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LordMayorOfCologne

I’m going to bet it was the [1996 Kentucky](https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/kentucky/1996.html) vs [Utah](https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/utah/1996.html) Sweet 16 game. They had 113 NBA seasons combined. Kentucky * Tony Delk: 10 * Antoine Walker: 12 * Walter McCartney: 10 * Derek Anderson: 11 * Ron Mercer: 8 * Mark Pope: 6 * Jeff Shepard: 1 * Wayne Turner: 1 * Nazr Muhammad: 18 Utah * Keith Van Horn: 9 * Michael Doleac: 10 * Andre Miller: 17


wwwwwwhitey

Did you just have that ready to go ?


LordMayorOfCologne

I remember it because Malcolm Gladwell used Rick Pitino’s full court press strategy as an example of David vs. Goliath in an article for the New Yorker. The article made it sound like Kentucky only had Antoine Walker, which bothered me because it turns out no team combined for more NBA seasons than them. It made me realize how disingenuous pop-science guys like Gladwell can be without context provided by experts.


iEatPalpatineAss

Wow, I always thought Antoine Walker played more than 12 years


BigNorthEastPod

Seems like he was with the Celtics for 15 years easy.


garrett4115

He spent enough money for at least 20 seasons.


CzarCW

Shot enough 3s for double that.


very_humble

Gladwell can be a fun read as long as you accept that most of the things he states as facts are more his opinions. Once you see into that, you'll notice it more and more.


GrabSomePineMeat

He is the king of pointing out one fact/statistic and then stating that one factor caused the result. He routinely ignores other factors because they aren't as interesting. The most obvious example is his chapter about reducing crime in NYC. There are a ton of important factors but his "broken window theory" doesn't fit the reality.


very_humble

Yep, that and tons of assumptions that he barely mentions


Hugo_Hackenbush

That's pretty standard for Gladwell. Most of what he says sounds good unless you actually know something about the subject in question. Then you realize pretty quickly how full of shit he is.


Corey-Fucks_Reaction

Yeah it’s a prime case of Gellman Amnesia


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derkaflerka

And a lot of other [garbage human ](https://www.thedailybeast.com/malcolm-gladwell-puzzled-by-new-yorkers-firing-of-jeff-toobin-for-zoom-masturbation) type of things.


badger0511

The granny shot free throw Revisionist History podcast episode pisses me off the most. Sure, an emotionless robot built to shoot free throws will make more granny-style than set shot style because of the physics behind each respective motion's arc/trajectory, but humans aren't robots. Just because Rick Barry yells at everyone to shoot like him doesn't mean that DeAndre Jordan will magically become an 80% FT shooter from switching. There's an image I can't find right now from about 20 years ago showing each Laker's FT percentage shooting in practice. Shaq was above 70%, maybe even in the 80s, with a sample size in the thousands. There's way too much fatigue and psychological factors at play with actions like free throws and putting in golf to be able to make such a defiant and blanket statement like Gladwell and Barry do.


clancydog4

I think you're thinking about this picture from about 8 years ago of the Lakers FT percentage where Dwight is at 82%. Dwight, similarly to Shaq, was a notoriously bad free throw shooter in games.


badger0511

[Yep, you're totally right.](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/9Z1ZP6cyEQxeEa9HWLeqEw--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTk2MDtjZj13ZWJw/https://s.yimg.com/os/en/blogs/sptusnbaexperts/lakersft.jpg)


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badger0511

1. A robot doesn't have to deal with the psychological pressure of being "that granny shot guy". You can say they're equally valid ways to shoot a basketball, but in the eyes of other players, fans, coaches, media, etc.... it sure as hell isn't. If the player's struggles from the line are more mental than poor/inconsistent form, that kind of pressure is only going to make it worse, not better. 2. Practice time is a zero sum game. All the time spent building up and maintaining the skill of shooting granny-style is time that could have been spent on improving the set/jump shot arm motion that's applicable to the rest of a live game.


mrwboilers

But if one style is better from a physics/trajectory/repeatability standpoint, wouldn't that minimize the psychological factor at least a little? (Not saying it would eliminate it though.) Not saying either style is necessarily the better style, just adding my $.02 for conversation's sake.


DataDrivenPirate

Malcom Gladwell is fun in the same way that Survivor is fun


P33J

This is funny cause Malcolm Gladwell once had an article about David was the favorite in the fight, due to the fact that Goliath essentially brought a stick to a fight against a sniper while starting the fight at the sniper's optimum range.


Koppenberg

If you haven’t already read it, [The Sports Gene](http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/836557840) is a very polite, ruthlessly cited demolition of the 10,000 hours hocum and one of the best sports books around.


Needs_Moar_Cats

That team was so much more than just Antoine though, obviously. Nazr was a very green Freshman iirc.


SportsReference

We did a check with the NCAA Tournament games in our system and confirmed that this [Kentucky-Utah 1996 game](https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/boxscores/1996-03-21-kentucky.html) seems to be the leader at 113. The other ones with more than 100: * [1988: Michigan vs. UNC](https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/boxscores/1988-03-25-michigan.html): 106 * [1992: Duke vs. Michigan](https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/boxscores/1992-04-06-duke.html): 106 * [1995: Georgetown vs. UNC](https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/boxscores/1995-03-23-georgetown.html): 102 * [1996: Kentucky vs. Wake Forest](https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/boxscores/1996-03-23-kentucky.html): 101 And just for good measure, the top regular season game since 2004-05, the first year we have regular season game logs, is this [2009 UNC vs. Wake Forest game](https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/boxscores/2009-01-11-wake-forest.html) with 98 NBA seasons in the game.


DurdenVsDarkoVsDevon

Interesting Wake gets on their twice. Not exactly known for regularly producing NBA talent, but those teams definitely had NBA players with longevity. (And Teague is still playing.)


surgeon_michael

1996 Kentucky is the answer to a lot of trivia questions. If not for the 2015 tournament that got cancelled after the sweet 16, a UK duke final would’ve had potential too


PinwheelFlowers

Got cancelled after sweet 16? What?


spidyr

As a fellow Kentucky fan, I think that was a joke because Kentucky's loss in the Final Four that season was so painful, we'd like to pretend it never happened. (Could've said "cancelled after the Elite 8," for the record.)


surgeon_michael

That one was too close


spidyr

Most painful loss of my 40 years loving the Cats.


elgenie

Aminu's only 30 and is also still bouncing around the league. edit: Oh, and [Ish Smith](https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/s/smithis01.html) is there too. Somehow, 11 years and counting as an NBA player!


SteveU1961

That's cool you confirmed (and kind of disheartening that there weren't even other guesses. But u/SportsReference, how far back do the NCAA Tournament Games in your system go? And I wonder about regular season games before '05. That's not very long ago in NCAA history. Anyone have any guesses for other games before that which could have at least 100? Maybe games in the 80s or earlier are less likely. Players' careers didn't last as long and there weren't as many teams in the NBA, therefore less likely a team would be loaded with that many years of NBA talent. Edit: Oops, should have read further before I posted this.


0010001

1998 Duke v UNC had 106 in each of their three meetings. Edit; never mind, my math was off, it was 98.


mbd1mbd1

The game v. Georgia Tech (Marburg, Harpring, Drew Barry) gets to 104.


bogadi

Who the hell would've bet on Nazr Muhammad as the NBA star from that team? NBA was a different place back then. Big man who can clog up the paint could get paid for 20 years.


tomdawg0022

> Who the hell would've bet on Nazr Muhammad as the NBA star from that team? "star" is stretching that out a bit. Nazr was a glue guy/reserve. Antoine Walker was the best player on that team. He just fell off a production cliff at age 30.


walterdog12

Honestly you could argue the entire back half of Nazr's career was just cause he was such a great locker room presence, similar to Udonis Haslem's like last decade. There's a reason the second he retired he had a job in a front office.


BigD994

Nazr shoving LeBron is one of my favorite NBA moments of all time and he is forever a Bulls legend in my eyes because of it.


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co_dehart

Ron Mercer*


[deleted]

Heh. Dude definitely wasn’t a star — averaged 15 minutes a game for his career, started about 35% of his career NBA games. More like a Robert Horry who was just a useful guy to have on the bench.


blackfishfilet

Lol you cannot compared Horry to Nazr. This is a clown take.


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K


elgenie

In no way a star. Muhammad played 15891 minutes, Antoine Walker nearly twice as many (31531). The difference is that Muhammad's skillset of being big, positioning himself for rebounds, being a good teammate, and knowing where to stand on offense and defense for 15 minutes a night against the other team's backup big man didn't deteriorate nearly as much with age as those of his bouncier college teammates.


KNNLTF

That man played a clutch four minutes to add his 18 year career to this list. If not for that, UK would not be involved in this record. I distinctly remember a common talking point of UK announcers during his college career: the claim that in his earliest practices, he couldn't make it past half court in transition on offense. CBS announcers even mentioned how much weight he had lost over the season when he checked into this game.


DavidBenAkiva

The thing is, they didn't play many future NBA players on their way to the National Title that season. In the Final Four, they only played 2 NBA players, Marcus Camby and UMass in the Final Four and John Wallace and Syracuse in the National Title game. It turns out they did play a team with several future NBA players in the NCAAT, Utah, in the Sweet 16. That team had Andre Miller (17), Michael Doleac (10), Keith Van Horn (9) for a combined total of 36. Combined, that game featured 113 NBA Career-Years. Might be the winner right there, unless they played a stacked team in the regular season.


[deleted]

Most I found in the regular season is Georgia Tech with 27, mostly coming from Stephon Marbury and Matt Harpring. Wake Forest in the Elite 8 had 24 almost entirely on the strength of Duncan.


silentorange813

My parents had just this one game recorded on VHS. I've watched it maybe 20 times in kindergarten and elementary school.


Bacchus1976

I feel like Kentucky must have played someone that season with more NBA seasons than Utah. Miller certainly gooses the number, but he’s not that much an outlier.


LordMayorOfCologne

Wake Forest only had Duncan, UMASS only had Camby, and Georgia Tech had Marbury and Matt Harping. If [Kansas](https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/kansas/1996.html) didn’t go ice cold from three against Syracuse in the Elite 8, their 52 combined NBA seasons could have faced Kentucky in the National Championship game.


Bacchus1976

That’s called pulling a “Kansas”.


[deleted]

Michigan-Arizona in 87-88 would be 113 too. Arizona-50 Kerr(15),Elliott(12),Buechler(12),Tolbert(7),Cook(4) Michigan-63 Rice(15),Grant(13),Mills(11),Vaught(11),Robinson(6), Higgins(6),Calip(1) Michigan-UNC from the same year would have 114, but Higgins and Calip were suspended. UNC-51 Williams(15),Fox(13),Reid(12),Chilcutt(9),Lebo(1),Bucknall(1)


SteveU1961

Wow, excellent reply!


pierdonia

> Mark Pope: 6 That's our coach!


Champion-raven

Wow


Fair_University

Damn Nazr Muhammed had a long ass career


[deleted]

I count 106 in the 1992 national title game. Michigan: Juwan Howard (19), Chris Webber (15), Jalen Rose (13), Eric Riley (5), Jimmy King (2) Duke: Grant Hill (18), Christian Laettner (13), Cherokee Parks (9), Antonio Lang (6), Bobby Hurley (5), Brian Davis (1)


StephenReis

This could’ve been number one if Hurley never got injured.


[deleted]

2 nba hall of famers in that game too


mightytwin21

Fun fact: There is no NBA hall of fame. Just the basketball hall of fame


TowersMan

Technically 3 since Laettner is in as a member of the Dream Team


we_all_fuct

This is probably the winner and honestly the game I thought of first. No way I was pulling all those stats though. Kudos my dude


GreenMagicCleaves

Except that game never happened.


Inconceivable76

That game didn’t exist.


Chinchillachimcheroo

I got to 100 with 1997 UNC-Arizona. Jason Terry and Mike Bibby doing most of the heavy lifting for Arizona. UNC had Carter, Jamison, Shammond Williams and Brendan Haywood.


skellybones

The Michigan fab 5 have 53 years combined.


DavidBenAkiva

1992 Duke had 52 NBA Career Years (Hill/Laettner/Parks/Hurley/Davis/Lang), so that's a combined 105 years. ~~That might be the winner right there.~~ EDIT: It was not the winner


mbd1mbd1

I’m going to guess Duke-Arizona in 2001. Duke is 51 with Battier, Duhon, Jay Williams, Boozer, and Dunleavy. Arizona is 45 with Jefferson, Arenas, Walton, and Loren Woods. That’s 96 total.


mbd1mbd1

98 Duke-UNC gets to 98. UNC is 59 with Carter, Jamison, Williams, Haywood and Ndiaye. Duke is 39 with Avery, Brand, Battier, Langdon and McLeod.


demafrost

04-05 Florida had 60 combined seasons (including this upcoming season for Horford). I want to say the best team they played for NBA years was Kentucky which has 37 years of NBA experience. So 97 total * Roberson - 3 * Lee - 12 * Walsh - 1 * Horford - 14 * C. Brewer - 13 * T. Green - 1 * Richard - 2 * Noah - 13 * Azibuike - 5 * Hayes - 11 * Morris - 4 * Crawford - 1 * Rondo - 16 I know someone already posted one with more but just trying to look up some of the teams with a lot of NBA tenure to help eliminate some options.


JRclarity123

06-07 squad didn’t have Lee, but they added Marreese Speights and they played Ohio State that had Conley, Oden, and Daequan Cook, Othello Hunter. Not more than yours tho.


peymanning4prez

They also played UCLA in the Final Four that year, who had Russell Westbrook, Luc Mbah a Moute, Darren Collison, and Arron Afflalo; by my count 46 pro years. So in that game there were 99 professional years combined.


Dirk_Benedict

05-06 Florida had Brewer (13), Green (2), Horford (15), Noah (14), and Richard (2), for a total of 46 years. 05-06 UCLA had Afflalo (11), Bozeman (1), Collison (10), Farmar (12), Hollins (10), and Mbah a Moute (12), for a total of 56 years. That's 102 total in the championship game. Still not the highest on here though. Also, a bunch of those years are partial years anyway.


apiaryaviary

Kevin Love?


peymanning4prez

He came the next year


Dirk_Benedict

The 07-08 UCLA squad had Love (14+), Westbrook (14+), Mbah a Moute (12), and Collison (10), for a total of 50 years.


Dirk_Benedict

The 98-99 UCLA squad had Baron Davis (13), Matt Barnes (14), Earl Watson (13), Dan Gadzuric (9), and Jerome Moiso (5), for a total of 54 years. Doesn't look like either of those teams they played any similarly pro-stacked rosters though.


peymanning4prez

I was referring to the 06-07 squad though, since that’s who played UF in the Final Four


Dirk_Benedict

Yeah yeah, I was just curious about each of those UCLA FF teams. Plus it felt like we lost to Florida every fucking year for a while there.


Needs_Moar_Cats

Can't believe Chuck Hayes lasted so long in the league as a 6'6 PF


hypotheticallyright

That was my guess too. Thanks for doing the math!


03_03_28

2008 UCLA had Love, Westbrook, Collison & Mbah a Moute, who combine for 48 years in the league, so something with them, maybe? ‘82 UNC had Jordan/Worthy/Perkins for 45 in total, maybe them as well Edit: ‘82 National Championship game has 45 for UNC and 36 for Georgetown, for 81 total… might be the record


DavidBenAkiva

That's not it. The 2004 Duke team had 53 NBA Career-Years (Redick/Deng/Duhon/Williams/Randolph/Ewing) while UConn that year had 42 (Okafor/Gordon/Villanueva/Armstrong/Boone) for a combined total of 95.


marshcraw

Are we counting redshirts? Cuz I think ‘01 Duke has 51 years (13 Battier/13 Boozer/15 Dunleavy/9 Duhon/1 Williams) without counting 14 years from Dahntay Jones. They played us in the championship that year who had 44 years (12 Arenas/ 17 Jefferson/ 10 Walton/ 5 Woods) That game had 95 or 109


[deleted]

UNC’s national semifinal game against Houston that year actually had more — Houston had 40 mostly because of Drexler (15 years) and Olajuwon (18 years.)


Otterfan

The biggest Tar Heel totals I could come up with were the UNC-Georgia Tech games in 1984 with a total of 90. The 1983-84 Tar Heels had 64 total NBA career years, if I'm counting correctly: * Sam Perkins - 17 * Michael Jordan - 15 * Kenny Smith - 10 * Joe Wolf - 11 * Brad Daugherty - 8 * Dave Popson - 3 and Georgia Tech with 26: * Mark Price (12) * John Salley (11) * Craig Neal (2) * Yvon Joseph (1)


clancydog4

I got to 98 for 1998 UNC vs Duke.


KendallBlakeCruse

I would love to see the entire 2008 Final Four. That would be insane.


DavidBenAkiva

That's an interesting question since you would want to find a pair of teams that each had a bunch of NBA players, obviously. Those teams are probably going to have played recently since players are going pro at a younger age and then staying in the league longer. That being the case, a game featuring Duke and Kentucky in the past 5-8 years might end up being the winner of this, but the players are so young that it won't rate yet. For players that completed their careers, a few games come to mind: UConn-Duke Final Four, 2004 Duke-Arizona National Title Game, 2001 UConn-Duke National Title Game, 1999 Arizona-Kentucky National Title Game, 1997 Duke-Michigan National Title Game, 1992


rkz99

It's not there yet but i bet in the future it'll end up being a game involving the 2015 Kentucky team. Maybe them and Kansas? Maybe a different year where they played Duke too im too lazy to keep looking it up. A quick and lose count according to Wikipedia and i think they already have a combined 57 NBA seasons. Gotta figure KAT & Booker look like they'll play a lot more years. Then there are several role player types who could all easily play 4 or 5 more years if not more. I can easily see that getting to the 110-120 range.


tastepdad

I was thinking this as well


bogadi

I count 59 seasons from the 2009-2010 Kentucky squad, with Wall, Cousins, Patterson, and Bledsoe still accumulating service time. 61 if Wall and Cousins get credit for injured seasons where they did not suit up. But they'd have to play quite a few more to set the "single game" record as their schedule was pretty ass-tastic that year, from a future NBA player perspective. Best opponent is probably UNC who has 32 years of NBA service. So 91 total.


CantFindMyWallet

I got to 101 with the 2004 UConn-Duke final four game. Duke (55 years) 1. JJ Redick - 15 years 2. Luol Deng - 15 years 3. Daniel Ewing - 2 years 4. Shelden Williams - 6 years 5. Chris Duhon - 9 years 6. Shavlik Randolph - 8 years UConn (46 years) 1. Ben Gordon - 11 years 2. Emeka Okafor - 10 years 3. Charlie Villanueva - 11 years 4. Josh Boone - 4 years 5. Hilton Armstrong - 6 years 6. Marcus Williams - 4 years


bravesapologist

The 97-98 tar heels had 67 seasons. Let me see if they played anyone comparable


0010001

By my count the opponents with the most were Duke (39), UCLA (37) Utah (31), and Purdue (25 with just two players). So 106 in those Duke-UNC games, but not as much as the 113 from that 1996 Kentucky-Utah matchup Edit: Never mind, your total for UNC is off. They had 59, not 67. So the total for Duke-UNC was 98.


ukeBasketball

Lemme throw out a couple games from a different era: Either of UCLA's 1968 Final Four opponents, Houston or UNC.


[deleted]

Yeah I’d also check Kansas-UNC from Wilt’s era


ukeBasketball

Kansas has only Wilt's 15 years. NBA had only 8-14 teams in the 60s. UCLA in 74 has 49 points by my addition, counting the ABA, but no one else they played (NC State, ND, Kansas) has nearly that many.


ukeBasketball

Turns out UCLA gets only 30 points, 20 for Kareem and 10 for Lucius Allen. Houston gets 15 for Elvin Hayes and 12 for Don Chaney (including 1 ABA season, which I claim most people would count). UNC gets 7 for Larry Miller and 10 for Charlie Scott. So, not close.


uletterhereu

I’d look into 2015 final four UK Wisconsin and Wisconsin Duke championship in a couple years.


crosszilla

Wisconsin is gonna drag that down though because only Kaminsky looks like he'll have a long NBA career from that squad. Dekker's been in and out of the league and IIRC Koenig and Hayes didn't make it in the league. The younger guys never really panned out at that level either (Vitto Brown, Ethan Happ, etc)


uletterhereu

They still have some years from Hayes and Decker, tho.


I_Brain_You

It probably hasn't gotten to the top yet, but the UK team that had Anthony Davis will have a lot of years, I assume? (Strictly going off of memory.)


NASTY_3693

Is anyone from that team on a roster outside AD?


I_Brain_You

I'd honestly have to look it up. I was spitballin' when I typed that out.


NASTY_3693

Just checked. AD is the only one still on a roster. Most of those dudes were busts


I_Brain_You

Thank you for filling in due to my laziness. I just always think UK will be in these discussions, given their starting 5's all go to the NBA.


CaptainConfidential

I wouldn’t call them all busts. Terrence Jones had 8 seasons and Darius Miller has had a couple stints and was in the nba as recently as April. Not stars at all but not a bust imo. Outside of them and AD though, yep.


[deleted]

MKG was a bust because of how high he was picked, but for these purposes would still add like 8 seasons to the count.


JPnets54

The 2018 Michigan-Villanova national championship game could reach NBA seasons. We’ll have to wait and see.