There are two big asterisks (and countless small asterisks) next to this career-high 42-point game from Jordan Clarkson:
BIG ASTERISK NO. 1: Clarkson had three overtimes in which to score his 42 points. Did Wilt need three overtimes to score 100? What about Kobe’s 81? Nope. Neither of those guys had the benefit of unfairly added-on five-minute segments of game time in which to score points. Since YouTube doesn’t allow me to change the font size of my video descriptions, I will instead display this big asterisk as an aggregate of smaller asterisks: ****************
BIG ASTERISK NO. 2: Clarkson needed 34 shots to score 42 points. There are a lot of players who would score 40 no problem if you have them that many shot attempts. This was more reminiscent of Kobe’s 60-point final game, which was the absolute epitome of selfish chucking, than, say, Siakam’s 44-point game which also happened on this night. Again, I can’t use a huge asterisk here, but I can give you an idea of how big the asterisk would be by using smaller asterisks instead: ********************************************
Some of the smaller asterisks include:
*Clarkson was on the Cavs when he did this. Everybody knows it’s easy to score forty points when your teammates are all trash. Am I kidding right now? Do I even know anymore?
**Clarkson only scored 42 because he wants to get more attention and adoration from Filipinos again
***Marquese Chriss scored 23, which proves the Nets weren’t interested in playing defense
****Since Wilt didn’t get to benefit from the three-point line, Clarkson shouldn’t either
So, there you have it. Clarkson’s career-high performance is asterisked to heck and back and then to heck again and back again. Asterisks are scattered all over the place. I even got some in my mouth. That’s how many asterisks there are here.