https://youtu.be/dc4j_XoiTYA
I keep hearing people talk about Talen Horton-Tucker’s play during the preseason as some kind of transcendent display of scoring prowess. At least one person (possibly more) has made comments on my videos to that effect, and now the ESPN announcers are bringing it up as well. That’s getting me a bit intrigued: just how good was THT during the preseason?
I’ve never looked at preseason stats. I’ve never even been interested in preseason stats. The NBA preseason only exists to ease me into basketball after a long summer of going without. I watch one or two games and then I’m sated and can wait for the real games to start. Other important people clearly agree with me: for example, basketball-reference doesn’t even keep track of any preseason stats, as far as I can tell. I don’t blame them. It can get messy from a “sports database” perspective if teams from Europe or China are playing NBA preseason games.
But the legend of THTPS (Talen Horton-Tucker Pre Season, not to be confused with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater Two [THPST]) weighs so heavily on my mind that I just needed to know these stats. So I pulled up stats.nba.com, which is my backup stats solution when basketball-reference somehow fails me, and went to Talen Horton-Tucker’s profile page. I then changed the stats display from “regular season” to “preseason”.
And the damn stats wouldn’t load.
Clearly this is a situation where THTPS’s stats were so unbelievably good that it’s actually in the NBA’s best interest to censor them. After all, how would they market any of their so-called “superstars” when THT is dominating the preseason with effortless 50/15/15 games on 80% shooting, easily outclassing the statistical achievements of every NBA player in history besides Wilt? I wish I could see the real stats, but I’m kind of glad that I can’t. Gazing upon those forbidden numbers would probably drive me to, and then past, the brink of insanity.