This Day in Basketball History
1994 - All-Star balloting goes international
With a product becoming increasingly popular beyond their borders, and an international talent boom beginning to radiate out into its previously insular world, the NBA takes further steps towards expanding its reach and engaging a non-American demographic as the league makes ballots for the 1995 All-Star game available outside the U.S. for the first time.
The explosion of the internet is a few years off, so having access to an actual, tangible ballot is still a big deal at the time. The first countries to be officially enfranchised by the NBA are Canada (where the league will place two teams in just one year), Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Australia.
2010 - K-Love goes for 30 and 30
A 22-year-old Kevin Love faces the unenviable task of trying to lead the woebegone Minnesota Timberwolves - who haven't come close to the playoffs since the Kevin Garnett days - back to respectability.
Love shows all the makings of a budding superstar, but he's surrounded by a motley crew that includes such historic underachievers as Michael Beasley, Anthony Randolph, Darko Milicic, Jonny Flynn, Wesley Johnson, and Sebastian Telfair. The team's misguided coach, Kurt Rambis, tries to implement a triangle offense with the misfit roster. The Wolves will end the 2010-11 season as the NBA's worst team.
For one night in November, though, that makes no difference. Love goes off for 31 points and 31 rebounds in a win over the New York Knicks, becoming the first player to grab 30 or more rebounds since Charles Barkley 14 years earlier, and just the 19th player in NBA history to post a 30-30 game.
Love will finish the season as the league's top rebounder, and take home Most Improved Player honors.