There are three ways to score in basketball; one-point free throws, two-point field goals, or three-point field goals. Since there's no guarantee you're going to get fouled, let's ignore free throws for right now. The most efficient way to do that is to hit enough lay-ups or close-range shots to hit 50. That's 25 made shots, which isn't impossible, but not easy. In NBA history, only three players have ever made 25 shots in one game. But let's say you want to hit 50 quickly, then the three-ball is more useful for this. 3 is more than 2, and it's more fun. Well, you'd need to make 17 threes to reach 50. The most anybody has ever made in an NBA game is 14 by Klay Thompson. So yeah, you'd need to be a God-tier three-point shooter to cross 50 on threes alone. But it doesn't end there. You're likely not going to shoot 25 and hit all 25. You're likely going to be missing shots, and if you're shooting the average field goal percentage (46%) in the NBA this season, you're taking around 54 shots. If you're taking threes and shooting the league average (35.7%), then that's about 47 shots you're taking beyond the mark. There is a workaround where you'd get fouled and make a three for a four-point play opportunity 13 times, but again, that's never guaranteed. And on top of this, you've got a limited amount of time to do this, and it's highly unlikely you'd be playing all 48 minutes of the game. So, best-case scenario, you've got to hit 13 threes while being fouled and make all 13 free throws in the limited playing time you've got. So yeah...easier said than done, and the numbers show it.
Out of the 4,811 players listed in the Basketball-Reference.com player directory, only 145 have scored 50 or more points in at least one game, a little over 3% of the total players. Looking at the list of 145, you'll see some obvious names. Michael Jordan's done it 31 times, Kobe Bryant did it 25 times, LeBron James has done it 12 times. James Harden is arguably the best scorer in the NBA right now, and he's got 23 games where he scored 50 to his name. And of course, Wilt Chamberlain, arguably the most physically dominant player in the history of the league, has more 50-point games than anyone in history with 118, 87 more than Jordan, who has the second most. But those guys aren't who I want to talk about. I want to talk about the improbable 50-point scorers. The guys who had a hard time cracking 30, let alone 50. Mo Williams was a one-time all-star and 32-years old when he suddenly erupted for the 52 in 2015 after only scoring over 40 twice in his career. Caris LeVert had never scored above 37 before he dropped 51 back in April this year. Hell, as I was writing this, TJ Warren lit up the bubble and the 76ers for 53 points after only breaking 40 once. And then there's this guy:
Tony Delk, the man with the most improbable 50-point game in NBA history.
So who is Tony Delk? Delk came into the NBA in 1996 after playing four years at the University of Kentucky, where he led the Wildcats to a National Championship in his senior year. Delk was selected 16th overall in the 1996 draft by the Charlotte Hornets and went on to have a decent, but an unremarkable career, playing 10 years with eight different teams and averaging 9.1 points and 2.5 rebounds per game while shooting 41% from the field and 34% from three-point range. Again, decent, but unremarkable...except for one game. In 2001, Delk was on the Phoenix Suns as they took on the Sacramento Kings. At this point in his career, the highest Delk had ever scored was 26. For the rest of his career after this game, the highest he ever scored was 27. Against the Sacramento Kings, a team that went 55-27 that year in 2001, Tony Delk scored 53 points on 20-for-27 shooting. That is not a typo. The man who's career-high before this game was 26, more than doubled it and only crossed half of that once after it. How? Well, there are several situations where someone can have a 50-point game in the NBA. The interesting thing, though, is that Tony Delk's 50-point game goes against every single one of those situations.
First off, the easy way to hit 50 is simple, just be really, really good at basketball. Nine of the 10 players with the most 50-point games in NBA history are either a former MVP or a Hall of Famer. Tony Delk was a solid player...but he's not Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant. Not by a long shot. Then there's another situation; Delk was on a bad team that needed someone to score. "Empty stats" are generally seen as good stat lines that mean nothing because the team is bad, and the worst empty stats are the ones put up by career role players because there is no one else who can score. It's why a guy like Evan Turner can average 17.4 on a 19-63 76ers team, and then never come close to averaging that when he leaves.
So, were the 2001 Phoenix Suns bad? No. In fact, they were pretty far from it. The Suns went 51-31 that season, and Delk was far from the best player on that squad. He was the fourth-highest scorer behind all-star Jason Kidd, Shawn Marion, and Cliff Robinson. And all three of them were active in Delk's superstar performance. So no, this wasn't a situation where someone had to score the points, and Delk just so happened to be the guy to do it.
The final situation is one we see commonly from out of nowhere monster scoring performances; the end-of-the-year meaningless game. Aside from teams competing for a playoff spot or a better playoff seed, odds are the majority of teams have either locked down a high playoff seed or are already eliminated from playoff contention by the end of season. This leads to a game where the starters get much-needed rest and instead teams give the reserves more playing time. This leads to some deceptive great games, like Grayson Allen scoring 40 points at the end of the season after only breaking 20 once, or how JaKarr Sampson can average 20 points per game for the 2018-19 season...because he only played four games in April. However, the most famous example of this is Corey Brewer, who never scored more than 29 points except for one game in 2014. With the Minnesota Timberwolves out of playoff contention and their only good player in Kevin Love not playing, Brewer erupted for 51 points.
But was that the case for Tony Delk? Well, the common theme for Allen, Sampson, and Brewer was that they had their performances in April when the season was all but over at that point. Tony Delk's 53-point performance came on January 2nd, 29-games into the season. The Suns were nowhere near out of playoff contention, but were also not off to the best start, sitting at 18-10 before the game. They were still very much fighting for a top spot in the Western Conference.
Tony Delk scored 53 points in a single NBA game. He'd never scored over 30 points before that or after that. He was not a superstar player by any stretch of the imagination. He didn't play on a bad team. He wasn't the only scoring option and had multiple players who routinely scored more than him. His better teammates weren't injured or resting. He didn't hit that 50-mark in an April game when the season was already over. Tony Delk went against everything that makes a 50-point performance possible, and that's what makes it so crazy. The Suns didn't even win this game, but it's still a memorable one because it produced the most unlikely 50-point game the NBA has ever seen.
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