By Bilal Baran Yardimci / info@eurohoops.net
Fenerbahce Beko’s Nigel Hayes-Davis etched his name in Turkish Airlines EuroLeague history by breaking the scoring record with 50 points against ALBA Berlin.
After his memorable performance at Ukler Sports Arena, in front of the Fenerbahce fans, the American forward spoke with Eurohoops, explaining the significance of scoring the highest number of points in a single EuroLeague match.
“It was nice. At the beginning of the season, I set the goal of breaking the scoring record. I didn’t know when I would achieve it, but I am very happy that I did. It was good to do it at our home, too. The fans were there too, they loved it. My teammates were also very excited. As I said, it was more of a team scoring record because they were always passing the ball to me on the field, trying to find me,” Hayes-Davis said, also mentioning that he has the match ball, jersey, and official statistics sheets from the game, which he intends to frame.
The EuroLeague single-game scoring record being half of the NBA’s is a testament to the difficulty of scoring in the top European competition.
“Many people reached out to me and congratulated me. I think it’s also good for the EuroLeague. The highest number of points scored in a single game in the EuroLeague is 50, half of the number in the NBA. This is good for people to see how difficult it is to score in the EuroLeague. I can’t look at every comment, but sometimes I see people’s comments, everyone says, ’50 points? Is this the highest number?’ Yes, that’s the highest number. You have no idea how high it is. Let me also say this: If I had played the whole match, I would have scored 60-70 points. Just so you know, I scored 50 points in 29 minutes. Three people defended me for the last two minutes. If I had kept the flow going and played a solid 35 minutes, I could have easily scored 60. But 50 is also good, I will settle for that.”
Hayes-Davis admits that he made a violation on the record-breaking bucket.
“It was 100% a half-court violation. Naturally, I watched it a million times; now I want to say it. I didn’t want to say it right after the match was over, but if I find out where the referee trio lives, I’ll send them a gift box.”
Fenerbahce’s head coach Sarunas Jasikevicius jokingly emphasized after the game that the US forward had no assists.
“It was just a joke. He made a little joke. Of course, I had zero assists. I always tell people: First of all, I don’t get paid to pass the ball. We have literally the best playmaker in European history in our team for passing the ball. It’s his job to pass the ball. We also have other playmakers to pass the ball to. My job is not to pass the ball.”
Before Hayes-Davis’ record, Dejonte Murray had a rare performance in the NBA, shooting 44 times from the field.
“Some statistics came out when Dejonte made 44 shots; the last players who attempted more than 40 shots were Kobe, Westbrook, and him. ‘Add my name in there,’ I thought. And I only took 27 shots. If I had tried 17 more shots, I could have shot something like 75-80.”
Fenerbahce’s player believes he could have been in contention for the MVP award if it weren’t for the injury.
“My injury took me out of that discussion. That’s all I can say. Mike James texted me, we were chatting. He congratulated me, and I said, ‘I appreciate it, it means a lot coming from the MVP.’ Everyone thinks Mike James will be the MVP, and he deserves it.”
He also came close to tying the three-point record, hitting nine triples, but believes that Baskonia‘s Markus Howard is the first in line to score 10 or more shots from beyond the arc and take down record-holders Shane Larkin and Drew Goudelock.
“To be honest, that would be Markus Howard. He tries a lot of threes. He throws a lot and can put it well. I believe I have the talent to succeed, but if I were to pick someone to break the record, I’d say, Markus Howard,” Nigel Hayes-Davis concluded.