An NBA Basketball court is 94 feet long, by 50 feet wide. Baron Davis holds the record for longest made NBA shot. At a distance of 89 feet (27.1 meters). Davis made this record breaking shot on 17th February 2001, playing for the Charlotte Hornets. The longest NBA shot ever made was on the road against the Milwaukee Bucks at the Bradley Center.
Here’s a still showing how close to both the baseline and sideline Baron Davis was when he launched the longest made field goal in NBA history.
Baron Davis 89 foot made field goal
Baron Davis was playing in a regular season road game against the Milwaukee Bucks. He was fresh off an appearance on the Sophomore Team at the 2001 All-Star Game. The game was approaching the end of the 3rd quarter and Davis’ Hornets team had a slim 3 point lead, 70-67, over their East Coast playoff rivals. Davis called for the ball and said that he was going to score. When he caught it there was just 0.7 seconds left, he was 89 feet from the basket. Unlike many full court heaves of this nature, Davis was actually guarded. Maybe because he had arrogantly claimed he was making the impossible shot or maybe just because defender Lyndsey Hunter was a pro and the game was tight. Either way, Baron Davis heaved up a shot from 89 feet in a close NBA game and made it. Davis, an exciting and elite point guard on his day, wasn’t known as a sharpshooter, in fact he had been the least effective 3 point shooter in the NBA the year before (1999-2000) among those who had logged over 100 attempts.
On 17th February 2001 Baron Davis guaranteed something that had never been done in an NBA game and delivered it the first time, 1 of 1. He made an 89 foot NBA field goal.
Davis and his Hornets would go on to win the game 93-103, they would eventually qualify for the 2001 Playoffs.
What are the longest made shots in NBA history?
Let’s take a quick spin at some of the other longest field goals made in NBA history.
A list of the longest shots ever made in NBA history.
| Player | Distance | Date | Playoffs/Regular Season | Team | Opponent | Venue |
| Baron Davis | 89 feet | 17/02/2001 | Regular Season | Charlotte Hornets | Milwaukee Bucks | Bradley Center |
| Norm Van Lier | 84 feet | 19/01/1977 | Regular Season | Chicago Bulls | San Antonio Spurs | HemisFair Arena |
| Magic Johnson | 84 feet | 23/04/1987 | Playoffs | Los Angeles Lakers | Denver Nuggets | The Forum |
| LeBron James | 83 feet | 03/01/2007 | Regular Season | Cleveland Cavaliers | Boston Celtics | TD Banknorth Garden |
| Herb Williams | 81 feet | 08/01/1986 | Regular Season | Indiana Pacers | Sacramento Kings | Market Square Arena |
| Ziaire Williams | 79 feet | 22/01/2023 | Regular Season | Memphis Grizzlies | Phoenix Suns | Footprint Center |
| Zoran Planinic | 77 feet | 09/11/2005 | Regular Season | New Jersey Nets | Utah Jazz | Continental Airlines Arena |
| Vince Carter | 72 feet | 19/02/2016 | Regular Season | Memphis Grizzlies | Minnesota Timberwolves | FedExForum |
| Darius Miller | 72 feet | 28/04/2018 | Playoffs | New Orleans Pelicans | Golden State Warriors | Oracle Arena |
| Andre Drummond | 71 feet | 08/02/2016 | Regular Season | Detroit Pistons | Toronto Raptors | The Palace of Auburn Hills |
Lebron James vs Celtics – 83 foot field goal
On the 3rd of January 2007 a young Lebron James would receive the ball with 1 second left in the 3rd quarter. His Cavs side were ahead 3 points (76-79) from their bitter rivals the Boston Celtics. Lebron took one dribble, revved up and tossed the ball 83 feet into the basket as the clock expired giving his side a 6 point lead heading into the 4th quarter.
The Cavs would hold on to win the game by 3 points.
What is the longest NBA game winning shot?
While Lebrons shot above could certainly be credited with helping win the game, it wasn’t a classic game winner.
That honor belongs to Devonte Graham, then of the New Orleans Pelicans. Measuring in at 61 foot to defeat the OKC Thunder.
On Wednesday 15th December 2001 Devonte Grahams Pelicans had just been hauled back level by a Shai Gilgeous-Alexander three pointer at the end of the 4th quarter. Graham receives the ball with 1.4 seconds left on the clock, one dribble to wind up and splash. Game.
This beat a long standing record set in 1992 by Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf from 55 feet. Then known as Chris Jackson he canned one at the end of regulation with things tied at 106 for the Nuggets against the Clippers. This was the longest game winning NBA shot for almost 30 years until Devonte Graham in 2021.
What is the longest made shot in an NBA Playoff game?
It’s Magic Time! The longest shot ever made in an NBA Playoff game is also tied 2nd on the list for longest in any NBA game. This massive 84 foot bomb came in late April 1987 at the Forum, LA, right at the peak of the Showtime Lakers. The shooter? None other than Ervin “Magic” Johnson.
In Game 1 of the 1987 NBA Playoffs first Round against the Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Lakers point guard Magic Johnson scored a buzzer-beating shot from 84 feet. Almost 40 years later, this is still the longest shot ever made in the NBA Playoffs.
As reported by the LA Times the next morning.
“The Lakers put up a playoff record-tying 82-point first half, which ended with Johnson’s overhand fastball from the opposite end of the court, a few feet shy of the Nuggets’ free throw line.Johnson rebounded an air ball shot by Denver’s Bill Hanzlik, took a couple of steps to his right and let fly.
“I saw Fernando Valenzuela pitch last night–I stole it out of one of his books,” said Johnson, who may have watched the Dodger left-hander but made his full-court pitch right-handed.
The shot was so stunning that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar mistakenly credited himself with an assist on the play.
“I just flipped him the ball and thought we’d just walk off the court,” said Abdul-Jabbar, who never handled the ball on the play. “Then when he shot it, I said, ‘Hey, that looks good.’ ”
The Forum crowd of 17,505 stood cheering for nearly a full minute after the Lakers left the court following Johnson’s shot. The fans should have taken that for their cue to head for the parking lots, for all that happened thereafter.”
The game finished in a rout as the Lakers ran out 128-95 winners.
The Lakers went on to sweep the series 3-0 on their way to the title.
How is the length of an NBA shot measured?
The length, or more accurately the location of every NBA field goal attempt – make or miss – is tracked via Second Spectrum using a series of in arena cameras and proprietary software. This is known as player tracking.
The NBA has used Second Spectrum to track players and the ball since the start of the 2013-14 NBA season. Second Spectrum is the current Official Optical Tracking Provider of the NBA and began league-wide tracking for the 2017-18 NBA season.
The NBA (via Second Spectrum) uses an optical tracking system that features multiple cameras placed at all 29 NBA courts. The cameras work at a rate of 25 frames per second feeding the tracked info into Second Spectrums software which then outputs locations of all players and the ball on the court, plotted against time and gane action.
The availability of this highly accurate data was hit and miss up until the 2013-14 season. The majority of NBA basketball data before that was tracked manually, with shot length, where required/interesting being tracked manually from standard broadcast video feeds.
Jae Crowder makes a 95 foot NBA shot
This one is wild.
In November 2015 Boston Celtics Forward Jae Crowder attempted to throw a full court alley oop to Jared Sullinger with 1.1 seconds remaining in the first half. He overthrew and the ball banked into the basket without Sullinger getting near it. Sadly Jae Crowder did not rack up 3 points against Indiana as he was attempting to make an inbounds pass.
The measured distance of the “throw” was 95 feet as he was standing out of bounds and wider than the line of the key. Even considering it was a “miss” as he intended it for Sullinger, the sheer power and accuracy to even get it that close has got to be respected!
Jaw Crowder launching a 95 foot “shot” in an NBA game
What is the World Record longest Basketball Shot?
So we have elite NBA stars scoring from 80+ feet. Baron Davis almost nailed 90 feet and Jae Crowder managed to drop in a field goal that didn’t count from about 95 – longer than the actual length of an NBA basketball court. What is the Guiness Book of records longest shot?
This record, which I must confess I didn’t know existed until I researched this article, stands at a massive 113 feet 6 inches (34.6 meters).
It was made by Joshua Walker on 22 January 2022 as part of an attempt to break 5 basketball world records. Watch him make the shot in the embedded video below.