The 7 previous instances of it happening:

Paul George (PHI) against the Boston Celtics on May 2nd 2026; he turned 36 years old.
Harrison Barnes (GSW) against Oklahoma City Thunder on May 30th 2016; he turned 24 years old.
Pablo Prigioni (HOU) against Los Angeles Clippers on May 17th 2015; he turned 38 years old.
Udonis Haslem (MIA) against Boston Celtics on June 9th 2012; he turned 32 years old.
Kevin Garnett (MIN) against Sacramento Kings on May 19th 2004; he turned 28 years old.
Scott Hastings (DET) against Chicago Bulls on June 3rd 1990; he turned 30 years old. Only played 1 minute.
Walt Hazzard (LAL) against St. Louis Hawks on April 15th 1966; he turned 24 years old.

Initially posted by Mike Lynch on Bluesky when it occured with Paul George earlier this month. Noticed it applies in this series too, funny coincidence.

mstun3107 | Pacers

367 | a day ago

This is why I’m a loyal paid subscriber to r/nba

livefreeordont | 76ers

47 | 19 hours ago

Don’t give RDDT any ideas

GioVasari121 | Warriors

3 | 7 hours ago

Bro who are you paying

lxkandel06 | Nets

340 | a day ago

Beating the Thunder twice in Game 7 of the WCF on your birthday twice, exactly 10 years apart, would be quite the coincedence

Jmontavs | Knicks

70 | 20 hours ago

Lightning strikes twice

GabeIsGone | Spurs

24 | 18 hours ago

I think that means OKC is contractually obligated to build him a statue in front of their new arena. 😉

YerrrKnicks | Knicks

-1 | 15 hours ago

They’ll flop one down for him fs

numberonebuddy | TOR

2 | 6 hours ago

Trying too hard

YerrrKnicks | Knicks

2 | 5 hours ago

🤷🏿‍♂️

Seven19td | Washington Bullets

163 | a day ago

I love stats like this.

LakerBlue | Lakers

37 | 16 hours ago

This is a fun stat, unlike the “player x is the first player with a stat-line of 24pts/9asts/7reb who made 6 threes on a Wednesday where Mercury was in retrograde.”

Fast_Cicada5986

7 | a day ago

Me too

Chewbones9 | Thunder

2 | 10 hours ago

There’s a baseball content creator named Jolly Olive who has a series like this called Stats that Don’t Matter and it’s just the funniest most ridiculous stats you can imagine lol

CazOnReddit | Raptors

90 | a day ago

Great, now all the degenerate lurkers will take this precedent as a guarantee of a Spurs win and will place their house, their shirt and 50 dollars in Chuck E Cheese credits on San Antonio taking Game 7

I hope you’re happy

No_Quail_

73 | a day ago

I’m placing my house on the spurs based on actual science, like that corgi.

CazOnReddit | Raptors

24 | a day ago

See this person sciences

Dogs know what’s up

followupquestion

1 | 3 hours ago

Well, the dog definitely knows ball.

Thehiddenllama | Spurs

6 | a day ago

And I hope it pays out.

carasc5

4 | 19 hours ago

In what fantasy world do you live in where these people can afford houses?

BeardRag | Spurs

6 | 17 hours ago

especially people who gamble

RandyGrey | CHI

-1 | 14 hours ago

You know, I am in no way advocating for it, but the sad truth is dropping $20 on the NFL season last year was arguably the best financial decision I’ve ever made

DangerIsMyUsername | NBA

1 | 15 hours ago

all of my legacy points are on the line tomorrow

immanoel | HOU

1 | 12 hours ago

Personally, I been on Spurs ever since Air Corgi predicted thrm

Either_Imagination_9 | Knicks

62 | a day ago

How can you not be romantic about Harrison Barnes?

Johnknight111 | Warriors

29 | 20 hours ago

The 2016 NBA Playoffs where he could not stay in front of guys and could not hit an open jump shot to save his life.

UncircumciseMe | Cavaliers

26 | 20 hours ago

Yes, Cavs legend.

Johnknight111 | Warriors

2 | 13 hours ago

Do Cavs fans cheer him when he gets announced though? I feel like they should.

harrowing-gale-2606 | Warriors

9 | 12 hours ago

If JR Smith can get MVP chant at Oracle, I don’t see why Harrison Barnes can’t in Cleveland

dvasquez93 | Warriors

11 | 16 hours ago

Yeah legitimately he had arguably the worst finals series by any healthy starter in history, especially when you consider that all he was asked to do was shoot wide open corner 3s and guard whoever their worst wing player was.

Johnknight111 | Warriors

5 | 13 hours ago

The fact he played dramatically worse than Andre, Steph and Klay, all of whom were limping on out there when Barnes had nothing wrong with him was so damning. It was a key reason why no Warriors fan was sad he could not be retained (along with Andre and Livingston) after KD joined the Warriors.

vNocturnus | Kings

1 | 13 hours ago

Yeah you can just take the “2016” out of that sentence

CazOnReddit | Raptors

1 | a day ago

He’s a married man

TheOtherSackville

21 | a day ago

THESE ARE THE STATS I LIVE FOR!

Manor002 | Heat

19 | a day ago

This is actually a WILD stat

zewayofjay | Spurs

14 | a day ago

Top-tier quality post

Character-Active2208

11 | a day ago

The wildest part about this stat is that Harrison Barnes is only 34

allstartatum

1 | 5 minutes ago

Him being younger than PG is def surprising

InfiniteDub | Warriors

12 | a day ago

I’m having horrible flashbacks of game 7 harrison barnes

VadersSuccessor | Lakers

9 | a day ago

I did not realize PG was 36 already. I thought he was ³²⁄₃₃.

Eddie5pi | SAS

15 | 20 hours ago

His horrific leg break was 12 years ago already

The_Dumblebee | Spurs

3 | a day ago

Anulo mufa

raw91 | Knicks

5 | a day ago

HBD, Harrison

MusclyArmPaperboy | Raptors

3 | a day ago

Cool stat, now to watch all the mainstream media steal it lol

ButlerFromDowntown | Bulls

1 | 15 hours ago

They already did when PG had his birthday on game 7 of the first round this year.

ThurgoodMunson

3 | a day ago

Mods wtf,

Dymatizeee | Knicks

3 | 21 hours ago

For the love of the game let’s go spurs !!

AccomplishedRainbow1 | Suns

2 | a day ago

Wow

BeeGeeReverse | Raptors

2 | a day ago

I honestly thought Barnes was much older.

Nugur

2 | a day ago

Deja vu. I literally saw this post for Paul George one

nbaistheworst

2 | a day ago

Let’s hope Mitch gives him some PT tomorrow.

DarkJesuss

2 | a day ago

Wow you’ve really done it now the spurs are really gonna lose

Enough_Cat3933

3 | a day ago

They said that to Paul George in that celtics series

ZandrickEllison

2 | a day ago

Removed by mods?? BOO

SeanKilpatrickFan | MIN

2 | a day ago

They kept my exact same post when it was 6-0 before the Sixers game, I don’t know man.

ZandrickEllison

1 | a day ago

Maybe it’s a mistake? Sometimes my posts get taken down by auto filters. You can message them if you want.

SeaCounter9516 | Thunder

4 | 20 hours ago

It’s because it was posted yesterday. So it’s being auto filtered out for being a duplicate post

hoopdummy | Spurs

2 | a day ago

Should have left this up

beiherhund | Thunder

2 | 21 hours ago

Ah yes but no one has done it twice. Checkmate, Spurs

Statalyzer

1 | 20 hours ago

Would be the first time twice, whether you mean player or season….

beiherhund | Thunder

1 | 13 hours ago

I meant no player has played one twice and won it twice

igby1

2 | 17 hours ago

This is the hard-hitting content I expect from this sub

HenrikCrown | Pelicans

2 | 16 hours ago

Oh god

BloodMossHunter | NBA

2 | 16 hours ago

All in

lolpuppet | Celtics

2 | 15 hours ago

This fact led to the death of my Celtics this year, I can only hope it will atone for that by also taking down the Thunder.

cscott530

2 | 13 hours ago

TIL I share a birthday with Harrison Barnes

McThlerry | Bulls

2 | 10 hours ago

The prophecy will be fulfilled

IvanLoL | Cavaliers

2 | 4 hours ago

2016 was 10 years ago… wtf is time mang

AntiBoATX | Spurs

1 | a day ago

This was posted 11 hours ago on draftkingsports twitter account

ss_svmy | Raptors

1 | 20 hours ago

This record vs Harrison Barnes’ horrendous game 7 history. Unstoppable force meets immovable object

Statalyzer

1 | 20 hours ago

It appears the frequency of these events is getting exponentially larger over time…

deneuvig | Spurs

1 | 19 hours ago

But the Corgi said that we won’t win until game 8

froggycbl4 | Nets Bandwagon

1 | 17 hours ago

how is Harrison only 34 he has been washed for a decade

HuskyDad96 | Thunder

1 | 3 hours ago

Welp here comes the first game 7 birthday L.

Sorry Harry

MasterFussbudget | Thunder

0 | a day ago

The question, then, is whether Harrison Barnes will play.

temujin94

-1 | a day ago

There’s not a statistical hope in hell there has only ever been 7 such instances.

Mammoth-Software7609 | Spurs

6 | a day ago

Game 7s are rare, and you’re only accounting for 30 players’ birthdays. So its not that impossible

temujin94

2 | a day ago

5 in the last 14 years but 3 in the 50+ years before that?

As I say it would be a statistical marvel if these are anyway accurate.

RedHammer1441

6 | a day ago

Keep in mind the playoffs have gone through format changes and expansions too. It wasn’t until like 2004 where the first round was even up to 7 games and this stat probably doesn’t account for the old 5 game format. So right there you’re getting rid of 8 potential game 7s annually.

temujin94

2 | a day ago

Factoring in all that it’s still so much more heavily weighted in the other direction.

noneedforeathrowaway | Lakers

3 | a day ago

There have still only ever been 159 game 7s ever played. And given just how few people play in the NBA, let alone the playoffs, you’re probably looking at a ridiculously small pool of players.

Also, given how few Game 7s there have been, this is not that difficult to fact check. We’re at most looking at like 4770 people and that’s assuming every team has a completely unique roster which…they absolutely don’t

temujin94

3 | a day ago

159 such events with 30 players each time. It’s such a ridiculously low number mathematically it is nigh on impossible.

Statalyzer

1 | 20 hours ago

Going by a 13 man active roster, you’d expect it to have happened 11 times, so 7 isn’t ludicrously low.

noneedforeathrowaway | Lakers

0 | a day ago

I feel like a huge part of your math is ignoring the fact that date of these game 7s varies wildly between late April and mid June. There are more than enough variables for this not to be surprising. And again, plenty of players have played in more than one of these Game 7 appearances. Harrison Barnes, for example

temujin94

3 | a day ago

The fact that is your retort means you don’t understand maths. Doesn’t matter if it was the same day every single time. The numbers are nowhere high enough to be probable.

noneedforeathrowaway | Lakers

1 | a day ago

I guess I’m just falling back on the logic of how easily verifiable this is. Like this is an hour long fact checking assignment just diving through basketball reference. So why assume OP is lying. Just because the math doesn’t line up with what’s expected doesn’t mean it’s actually false.

noneedforeathrowaway | Lakers

1 | a day ago

And again, I think your assumption about population of players who have played in a game 7 is way off

Statalyzer

1 | 20 hours ago

That is odd, but it’s a small sample size and the number of 7 game series’ per season has increased a few times, so it’s plausible.

I still wonder if we just also have less data on the earlier seasons though.

sushicowboyshow | Spurs

1 | 15 hours ago

Each player that has participated in a game 7 has a ¹⁄₃₆₅ chance of playing in their birthday. The roster size has not always been 13. It has been 12 or less on many occasions. So the fact that this has only happened 7 times is only 20-25% lower than expected

In NBA history, players are 7–0 when playing in a Game 7 on their birth day. Harrison Barnes turns 34 on the day the Game 7 between the Thunder and the Spurs takes place.