NBA Players With More Than 6 Personal Fouls in a Game

One of basketball's most familiar rules is that an NBA player is disqualified after committing six personal fouls. In almost every game, the sixth foul means the player immediately leaves the court and is replaced by an eligible substitute.

NBA history, however, contains several remarkable exceptions. Players have officially finished games with seven or even eight personal fouls. Most of these games occurred during the league's early years, when a team that had exhausted its available players could be forced into an unusual situation involving a player who had already reached the normal disqualification limit.

There is also a completely different type of example. In 1999, Atlanta's Cal Bowdler accumulated seven fouls because his sixth foul was not properly recognized and he accidentally remained in the game.

The result is one of the strangest statistical categories in NBA history: players whose official box scores show more personal fouls than should normally be possible.

There is an important pre-NBA BAA occurrence that belongs in any complete history of players recording more than six fouls. Jack Toomay of the Baltimore Bullets reportedly committed 8 personal fouls against the New York Knicks on March 26, 1949.

Because the game occurred during the Basketball Association of America's final season before the BAA-NBL merger that created the NBA, Toomay's performance is often separated from official NBA single-game records. It remains listed here because the BAA is a direct predecessor of the NBA and its history is essential to understanding the early professional game.

The phenomenon was not limited to the regular season. Syracuse Nationals player-coach Al Cervi was credited with seven personal fouls against the Boston Celtics on March 21, 1953, during the NBA playoffs.

Cervi played 23 minutes and scored 12 points in the game. His seven-foul performance is one of the rare postseason examples of a player finishing an NBA game above the normal six-foul limit.

Don Otten's eight personal fouls stand as the official NBA regular-season record. He committed eight fouls for the Tri-Cities Blackhawks against the Sheboygan Red Skins on November 24, 1949.

Normally, an NBA player is disqualified after committing six personal fouls. Otten was able to remain in the game because Tri-Cities had exhausted its available substitutes. The unusual circumstances produced a box score that would ordinarily appear impossible: eight personal fouls for one player.

Otten scored 12 points in the game, making four field goals and four free throws.

Lew Hitch matched Otten's record on January 17, 1952, when he committed eight personal fouls for the Minneapolis Lakers against the Syracuse Nationals.

Hitch was able to remain in the game under the unusual rules governing a team that no longer had an eligible substitute available. He finished with 15 points while making four field goals and seven free throws.

Hitch was not the only Minneapolis player with an extraordinary foul total that night. Teammate George Mikan was credited with seven personal fouls in the same game.

That makes the January 17, 1952 Lakers-Nationals game particularly remarkable: two Minneapolis players combined for 15 personal fouls, with both finishing above the normal six-foul limit.

Another remarkable game occurred on November 24, 1949, the same date as Don Otten's eight-foul performance.

Anderson Packers teammates John Hargis and Richie Seltz were both credited with seven personal fouls against the Syracuse Nationals. Hargis scored 17 points, while Seltz finished with 5.

Their presence on the same roster makes the game one of the most unusual foul-related box scores in early NBA history. Two Anderson players finished above the normal disqualification limit in the same contest.

Alex Hannum of the Syracuse Nationals was credited with seven personal fouls against the Boston Celtics on December 26, 1950.

Hannum scored 8 points in the game. He later became much better known for his coaching career, including championship seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers in the NBA and Oakland Oaks in the ABA.

Whitey Osterkorn of the Syracuse Nationals appears twice among the early NBA games in which a player accumulated more than six personal fouls.

Osterkorn was credited with seven fouls against the Indianapolis Olympians on March 7, 1952. He did it again against the Baltimore Bullets on November 15, 1952.

Those two appearances make Osterkorn especially unusual within this already rare category.

Hall of Famer George Mikan was credited with seven personal fouls for the Minneapolis Lakers against the Syracuse Nationals on January 17, 1952.

Mikan played 47 minutes and scored 18 points. More remarkably, teammate Lew Hitch accumulated eight fouls in the same contest. The two Minneapolis players therefore combined for 15 personal fouls.

Cal Christensen of the Rochester Royals was credited with seven personal fouls against the Syracuse Nationals on January 15, 1953.

Christensen scored 7 points in the game. His performance is another example of the unusually high foul totals that appeared during the NBA's early years.

The seven-foul phenomenon did not completely disappear with the 1950s. Cincinnati Royals guard Adrian Smith was credited with seven personal fouls against the New York Knicks on January 24, 1967.

Smith also had an excellent offensive game, scoring 28 points. He made 11 field goals and six of his seven free-throw attempts.

His appearance is notable because it came more than a decade after the cluster of seven- and eight-foul games from the NBA's earliest seasons.

Cal Bowdler's case was completely different from the early NBA examples.

On November 13, 1999, Bowdler was playing for the Atlanta Hawks against the Portland Trail Blazers when the scorer's table and game officials failed to recognize that he had already committed six personal fouls.

Bowdler remained in the game and subsequently committed another foul. The mistake left him with an extraordinary official line of seven personal fouls.

Bowdler played 15 minutes and finished with 2 points and 2 rebounds. He shot 1-of-2 from the field.

Unlike the early examples involving teams that had exhausted their available players, Bowdler was not intentionally permitted to continue after his sixth foul. His seventh was possible because the sixth foul had been overlooked.

Under normal NBA rules, a player who commits a sixth personal foul is disqualified. The player's night is over and an eligible substitute enters the game.

NBA history nevertheless shows two very different ways in which a player can finish with more than six fouls.

No eligible substitute available: In unusual situations where a team has exhausted its available players, the rules provide a mechanism that prevents the team from simply being reduced below five players whenever possible. This explains several of the extraordinary foul totals from the NBA's early years.

A sixth foul is overlooked: A player can also accidentally remain in a game if the scorer's table and officials fail to recognize that he has reached six fouls. Cal Bowdler's 1999 game is the best-known modern example.

A famous modern example of the NBA's minimum-player rule occurred on February 5, 2014, when the injury-ravaged Los Angeles Lakers played the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Los Angeles began the game with only eight available players. Nick Young and Jordan Farmar were injured during the game, while Chris Kaman fouled out. That left the Lakers with only five usable players.

Robert Sacre then committed his sixth personal foul with 3:32 remaining in the fourth quarter. Under normal circumstances he would have been disqualified, but Los Angeles had nobody eligible to replace him.

Sacre was allowed to remain on the floor. The Lakers were assessed the appropriate technical-foul penalty, but continued with five players.

Sacre did not commit another personal foul, so his official box score still shows six rather than seven. The game nevertheless provides a modern illustration of how a player can remain on the court after reaching the normal foul limit.

The Lakers went on to win the game 119-108.

The NBA's six-foul disqualification rule makes these games some of the strangest box scores in professional basketball history.

Excluding the earlier BAA game by Jack Toomay, the highest known NBA regular-season total is eight personal fouls, recorded by Don Otten of the Tri-Cities Blackhawks on November 24, 1949 and Lew Hitch of the Minneapolis Lakers on January 17, 1952.

Jack Toomay also accumulated eight fouls for the Baltimore Bullets on March 26, 1949, but that performance occurred in the BAA before the formation of the NBA.

The known seven-foul NBA regular-season performances listed here belong to John Hargis, Richie Seltz, Alex Hannum, George Mikan, Whitey Osterkorn, Cal Christensen, Adrian Smith and Cal Bowdler. Osterkorn appears twice.

Al Cervi adds another seven-foul performance from the NBA playoffs on March 21, 1953.

Most of these performances came during the NBA's formative years. Bowdler's 1999 game stands apart as the famous modern example because his seventh foul resulted from his sixth foul being overlooked rather than an intentional application of a short-handed roster rule.

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