The 50–40–90 club is an informal statistic used to rate players as excellent shooters in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball sports league, league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues i ...

(NBA),

NBA G League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) official minor league basketball organization. The league was known as the National Basketball Development League (NBDL) from 2001 to 2005, and the NBA D ...

, and

Women's National Basketball Association The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is an American professional basketball league. It is composed of twelve teams, all based in the United States. The league was founded on April 22, 1996, as the women's counterpart to the Nati ...

(WNBA). It requires a player to achieve the criteria of 50%

field goal percentage Field goal percentage in basketball is the ratio of field goals made to field goals attempted. Its abbreviation is FG%. Although three-point field goal percentage is often calculated separately, three-point field goals are included in the genera ...

, 40%

three-point field goal percentage A three-point field goal (also 3-pointer, three, or trey) is a field goal in a basketball game made from beyond the three-point line, a designated arc surrounding the basket. A successful attempt is worth three points, in contrast to the two poi ...

and 90%

free throw percentage In basketball, free throws or foul shots are unopposed attempts to score points by shooting from behind the free-throw line (informally known as the foul line or the charity stripe), a line situated at the end of the restricted area. Free throws ...

over the course of a regular season, while meeting the minimum thresholds to qualify as a league leader in each category. In NBA, WNBA, and NBA G League history, only 11 players have recorded a 50–40–90 season, with nine in the NBA and one each in the WNBA and the NBA G League. The most recent player to achieve a 50–40–90 season was

Kyrie Irving Kyrie Andrew Irving (; lkt, Ȟéla, italic=no, ; born March 23, 1992) is an American professional basketball player for the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was named the Rookie of the Year after being selected ...

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

History

The 50–40–90 season has only been a possibility since the introduction of the

three-point field goal A three-point field goal (also 3-pointer, three, or trey) is a field goal in a basketball game made from beyond the three-point line, a designated arc surrounding the basket. A successful attempt is worth three points, in contrast to the two poi ...

in the

1979–80 NBA season The 1979–80 NBA season was the 34th season of the National Basketball Association. The season ended with the Los Angeles Lakers winning the NBA Championship, beating the Philadelphia 76ers 4 games to 2 in the NBA Finals, and is notable for being ...

Steve Nash Stephen John Nash (born 7 February 1974) is a Canadian professional basketball coach and former player who most recently served as head coach of the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played 18 seasons in the NBA, ...

and

Larry Bird Larry Joe Bird (born December 7, 1956) is an American former professional basketball player, coach, and executive in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "the Hick from French Lick" and "Larry Legend", Bird is widely regarded a ...

are the only players who have had multiple 50–40–90 seasons. Bird recorded back-to-back 50–40–90 seasons in 1986 and 1987, while Nash recorded four such seasons between 2005 and 2010. Nash narrowly missed a fifth consecutive 50–40–90 season by shooting at 89.9% from the free throw line during the 2006–07 season, one made free throw short of the 90% mark.

Quinn Cook Quinn Alexander Cook (born March 23, 1993) is an American professional basketball player for the Zhejiang Lions of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). He played college basketball for the Duke Blue Devils and was one of the top rated baske ...

became the first NBA G League player to record a 50–40–90 season in

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

Elena Delle Donne Elena Delle Donne (born September 5, 1989) is an American professional basketball player for the Washington Mystics of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Delle Donne played college basketball for the Delaware Blue Hens from 200 ...

became the first WNBA player to record a 50–40–90 season in

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List and calculations

NBA

Similar to baseball batting averages, official NBA shooting statistics are calculated to the third decimal place (thousandths), but are referred to as percentages. While the NBA officially uses a three-digit number, it reports shooting statistics in a shortened and rounded form as a percentage, so that .899 to the third decimal place is simplified as a two digit "90%" in most of its reporting.Cohen, Richard M., and Neft, David S.: ''The Sports Encyclopedia: Pro Basketball Edition'', St. Martin's Press, 1990. Thus, a true 50–40–90 season requires a player to achieve or exceed 50.0 percent field goal efficiency, 40.0 percent three-point field goal efficiency and 90.0 percent free-throw shooting efficiency. As of 2021, the NBA requires a player to make at least 300 field goals, 82 three-pointers, and 125 free throws to be a leader in the respective category. For shortened seasons, stats are prorated to an 82 game season.

NBA G League

WNBA

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:50-40-90 club Basketball terminology National Basketball Association statistical leaders