Basketball. Two teams. Ten players on the court. Everyone knows which jersey they are wearing and which basket they need to score in. Simple things. Unless you are in the NBA in 1978, where a game took four months to complete.
On November 8, the Philadelphia 76ers faced the New Jersey Nets. During the third quarter, referee Richie Powers assessed Bernard King and head coach Kevin Loughery with three technical fouls, even though they should have been ejected after the second. The Nets filed a protest and won.
The NBA decided that the final 17 minutes and 50 seconds would be replayed, with the remainder of the game taking place on March 23, 1979. By that time, however, the two teams had made a trade with each other. This is where the scenario starts to resemble a movie that confused even its own screenwriter.
Harvey Catchings and Ralph Simpson moved to the Nets, while Eric Money and Al Skinner went the other way. As a result, three players appeared on the same official box score for both teams.
The best part? Money had scored 23 points with the Nets and added another four wearing the Sixers’ jersey. He thus became the only player in NBA history to score for both teams in the same game. Philadelphia ultimately won 123-117, and basketball gained the most confusing box score ever to exist.