basketball League to play Guildford Heat on January 28, and went on to play three games for the Bears.

In spring 2006, he played two exhibition games in the Philippines along with NBA ex-stars Darryl Dawkins, Kevin Willis, Calvin Murphy, Otis Birdsong and Alex English. On April 27, they defeated a team of former Philippine Basketball Association stars in Mandaue City, Cebu and Rodman scored five points and grabbed 18 rebounds.

On May 1, 2006, Rodman's team played their second game and lost to the Philippine National Basketball team 110–102 at the Araneta Coliseum, where he scored three points and recorded 16 rebounds.

Apart from basketball, Rodman is a retired part-time professional wrestler and actor. He was a member of the NWO and fought alongside Hulk Hogan at two Bash at the Beach events. He had his own TV show The Rodman World Tour, and had lead roles in the action films Simon Sez and Double Team alongside Jean-Claude Van Damme. Both films were critically panned, with the latter earning Rodman a triple Razzie Award. He appeared in several reality TV series and was the winner of the $222,000 main prize of the 2004 edition of Celebrity Mole. Rodman won the first ever Celebrity Championship Wrestling tournament.

On April 4, 2011, it was announced that Rodman would be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

This year Rodman got into some hot water with the media for his comments made during his trip to North Korea.

Highest Scoring NBA Game Ever

On Dec. 13, 1983, the highest scoring NBA game ever takes place.

In 1983, the Detroit Pistons defeated the Denver Nuggets by a stunning score of 186-184.

The game was tied 145-145 at the end of regulation.

The game went to three overtimes but it is still a remarkable amount of points in one game.

Each team had two players score at least 41 points in the contest.

Kiki Vandeweghe had 51 points for the Nuggets while Isaiah Thomas 47 for the Pistons.

Basketball Association of America Is Born

On Nov. 1, 1946, professional basketball was officially born.

The Basketball Association of America was founded in 1946 by owners of the major ice hockey arenas in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and Canada.

On Nov. 1, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the Toronto Huskies hosted the New York Knickerbockers at Maple Leaf Gardens, in a game the NBA now regards as the first played in its history.

Although there had been earlier attempts at professional basketball leagues, including the American Basketball League and the NBL, the BAA was the first league to attempt to play primarily in large arenas in major cities.

During its early years, the quality of play in the BAA was not significantly better than in competing leagues or among leading independent clubs such as the Harlem Globetrotters.

For instance, the 1948 ABL finalist Baltimore Bullets moved to the BAA and won that league's 1948 title, and the 1948 NBL champion Minneapolis Lakers won the 1949 BAA title.

On August 3, 1949, the BAA agreed to merge with the NBL, creating the new National Basketball Association.

The new league had seventeen franchises located in a mix of large and small cities, as well as large arenas and smaller gymnasiums and armories.

In 1950, the NBA consolidated to eleven franchises, a process that continued until 1953–54, when the league reached its smallest size of eight franchises, all of which are still in the league (the New York Knicks, Boston Celtics, Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers, Royals/Kings, Detroit Pistons, Atlanta Hawks, and Nationals/76ers). 

The process of contraction saw the league's smaller-city franchises move to larger cities. The Hawks shifted from "Tri-Cities" (the area now known as the Quad Cities) to Milwaukee (in 1951) and then to St. Louis, Missouri (in 1955); the Royals from Rochester, New York to Cincinnati (in 1957); and the Pistons from Fort Wayne, Indiana to Detroit (in 1957).

Since the NBA has been formed the Boston Celtics have won the most titles with 17.