The Knicks beat the Hawks on Sunday night at Madison Square Garden, which is far from newsworthy considering the Hawks are among the NBA’s worst teams and New York has been surprisingly competent through a quarter of the season.
However, there was one performance that stood out above the rest on Sunday night. It wasn’t Kristap Porzingis with 30 points or Doug McDermott with 23 off the bench, but that of Michael Beasley. The reserve small forward managed to pull off an impressive feat, fouling out in only 10 minutes of play (or nine, depending on the source and the rounding).
Beasley’s stat line read 0 points (0-of-3 shooting), two rebounds, 0 assists, one turnover, 0 blocks, 0 steals, six fouls. The best part of Beasley’s short evening of action was that he managed to be a +11 in those 10 minutes on the floor. There were many wondering if Beasley’s feat of fouling out so quickly was some sort of record. It was not. In fact, he’s the 189th player in NBA history to commit six fouls in 10 minutes or fewer played, according to Basketball-Reference.
Last year it happened twice, when Jason Smith fouled out in eight minutes for Washington and Salah Mejri fouled out in six minutes for Dallas. Six minutes is also the Knicks record for quickest foul out, accomplished by Len Elmore in 1984. In the last 10 seasons (so, since 2008-09) 24 players aside from Beasley have pulled off the feat (on 28 different occasions), with quite the list of names.
Jonas Valanciunas (10)
Marreese Speights (10)
Aron Baynes (10)
Steven Adams (10)
Eric Bledsoe (10)
Kurt Thomas (10)
Chris Anderson (10)
Brad Miller (10)
Randolph Morris (10)
Ryan Hollins (10)
Ryan Hollins (9)
Aron Baynes (9)
Bismack Biyombo (9)
Ian Mahinmi (9)
Amir Johnson (9)
Dan Gadzuric (9)
Kyrylo Fesenko (9)
Jan Vesely (8)
Udonis Haslem (8)
Jason Smith (8)
Sean Williams (8)
Amir Johnson (8)
Greg Stiemsma (8)
James Johnson (8)
Jake Voskuhl (8)
Ian Mahinmi (7)
Salah Mejri (6)
Josh McRoberts (5)
As you’ll note, Aron Baynes, Ryan Hollins, Amir Johnson, and Ian Mahinmi have all managed to foul out in 10 minutes (or less) on two different occasions. Danny Fortson pulled it off four times from 1999 to 2005 for three different franchises.
The record for fewest minutes played by a player fouling out is John Brown of the Atlanta Hawks who did it in two minutes in 1975, followed by Bubba Wells in three minutes in 1997. Three players have fouled out in five minutes. So, for those wondering if Beasley has a place in the record books, he technically does, but he’s joined by an awful lot of others.
