THIS DATE IN NBA HISTORY
FEBRUARY 14
1966 — Wilt Chamberlain scored 41 points in a 149-123 Philadelphia win over Detroit to pass Bob Pettit (20,880 points), becoming the NBA’s all-time scoring leader, a distinction he held for more than 18 years until passed by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1984.
1967 — San Francisco’s Rick Barry scored 50 points against visiting Boston at Oakland, one of his seven 40-plus point games during February, en route to his winning the NBA scoring title that season with a 35.6 ppg average.
1975 — In one of the longest and highestscoring games in ABA history, the San Diego Conquistadors defeated the New York Nets 176-166 in four overtimes. The game featured a career-high 63 points from the Nets’ Julius Erving, who set an ABA record by shooting 25-for-46 from the field.
1982 — San Antonio’s George Gervin’s failure to score 20 points in a 114-94 win over Seattle broke his club-record streak of 53 straight games with 20 or more points.
1986 — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar surpassed Elvin Hayes’ career total of 50,000 minutes during the Los Angeles Lakers’ 141-117 win over Atlanta, becoming the NBA’s all-time leader in that category.
1987 — A crowd of 52,745, at the time the largest in NBA history, turned out at the Pontiac Silverdome to watch the Pistons beat Philadelphia 125-107. The mark lasted less than a year, with the Pistons breaking it at the Silverdome once again, drawing 61,983 for a game against Boston on January 29, 1988.
1995 — The Houston Rockets acquired Clyde Drexler (and forward Tracy Murray) from the Portland Trail Blazers for veteran forward Otis Thorpe, a 1995 first round draft choice and the draft rights to forward Marcelo Nicola. With Drexler in place, the Rockets went on to win their second consecutive NBA championship.
2009 — Commissioner David Stern announced that the NBA Finals MVP trophy would be named the Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award in honor of Russell.
2010 — The NBA All-Star Game sets a record for attendance at a basketball game, as 108,713 fans take the stands at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, Texas for a 141-139 victory for the East over the West.
2016 — The West defeated the East 196-173 in the 65th NBA All-Star Game before 18,298 fans in Toronto.
2019 — Russell Westbrook finishes with 44 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists in the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 131-122 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans. That marked his 11th straight triple-double, the longest streak in NBA history. The run would come to an end in the Thunder’s next game (on Feb. 22) as Westbrook finished with 43 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists.