I’ve known about this for a while (and encourage you to watch the videos). Not sure why I haven’t thought about sharing it previously! — Dan

After graduating from college at the end of the last century, I was eligible for the National Basketball Association’s annual draft. I went undrafted and never made an All-Star team. My NBA career featured me scoring a grand total of zero points, in large part because I played a total of zero games — none of which should be surprising, as I’m not a good basketball player.

The same can’t quite be said about Brian Scalabrine, pictured above. But mathematically, it’s closer than you’d think. Scalabrine, 6’11”, was drafted by the then-New Jersey Nets in 2001 and had an 11-year NBA career — but he didn’t do much on the court during that tenure. Scalabrine only managed to score 1,594 points, which over the course of his team’s 902 games, comes out to about 1.76 points per game — that’s less than one basket every time his team took the floor. It’s not much better than the zero baskets I would have likely scored given the same opportunity.

That doesn’t mean I — or anyone else with my basketball resume — could do better than Scalabrine. And in 2013, a few fans got to learn that the hard way.

Throughout his playing career, fans often saw Scalabrine as a bit of a joke. Scalabrine, jokingly nicknamed the “White Mamba” (Kobe Bryant being the “Black Mamba”) was a fixture on the bench of his NBA teams and of the 2005-2010 Celtics in particular. When he saw playing time, it was typically after the outcome of the game was no longer in doubt. As a result, he looked a lot like a random dude who happened to be on an NBA team, but had no business on the court. As Yahoo Sports summarized, “Scal cultivated an image as the redheaded everyman who also happened to make millions of dollars per year” — the dream (minus the red hair) of most American basketball fans.

Scalabrine retired at age 33 after the 2011-2012 basketball season, adding more fuel to the perception that he wasn’t all that good. And while he took the ribbing in stride, he also made it clear that it wasn’t true, once saying “I’m closer to LeBron [James] than you [regular fans] are to me.” And in 2013, a Boston-area radio program, The Toucher and Rich Show, decided to put it to the test. With Scalabrine’s permission and involvement, the hosts recruited regular dudes — some with college basketball experience — to play Scalabrine, 1-on-1, to face off against the former NBA benchwarmer.

The first matchup started well for the challenger, who racked up an early basket against Scalabrine. But that was the beginning of the end for the first contestant. As you can watch here, the White Mamba then took over, winning 11-3. Then, he faced another challenger — a high school star — and beat him, 11-0. (You can watch that one here.) The third challenger put up an early long-range shot (worth two points in this format), but also fell to Scal 11-3.

And then, for good measure, the three hosts of the Toucher and Rich Show faced off against Scalabrine 3-on-1. Even though Scalabrine was outmanned, he dominated the court, winning — in comically easy fashion, as you can watch here — by a score of 11-1. (And that one basket the radio guys “earned”? As you’ll see, Scalabrine gave it to them.)

As for the guys Scalabrine humiliated? They all took it well — after all, it’s not every day that someone gets to play basketball with a real NBA player, even if it’s not LeBron James.

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Today’s Bonus fact: In 2008, a basketball shot probably saved lives. On March 14 of that year, Mississippi State and Alabama were playing in a playoff game at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia. As WishTV8 reported, “the game was kept relatively close, and with two seconds left in regulation, Alabama senior guard Mykal Riley hit a jumper three-point shot to send it to overtime,” keeping fans in the building for another twenty minutes or so. And that proved critical. During that 20-minute period, a tornado struck not far from the Georgia Dome, causing massive damage to the areas just outside the building. As WishTV8 notes, “Riley’s three-point shot at the end of regulation was considered to have saved many lives by keeping people in the Georgia Dome and not being outside in major danger from the tornado.”

From the Archives: How Pride Makes Basketball Players Worse: One thing you may actually be better at than actual NBA players? Free throw shooting — because their pride gets in the way.

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And thanks! — Dan