Former Kentucky star Oscar Tshiebwe scored his first official NBA point (his point during the in-season tournament didn’t count as an official NBA statistic) last night in a 140-126 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Pacers grabbed the game ball for Oscar and headed to the locker room with it.
Unfortunately, Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 64 points for the Bucks, which set a new franchise record. Additionally, Damian Lillard made his 2,451st career 3-pointer to pass Kyle Korver for fifth place in NBA history.
After the game, Giannis demanded the game ball, which led to a bizarre postgame scrum:
Giannis tried to go into the Pacers locker room after they took the game ball from his 64 piece pic.twitter.com/Z9LnPQihzJ
— Josiah Johnson (@KingJosiah54) December 14, 2023
After the game, both teams ended up with a “game” ball but no one knew if it was the official game ball:
“I understand. When you score your first point in the NBA, you want to have the ball or whatever the case may be,” Antetokounmpo said of the Pacers honoring Tshiebwe’s feat. “But at the end of the day, you’re talking about the guy that just skipped Kyle Korver in the all-time list. In my opinion, we should all stop what we’re doing and appreciate greatness.”
Confusion remained over who had which game ball. One video appeared to show the actual game ball being collected by a member of the Bucks’ staff. Carlisle said the Pacers apparently have a reserve game ball.
Antetokounmpo said he wasn’t sure which ball he ended up with.
“I have no idea. I’m not going to lie,” he said. “I really don’t know. I have a ball, but I don’t know if it’s the game ball. It doesn’t feel like the game ball to me. It feels like a brand-new ball. I can tell. I played, what, 35 minutes today. I know how the game ball felt. The ball that I have, which I’ll take and I’ll give it to my mom, for sure — but I don’t know if it’s actually the game ball.”
Tshiebwe finished with 1 points and 1 rebound in 6 minutes of action.
Here’s a look at Big O’s first official NBA point:
Oscar Tshiebwe’s first career point in the NBA pic.twitter.com/k8YoenCSfx
— CatsCoverage.com (@Cats_Coverage) December 14, 2023
