The 50–40–90 Club is an informal term referring to the very exclusive group of National Basketball Association

National Basketball Association

The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...

 (NBA) players who have had a shooting percentage at or above 50% for field goal

Field goal (basketball)

In basketball, the term field goal refers to a basket scored on any shot or tap other than a free throw, worth two or three points depending on the distance of the attempt from the basket. "Field Goal" is the official terminology used by the National Basketball Association in their rule book,...

s, 40% for three-point field goal

Three-point field goal

A three-point field goal is a field goal in a basketball game, made from beyond the three-point line, a designated arc radiating from the basket...

s, and 90% for free throw

Free throw

In basketball, free throws or foul shots are unopposed attempts to score points from a restricted area on the court , and are generally awarded after a foul on the shooter by the opposing team...

s during an entire NBA season while also achieving the NBA league minimum number of makes in each category. 50–40–90 indicates a great all-around shooting performance and is considered as the ultimate standard for shooters.

Members

Since the NBA introduced the three-point field goal for the 1979–80 season, the 50–40–90 shooting threshold has only been reached by five players: Steve Nash

Steve Nash

Stephen John "Steve" Nash, OC, OBC is a South African-born Canadian professional basketball player who plays point guard for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association . Nash enjoyed a successful high-school basketball career, and he was eventually given a scholarship by Santa Clara...

, Larry Bird

Larry Bird

Larry Joe Bird is a former American NBA basketball player and coach. Drafted into the NBA sixth overall by the Boston Celtics in 1978, Bird started at small forward and power forward for thirteen seasons, spearheading one of the NBA's most formidable frontcourts that included center Robert Parish...

, Mark Price

Mark Price

William Mark Price is a retired American basketball player who played for 12 seasons in the NBA, from 1986 to 1998...

, Reggie Miller

Reggie Miller

Reginald Wayne "Reggie" Miller is a retired American professional basketball player who played his entire 18-year National Basketball Association career with the Indiana Pacers...

 and Dirk Nowitzki

Dirk Nowitzki

Dirk Werner Nowitzki is a German professional basketball player who plays for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association...

. Nash and Bird are the only players who achieved 50–40–90 in multiple seasons; Bird achieved it twice consecutively and Nash achieved it four times in five seasons.

José Calderón

José Calderón (basketball)

José Manuel Calderón Borrallo is a Spanish professional basketball player who plays for the National Basketball Association's Toronto Raptors and the Spanish national team.-European career:...

 appears on some 50–40–90 Club lists for his 52–43–91 shooting during the 2007–08 season. During that season, however, he only made 109 free throws (16 short of the NBA league minimum required to be considered the leader in this category). To qualify as a leader in the field goal percentage, three-point field goal percentage and free throw percentage, a player has to make at least 300 field goals, 55 three-point field goals and 125 free throws. These values have been used since the 1999–2000 season; requirements varied with the schedule length several times before that.

Terminology

Similar to baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 batting average

Batting average

Batting average is a statistic in both cricket and baseball that measures the performance of cricket batsmen and baseball hitters. The two statistics are related in that baseball averages are directly descended from the concept of cricket averages.- Cricket :...

s, official NBA shooting percentages are rounded to the third decimal place, thus a player who shot .8999 on free-throws would be officially listed as shooting .900. However, unlike baseball, basketball players' shooting percentages are most commonly referred to by a two-digit number, not a three-digit number. Thus while a player with a baseball batting average of .300 is referred to as a "three hundred hitter" and not a "30% hitter," a basketball player shooting .900 on free-throws will be referred to as a "90% free-throw shooter," not a "nine-hundred shooter."

Calculating

In order to calculate basketball shooting percentages to the second decimal place, the official three digit percentages are shortened and rounded to the second decimal point. Thus a shooting percentage listed as .899 to the third decimal place in the NBA's official shooting statistics is shortened and rounded to "90%" when a two digit number is used to designate the shooting percentage. Note that shooting statistics throughout rounded to second decimal.

This rounding to the second digit has pertinence regarding several 50–40–90 seasons in that four times a player who did not actually reach the .500 or .900 threshold appeared to shoot 50% and 90%. In the 1985–86 season Larry Bird officially shot .496–.423–.896, which becomes 50–42–90 when converted to two digit numbers, in the 1990–91 season Jeff Hornacek officially shot .518–.418–.897, which becomes 52–42–90, in the 2006–07 season Steve Nash shot .532–.455–.899 which converts to 53–45–90, and in the 2008–09 season

2008–09 NBA season

The 2008–09 NBA season was the 63rd season of the National Basketball Association . The 1,230-game regular season began on Tuesday, October 28, 2008, and ended on Wednesday, April 15, 2009...

José Calderón shot .497–.406–.981 which converts to 50–41–98.

50–40–90 seasons

Player	Season													Ref.
		74	786	1,497	53% (.525)	90	225	40% (.400)	414	455	91% (.910)	2,076	28.05
(2)		76	881	1,672	53% (.527)	98	237	41% (.414)	415	453	92% (.916)	2,275	29.93
		75	529	1,006	53% (.526)	93	211	44% (.441)	263	292	90% (.901)	1,414	18.85
		79	524	1,042	50% (.503)	123	292	42% (.421)	403	444	91% (.908)	1,574	19.92
		79	541	1,056	51% (.512)	150	342	44% (.439)	257	279	92% (.921)	1,489	18.85
		78	673	1,341	50% (.502)	72	173	42% (.416)	498	551	90% (.904)	1,916	24.56
(2)		81	485	962	50% (.504)	179	381	47% (.470)	222	245	91% (.906)	1,371	16.93
(3)		74	428	851	50% (.503)	108	246	44% (.439)	196	210	93% (.933)	1,160	15.68
(4)		81	499	985	51% (.507)	124	291	43% (.426)	211	225	94% (.938)	1,333	16.46

Some players missed the 50–40–90 mark by finishing slightly under the .500 field goal percentage or .900 free throw percentage, even though they had 50% and 90% percentage value by virtue of the rounding to the second digit. Some players reached the 50–40–90 mark but failed to make enough field goals or free throws in order to qualify as the league leaders. The following table shows those players who nearly achieved the 50–40–90 (the statistical categories in which they fell short are highlighted and marked with asterisks):

Player	Season													Ref.
		82	796	1,606	50% (.496)*	82	194	42% (.423)	441	492	90% (.896)*	2,115	25.79
		80	544	1,051	52% (.518)	61	146	42% (.418)	201	224	90% (.897)*	1,350	16.88
		82	244*	482	51% (.506)	122	237	51% (.515)	78*	84	93% (.929)	688	8.39
		78	291*	585	50% (.497)*	120	286	42% (.420)	207	231	90% (.896)*	909	11.65
		76	517	971	53% (.532)	156	343	45% (.455)	222	247	90% (.899)*	1,412	18.58
		82	367	707	52% (.519)	79	184	43% (.429)	109*	120	91% (.908)	922	11.24
		68	320	644	50% (.497)*	82	202	41% (.406)	151	154	98% (.981)	873	12.84