By Patrick Hayes

Micah Hart of NBA.com has a cool post looking back at five of the most unexpected players who have scored 50 points in a single game during their NBA careers. Among them: Detroit native Willie Burton. From the story:

(Dana) Barros’ barrage should have come as no surprise to Sixers fans. After all, teammate Willie Burton beat him to it just three months before when he torched the Heat for 53 points, and in a 105-90 win no less. The two teammates’ games shared some similarities — both were hot from 3-point range (Burton hit 5 of 8), but while Barros avoided the charity stripe like the plague, Burton scored almost half his points there, hitting 24 of 28 free throws. As a result, Burton needed only 19 shots (making 12) to get to 53.

Fun fact: Burton has the fewest amount of career points scored for any 50-point scorer, accumulating just 3,243 points in an eight-year career.

Fun fact, II: Since 1985, the 1994-95 Sixers are one of only two teams to have two different players hit a half-century in a game in the same season. The other team? The 1994-95 Mavericks, who hadJim Jackson and Jamal Mashburn do the deed just two weeks apart. Must have been something in the water.

They also had this video clip looking back at Burton’s performance.