Tag Archives: sports oddities

Basketball

Sports Oddities: Yinka Dare

This series of articles (looking to do it bi-weekly) focuses on a bizzaro or oddball statistical anomaly that played in professional sports. I probably will run out of players to do this with eventually though. This is the 2nd edition of Sports Oddities!

With a mid-1st round pick in the 1994 NBA Draft, the New Jersey Nets selected Nigerian Yinka Dare. By the time he was eligible for the NBA draft he wasn’t an unknown. He averaged a 13-10 for George Washington University and had led them to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.

To be blunt, Yinka Dare was objectively terrible in the NBA. Some of that seemed like bad luck as in his first game of his rookie season he tore his ACL in just three minutes of action. The Nets seemingly gave up on him already as they left him exposed in the 1995 expansion draft (Toronto and Vancouver wisely passed). In his first real season he shot 44% and averaged 2.8 PPG and 2.1 RPG in about 10 MPG.

And he didn’t register one assist.

Not one.

He set the NBA Record for most games played in a season without registering an assist (58).

So yes, he was quite the punchline at this point.  It wouldn’t be until his 78th game, a game against the Raptors, until he’d record one. He’d record four total assists in his entire career. The video above was about 10 games before he’d finally record an assist.

Four career assists against 96 career turnovers? In recent times Dare’s name had come up again as Hassan Whiteside started his career with 26 games without an assist. Still nothing like the Dare though.

Baseball

Sports Oddities: Herb Washington

This series of articles (looking to do it bi-weekly) focuses on a bizzaro or oddball statistical anomaly that played in professional sports. I probably will run out of players to do this with eventually though. Nonetheless the first one involves a personal (yet silly) story.

When I was a kid I had a baseball book that seemed to just be random stories (I really don’t remember except there was a Christy Mathewson and Grover Cleveland Alexander story in there). One story seemed quite odd and interesting. It was about a track runner whom the Oakland A’s signed to just run the bases. He was the team’s “designated runner”. This is about Herb Washington.

Washington had tied track world records and was signed by the As in 1974. Oddly enough, according to Wiki, his contract required he grow facial hair (which he couldn’t quite do). The statistical oddity? Washington never had one at-bat in 105 career games. Never. He was a “pinch runner” (as his baseball card said) and would replace players who got on base. He stole 31 bases in his career. Unfortunately, his big moment was a bad one as he was picked off in the 9th inning of a World Series game.

Washington was released in 1975. He never went up to bat, played the field or anything. He just ran.

My personal story: I was playing the Sports Edition of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” with a friend of mine and this story came up as the $250,000 or $500,000 question. You would not believe how excited I got. Probably one of my best gaming moments ever.