Joe Young, #3, Indiana Pacers, (Photo by Omar Rawlings/Getty Images)
Sometimes, you have to be your own hype man. Former Pacer Joe Young wants the world to know he just dropped 74 points in a Chinese Basketball Association game.
Joe Young might not be a basketball player in your mental Rolodex, but maybe he should be. The former Indiana Pacer tweeted out this morning that he’d just 74 points in a CBA game for the Nanjing Monkey King. Young apparently played all 48 minutes and added 8 steals.
Uh, who is Joe Young again?
Young played college ball at Oregon and last played in the NBA in the 2017-18 season. He spent three years with the Indiana Pacers after they took him in the second round of the 2015 NBA Draft. The electric guard showed flashes for Indiana but ultimately couldn’t stick and has spent the last two seasons in the Chinese Basketball Association.
In the CBA, which resumed their season near the end of June, Young was averaging 35.6 points (second-most in the league) 6.6 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game, shooting 50.7 percent from the field and 36.6 percent on 3-pointers. Suffice it to say those averages are probably going to take a bump once his stats from this game are included.
The NBA is in a weird time right now but hanging 74 on anyone in any league is an attention-grabbing achievement. Young clearly has talent and this might help open a door back into the NBA.
In CBA history, 74 points is a historic accomplishment, but not a record-setting one. Here’s the rest of the exclusive ’70 Club’ in the CBA:
- Errick McCollum — 82
- Jimmer Fredette — 75
- Quincy Douby — 75
- Jared Cunningham — 74
- Bobby Brown –74
- Jimmer Fredette — 73
- Jordan Crawford — 72
- Andre Emmett — 71
- Sun Jun — 70
Of that group, all but Sun Jun are American-born players with at least some NBA experience. And of course, the audacious and rapacious Jimmer Fredette is the only one to appear twice. Interestingly, Young is the first player to join the club since Fredette’s 75-point explosion in November of 2018. The quality of play, both the ceiling and the floor in the CBA has continued to increase over the years, and it’s not quite as easy for a fringe NBA player to show up and dominate.