Tuesday night (April 15), Steph Curry delivered one of those retro performances that remind you exactly who he is—the greatest shooter the game has ever seen. 

In a high-stakes Play-In showdown against the Memphis Grizzlies, with a playoff berth hanging in the balance, the 37-year-old Curry turned back the clock and lit up the court, dropping 37 points, grabbing 8 rebounds, and dishing out 4 assists in a tightly contested 5-point win. It was Steph being Steph, full of motion, magic, and momentum. And yet, despite the brilliance, it’s a performance destined to be forgotten by the record books.

“It’s a playoff game,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said in the postgame press conference, reflecting on the intensity. “Even though it disappears into the ether, as we all know there’s no record of it. But it’s a playoff game.”

Indeed, since its inception in the 2020 Bubble, the NBA Play-In Tournament has evolved from a pandemic experiment to an essential, chaos-filled prelude to the playoffs. It's delivered drama, desperation, and dazzling individual performances that rival anything in the postseason. But there’s a catch—none of it counts.

The stats from these games don’t live in the hallowed halls of Basketball Reference. They don’t show up in official player records. They’re ghosts; they’re spectacular feats suspended in a statistical purgatory. And that’s a shame. Because in just a handful of years, the Play-In Tournament has produced some of the most electric performances in recent NBA memory.

Take Jayson Tatum, for instance. In 2021, with Boston’s season hanging in the balance, he went nuclear, dropping a sensational 50-piece on the Washington Wizards to secure the 7th seed in the Eastern Conference. And yet, you won’t find it in the Celtics’ playoff history, or in Tatum’s postseason averages. It’s as if it never happened.

And what about Russell Westbrook? Two nights after Tatum’s masterpiece, Westbrook responded. With the Wizards needing one win to claim the final playoff spot, he dropped 18 points and 15 assists in a hard-earned victory. It was classic Russ—attacking downhill, collapsing defenses, kicking out to shooters, doing everything but mop the floor. Still, that game exists in a void.

The truth is, the Play-In Tournament has become must-see TV. It delivers the stakes of a Game 7 with the urgency of a season finale. But the league treats it like a mirage—something we see, feel, remember, but can’t quite grasp. 

This isn’t just a Play-In problem, either. The same statistical amnesia applies to the NBA’s new in-season spectacle: the Emirates NBA Cup. This past season, in the championship game, Giannis Antetokounmpo posted 26 points, 19 rebounds, 10 assists, 3 blocks, and 2 steals. It was a masterpiece, a tour de force that earned him Emirates Cup MVP honors. But when we debate Giannis’ place among the all-time greats twenty years from now, those numbers won’t be there. Not in his career totals. Not in the official archive. Not in the record books.

It’s time for the NBA to change that. These games do matter. They spark rivalries, shift legacies, and leave lasting impressions. Fans remember Tatum’s 50. They remember Zion’s 40. Dub Nation will remember last night’s performances by Jimmy Butler and Steph . But history won’t—because the numbers aren’t real, the stats don’t stick, and the record books are silent.

We talk so often about storytelling in sports, about the arc of greatness. But what’s a story with no record, a legend with no proof? The Play-In has given us everything—except a place in history.