The NBA surveyed its players again this year at season's start, asking all kinds of probing questions such as favorite movie, fashion accessory, even emoji.
So now we know that Timberwolves veteran Kevin Martin knows the 1960s English protopunk band the Troggs, Shabazz Muhammad's sartorial tastes lean toward French haute-couture fashion house Balmain and as Nikola Pekovic once admitted when he earnestly said, "I'm not on the Twitters," big Pek doesn't know his electronic icons.
"What's an emoji?" Pekovic answered. "Not on social media."
But after doing some more digging … did you know?
Michael Jordan's clutch, deciding 1989 playoff shot over Kevin Martin's home-state Cleveland Cavaliers inspired an NBA career.
The image is iconic: Jordan leaping and punching the air while Cavaliers defender Craig Ehlo crumples in defeat. The Cavs won 57 games and swept the Bulls 6-0 that season, but Jordan's first-round shot was the kind of dagger forlorn Cleveland fans of all sports knew all too well, from Willie Mays' World Series catch to John Elway's 98-yard touchdown drive and Earnest Byner's fumble in the AFC playoffs.
Martin grew up two hours' away in Zanesville, Ohio. He was 6 years old.
"As a little kid, I was nobody's fan," he said. "That game actually turned me into a Bulls fan. I remember how my uncle, my father reacted to it. It seemed like a shock wave went through Ohio, even in my little hometown."