Statistical anomalies. One-off games. Things that don’t happen very often, and when they do, you stop and take notice. That’s what we’re exploring throughout the month of August as we dig into some of the stranger statistical oddities scattered throughout Phoenix Suns history.
Today, we’re looking at something that has happened only twice in franchise history. And seeing as one of the players involved will enter the Hall of Fame later this week, it felt like the perfect time to revisit it. The anomaly?
Scoring 50 points in a game while grabbing 10 or more rebounds.
When you hear those two numbers together, your mind probably starts racing through the possibilities. Maybe Charles Barkley. Perhaps a one-off Alvan Adams performance. But the only two players in Suns history to do it both did so at the age of 22.
The first was Amar’e Stoudemire, who finished with 50 points and 11 rebounds on January 2, 2005, in a win over the Portland Trail Blazers. The second came 14 years later, on March 27, 2019, when Devin Booker scored 50 points against the Washington Wizards and grabbed 10 rebounds.
When Stoudemire did it, it was the 30th game of the season, and the Suns walked away with a 26–4 record. It was an exclamation point in the surprising 2004-05 season, one in which the Suns took the league by storm. Booker’s performance came under very different circumstances. He scored 50 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, but Phoenix lost to the Washington Wizards and fell to 17–59.
For Stoudemire, that night represented the high point of his career from a scoring perspective. Those 50 points were a career high. Booker, meanwhile, has scored 50 or more eight times in his career. In fact, he owns seven of the 10 highest scoring games in franchise history, with Tom Chambers and Tony Delk accounting for the other spots in the top 10.
As for Amar’e, that night was spectacular. I remember watching it at some little dive bar off Scottsdale Road during the first season of the Seven Seconds or Less era, when that team had become unbelievably entertaining to watch. Stoudemire went to work, finishing 20-of-27 from the field and 10-of-17 from the line to get to his 50 points. He did it against Zach Randolph and Darius Miles, who had absolutely no answer for him.
This week, we welcome Amar’e Stoudemire to the Hall of Fame, and performances like this are a big reason why. He looked great playing alongside Stephon Marbury, but when Steve Nash came to town, Stoudemire went to another level. He possessed an aggressiveness and ferocity that paired perfectly with what Nash was as a player, and together they became the engine of one of the most entertaining eras in Suns history. Now, Amar’e is rightfully taking his place in Springfield, Massachusetts.
That 50-point night against Portland is only one snapshot of what made Amar’e special, but it captures him perfectly. The power, the aggression, the efficiency, and the feeling that nobody standing between him and the rim had much say in what happened next. Twenty-one years later, the performance remains a statistical anomaly in Suns’ history. This week, it becomes something else, too. Another reminder of why Amar’e Stoudemire belongs among basketball’s immortals.
