Зуны лигийн түүхэн дэх хамгийн гайхалтай тоглолтуудын нэг болох Энтони Морроугийн 47 оноо авсан тоглолт өнөөг хүртэл NBA-ийн сонирхогчдын анхаарлыг татсаар байна.
Арван долоон жилийн өмнөх долдугаар сарын 16-нд Голдэн Стэйт Уорриорс багийн тоглогч Энтони Морроу Лас Вегасын зуны лигийн талбайд Нью-Орлеан Хорнэтс багийн эсрэг 47 оноо авч, гайхалтай үзүүлэлтийг үзүүлсэн юм. Тухайн үед шинэхэн тоглогч байсан Стефен Көрри 32.5 хувийн шидэлтийн хувьтай тоглож байсан бол Морроу 26 шидэлтээс 18-ыг нь, тэр дундаа 9 гурван онооны шидэлтээс 7-г нь амжилттай болгосон байна. Голдэн Стэйт Уорриорс тус тоглолтод 104-84-ийн харьцаатайгаар ялалт байгуулж, Морроу өөрийн карьертаа амжилттай хөл тавих үндэс суурийг тавьжээ.
Тухайн үед багийн дасгалжуулагчаар ажиллаж байсан Кэйт Смарт Морроугийн энэхүү амжилтыг залуу тоглогчдод үлгэр жишээ болгон ярьдаг байна. Энэхүү тоглолт нь Морроугийн өөртөө итгэх итгэлийг нэмэгдүүлж, цаашлаад есөн жилийн турш NBA-д тоглох боломжийг олгосон юм. Хэдийгээр 2026 оны зуны лигийн тоглолтууд үргэлжилж байгаа ч одоогоор хэн ч энэхүү дээд амжилтыг эвдэж чадаагүй байна.
Морроу сагсан бөмбөгийн карьераа өндөрлүүлснийхээ дараа бизнес болон буяны үйлсэд идэвхтэй оролцох болсон. Тэрээр 2023 онд Шарлотт хотод болсон хэрэгтэй холбоотойгоор хуулийн асуудалд ороод байгаа бөгөөд хэрэг нь шүүхийн шатанд үргэлжилж байна. Түүний өмгөөлөгчид холбогдох буруутгалыг эрс үгүйсгэжээ.
Дэлгэрэнгүй эх сурвалжийг харах
Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
Steph Curry remembers two things about his only NBA summer-league season as a rookie 17 years ago.
First, he recalled being lousy. The ballyhooed No. 7 pick of the 2009 NBA Draft introduced himself to the Golden State Warriors by shooting 32.5 percent from the field over five lackluster games.
“I couldn’t make a shot,” Curry said via text message on Wednesday.
His second and more vivid memory is that another Warriors guard did just fine. On July 16, Anthony Morrow, an undrafted shooting guard from Georgia Tech, set UNLV’s Cox Pavilion ablaze with what remains one of the greatest — and most audacious — individual performances in the 22-year history of the Las Vegas tournament.
It was on this date that Morrow scored 47 points in a little over 36 minutes played against the New Orleans Hornets for a mark that has rarely been threatened at the annual summer-league gathering. What made the effort even more of a conversation piece was that the Warriors beat the Hornets 104-84.
“He had the gym absolutely buzzing,” Curry said. “I’m not surprised that it’s still the record.”
Morrow, now 40, remembers channeling his inner Ray Allen — “one of my favorite players ever” — and launched shots without apology or hesitation.He made 18 of 26 from the field, including 7 of 9 from 3-point range.
Curry, in comparison, chipped in nine points in a supporting role.
“As a shooter, you get into that groove. I got in the groove that day, and it really kind of set the tone for the rest of my career,” Morrow said. “Like, it really etched me in stone.”
While it’s tempting to dismiss an exhibition record as meaningless, Curry and others in attendance that day argue that there’s no more powerful testament to what the summer league is all about than the legend of Anthony Morrow. The performance by the 6-foot-5 guard put him on the radar, bolstered his confidence and served as a springboard to a nine-year NBA career, one that featured stints with seven teams and included earnings estimated at nearly $25 million.
Keith Smart, who served as the Warriors’ summer-league coach in 2009, said he uses Morrow’s story as a teaching point to this day.
“Sure, people say, ‘Well, summer league doesn’t mean anything.’ Oh, no, no. It means a lot,” Smart told The Athletic by phone this week. “When a guy like Morrow gets his shots, that changes his career. At Georgia Tech, everybody knew he could shoot it, OK? But they didn’t know how he could shoot it in the pros.
“I share that with a lot of kids. The message is, ‘If you don’t get drafted, you still got to do what you do here well.’ Morrow is a great example of that.”
The whole thing started, in grand NBA tradition, with some trash talk.
Anthony Randolph, the Warriors’ first-round selection in 2008, had scored 42 points against the Chicago Bulls two days earlier, tying a Las Vegas Summer League record shared by Von Wafer and Marcus Banks (both in 2007). Morrow recalled his conversation with Randolph at practice the next day.
“I’m gonna break your record, bro,” Morrow told him.
“Nah, you ain’t gonna get that,” Randolph replied.
“I’m going to break that record tomorrow,” Morrow said, doubling down.
Joel Meyers had a front-row seat for what happened next. As the play-by-play man for NBA Summer League for many years since its inception in 2004, he savored the chance to see new talent at the Las Vegas showcase. Meyers arrived extra revved up in 2009 because he admired longtime sharpshooter Dell Curry and was eager to see what his oldest son could do.
The broadcaster came to see the long-range pyrotechnics, the brazen confidence and the unguardable drives. Meyers got all of that, albeit a plot twist.
“Anthony Morrow stole the show,” he said.
Morrow, like Curry, had grown up in Charlotte, N.C. But unlike Curry, he was not a rookie. The Warriors signed Morrow as an undrafted free agent in 2008, and he performed admirably as a rookie, averaging 10.1 points per game. Morrow also led the NBA by shooting 46.7 percent from beyond the arc.
Anthony Morrow’s NBA regular-season start was as memorable as his record-setting summer-league performance. He scored 37 points on Nov. 15, 2008, against the LA Clippers. (Kyle Terada / USA Today)
In his first regular-season start for the 2008-09 season, he flashed his combustible side by scoring 37 points on Nov. 15 against the LA Clippers. From that moment, Don Nelson, the Warriors coach at the time, encouraged Morrow to stay aggressive. That was especially true by the time the next summer league rolled around.
The instructions were never clearer than right before Morrow took the floor against the Hornets on that July day in 2009.
“I remember warming up, and after I hit a couple shots, Don Nelson told me, ‘If you pass up any shots, I’m taking you out of the game,’” Morrow recalled. “So, I was like, OK, at least I know I got the green light to shoot every time. I can play without worrying about getting subbed out. … I got to show off how I can really score.”
A box score of Anthony Morrow’s 47-point performance during Las Vegas Summer League 17 years ago. (Courtesy of the Golden State Warriors)
Smart said it was Nelson’s supposition then that scoring was tops on his shopping list when it came to acquiring players.
“Nelly didn’t look at the player coming in like, ‘He must dribble. He must do this. He must do that,’” Smart said. “The prerequisite was he has to be able to shoot. We’ll fix everything else.”
Morrow didn’t need to be told twice. He’d circled summer-league dates on his calendar knowing he was poised to turn heads. It was his mission.
“I remember thinking, ‘Ain’t nobody working harder than me at practice,’” Morrow said. “So, all I needed was a platform to be able to put everything on the table. If I get the opportunity, I was gonna show them everything.”
Morrow kicked things off against the Hornets by scoring 17 points in the first quarter — connecting on 7 of 8 from the field and 2 of 2 from 3-point range. On the air, Meyers took note. Morrow was so good so early that the broadcaster even got a tad sarcastic.
“It’s going to be a struggling tempo every time you face the Warriors and Anthony Morrow — what a shame the guys can’t fill it up,” Meyers joked dryly after Morrow bumped his total to 23.
Soon, the energy became too much to deny. The Cox Pavilion crowd of roughly 2,500 started reacting to each shot as if it were a high-stakes roll of the dice at the craps table.
“You know, it’s not a big gym, but it was rocking,” Meyers recalled. “They were urging him every time he touched it. They wanted him to shoot, and he responded.”
Against a Hornets lineup that included Darren Collison and Marcus Thornton, Morrow had 25 points by halftime and cooled briefly, scoring seven in the third quarter. Along the way, Morrow attempted a heat check — a risky shot just to see if he was as hot as he thought he was.
“I forgot who was guarding me, but I remember I got, like, 18 or 20 or something early in the second quarter,” he said. “I came down and did a left-to-right crossover, then a right-to-left crossover, and pulled up and shot.”
You don’t have to ask if it went in.
“I’m not like Kobe, but I felt like that kind of mentality,” Morrow said. “Just kept going.”
Morrow cranked things up in the fourth quarter with the summer-league record in sight. His confidence kept building, one swish at a time.
“One of the biggest things that game helped him understand was, ‘I can play in this league,’” Smart said. “Although it’s summer league, it showed what he can do if he’s open. Whether summer league or regular season or preseason, if you can make an open shot, you got a chance.”
In the fourth, with the crowd clearly aware that the record was in sight, Morrow kept shooting. It hardly sounded like a summer-league game over the airwaves, as Meyers punctuated the drama.
Morrow got a little crease, and he found it! Thirty-four now for Anthony Morrow.
Morrow. More? Unbelievable! Thirty-seven now for Anthony Morrow! Only five off the summer-league record.
Morrow rising over the smaller man! Anthony Morrow … it’s his day! He’s now got 39!
Morrow broke the record by catching a ball on the wing, faking a shot as a defender flew by, then releasing a shot from just inside the arc. His finishing touch was a well-contested 3-pointer with 1:08 to play.
Notably, Morrow’s final stat line featured seven rebounds and did not include a single assist.
“I wanted to hit 50,” he said with a laugh. “That was definitely a special day for me. My kids look at that game, and they can’t believe it when they see it. It’s on YouTube, everything. So, when I see it, they’re like, ‘That’s daddy!’”
That game was 17 years ago — and the record might last another year. With the 2026 summer league winding down, the closest anyone has come as of Wednesday night is 35 points (Caleb Wilson of the Bulls and Meleek Thomas of the Cleveland Cavaliers).
Morrow said he’d happily pass the torch, one hot hand to another.
“I want somebody to break the record. I’ve said that before,” he said. “It’s just a blessing to have that still standing.”
Morrow’s playing days ended after the 2016-17 season. In 2023, he was arrested and faced charges of assault and kidnapping following an incident with a woman in Charlotte, N.C., and the case remains pending in North Carolina courts. Morrow’s attorneys have denied the allegations.
Since his retirement from basketball, he’s been involved in commercial real estate, a tech company investment, a clothing company, AAU training, his charitable foundation empowering underserved communities and a sports and entertainment company. With it being 2026, it makes sense that he also hosts a podcast.
On this big-game anniversary every year, he finds a way to post on social media about his summer-league scoring record. As for Morrow’s highly touted Warriors backcourt mate that day, Curry finished 4-for-10 from the field and committed six fouls.
Whatever happened to that fresh-faced rookie anyway?
“I don’t know,” Meyers joked. “I don’t think he played in the league very long.”
