Rowan Kavner
LOS ANGELES – It’s not Chris Paul’s career-high 21-assist game or Blake Griffin’s career-high 47-point night the two NBA superstars think of when recalling their greatest performance ever.
Earlier this year, some of the Clippers’ players shared what they considered to be their best game ever. Some stuck with NBA games, while college, high school and even international performances all came to mind.
For Paul, the emotional story of his 61-point high school performance is now common knowledge, but it’s a performance he’ll never forget.
Here are the responses.
Paul considered his grandfather, Nathaniel Jones, one of his best friends. Paul used to work at his service station, and his grandfather played an impactful role on his life.
It was devastating for Paul, who had just committed to Wake Forest at the time, when news got to him his grandfather was killed. In honor of his grandfather, Paul made it a mission in his next game at West Forsyth High School to score 61 points – one for every year his grandfather was alive.
He made that happen, purposely air balling the final free-throw with the game already wrapped up to make sure it did, before getting subbed out when emotions took over. Even now, after all the successes he’s experienced professionally, that’s the game he thinks back to as his best ever.
“When I scored 61 points for my granddad, just all my family being there and making that last shot, walking to the free-throw line, that’s what I remember most,” Paul said.
Griffin averaged 18.8 points, 11.8 rebounds and a block per game during his two-year college career, earning consensus National Player of the year honors after a sophomore season in which he averaged 22.7 points, 14.4 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.2 blocks per game.
The eventual No. 1 overall pick thought back to Oklahoma for his best game ever. He notched the only 40-point, 20-rebound performance in Big 12 history at the time, finishing with career highs in points (40) and rebounds (23) in a win against Texas Tech.
“It was one of those games where every rebound was coming to you, every basket was going in,” Griffin said. “Even if you missed, it would just bounce back to you.”
Playing with Kings guard Rajon Rondo at Oak Hill Academy in Virginia, it’s no wonder Josh Smith thinks back to his high school days for his best game ever. The two future NBA players joined forces to go 38-0 in a single season during their high school career, and it was too hard for Smith to just pick one.
“I had a lot of good games at Oak Hill,” Smith said. “Those were probably my best memories of basketball, when me and Rondo were together. That was kind of a growth period. I left home and went to a school for a year and it helped me mature a little bit. All those games were exciting to be a part of. We didn’t lose and we won the national championship that year.”
Smith’s childhood connections go beyond just Rondo. He’s also known Dwight Howard since preschool.
“Being able to see each other on this stage and being successful the way we’re doing is beautiful to see, and being able to see my best friend Rondo do his thing and win a championship with Boston and still doing great, it’s great to see,” Smith said.
Rivers averaged 15.5 points per game in his lone season at Duke, but the best game he remembers happened before that.
At Winter Park High School in Florida, Rivers led his team to a 109-18 record, scoring 29.5 points and adding 6.1 rebounds per game. But it was one game in particular – one that Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski attended – which stood out to Rivers, when he scored 41 points on the road to beat rival Winter Springs, which had only lost three games all year, in a regional quarterfinal game. At one point in the game, Rivers hit six 3-pointers in a row.
“They were supposed to be the team to beat us,” Rivers said. “That was the first time Coach K came down to see me play. We won by like 18 or 20. Our team played well, everybody played well, and it was just a good win.”
Someone had to pick an NBA game, and the first one to do that was Stephenson, who experienced the most success of his NBA career in Indiana.
During the 2013 postseason, the New York native had 25 points and 10 rebounds in Game 6 against the Knicks to send the Pacers to the Eastern Conference Finals.
“I led the team to a win,” Stephenson said. “That was to eliminate the Knicks, my home team. It’s always fun playing them.”
It takes something special to become a No. 4 overall pick.
Wesley Johnson starred at Syracuse, averaging 16.5 points and 8.5 rebounds in his final collegiate season as a junior. He was also Big East Player of the Year, averaging 22 points in the NCAA Tournament, including a career-high 31 points and 14 rebounds in a win against Gonzaga.
“I think that was probably the best one for me overall,” Johnson said. “A lot of emotions coming into that game, I think that was the main thing. I had a really good night.”
The majority of Prigioni’s professional experience came internationally in Argentine and Spanish leagues, where he had played since 1995.
Prigioni’s played for the Argentina Summer Olympics team twice, won a Spanish National Championship and won three King’s Cups and Spanish Super Cups.
The King’s Cup is the annual cup competition for Spain’s top professional league, and it was one of those games he remembers most vividly as his best ever.
“I will choose one final in the King’s Cup, I think 2006,” Prigioni said. “I was MVP of that tournament, it was the final, and I finished the game with 15 assists, but only three points. They gave me the MVP because I gave out 15 assists and had, like, seven steals. I remember it as one of my best games.
“It was important for me, because I can show to everyone that it’s not only a game to score points. You can help the team doing many different things. People ask all the time, ‘How many points did you score?’ That bothers me, though I understand, but there are many different ways you can help your team.”
Cole Aldrich has experienced an NBA Finals and a college national championship game experience, something few other players can say.
“Lost the Finals, but won the national championship in college,” Aldrich said. “Those are the ones that come to mind.”
The Thunder lost in the NBA Finals to the Heat in 2012, but his Jayhawks won the NCAA Tournament when he was a freshman. Aldrich was named a consensus All-American his junior year, setting a single-season record 125 blocks that season, but it was his first season at Kansas when his group won it all.
Another first-round pick, C.J. Wilcox remembered his best game ever coming in college during his freshman year at Washington.
“We played UCLA at home, we were down big in the first half,” Wilcox said. “I finished with 24 (points), it was all in the second half.”
That was a career-high for Wilcox, who’d go on to finish his career second all-time in scoring at Washington with 1,880 points. He’s also Washington’s record holder for career 3-pointers with 301. On that day, Wilcox led his Huskies past UCLA, 70-63, after trailing at the half.
“It was just a bad game, our whole team was struggling, missing a lot of shots,” Wilcox said. “I remember Isaiah (Thomas) only had a couple points early. We got chewed out at halftime. I just came out and started hitting shots and they kept going to me and feeding me. It was fun.”
The Clippers’ rookie thought back to high school, where he averaged 28.7 points, 18.6 rebounds and 5.6 assists at Lew Wallace in Indiana, leading his team to a sectional championship. But it was a regular season game which came to mind.
“We played against a team called Milwaukee Vincent and I had about 40 that game, so that was my best game,” Dawson said. “It was a double-double, we got the win…The team they had had a lot of players everyone talked about. Going into the game we were kind of nervous, but we put it out the window.”
