Can Static Destroy Electronics?

Try it and see. Those grounds are all the same. That is, the ground on the phono stage is chassis ground, whether its the ground screw used or any other screw that goes into the chassis. Same for the amp. These all go to ground. 

Where you can run into problems is they all go to ground but not the same path. If everything were perfect, zero resistance across the board, then it wouldn't matter. Where there is even a small differential though, then some current goes one way, some another, and this is where the hum comes in. That is why the recommendation to have everything on one circuit. This ensures every path to ground is the same and so tends to be very quiet. 

But people can often times get away with violating this rule and not notice problems. Better lucky than good, eh? 

Phono stages are the highest gain and greatest EQ in all of audio. Orders of magnitude greater. The same exact imperfections that will never show up with other components can have you at the end of your wits with phono. To the point where even when you understand everything going on it still sometimes comes down to try it and see.

Static electricity can cause the pop, but its the pop that blows the stage not the static charge per se. In other words the static charge itself doesn't reach the phono stage. Usually when stoic charges are powerful enough to notice gross pops like this they're messing up the signal pretty much all the time, just not in a way that's obvious until its gone.

Multiple different ways to reduce static charges- Zero Stat, Static Guard and other anti-static sprays (Static Guard is cheap and sold at many grocery stores as well as Amazon), ground wire to bearing/tone arm, grounding brush (a grounded carbon fiber brush that drags across just ahead of the tone arm), and various different mats. slaw I think has one that helps with this as well as being a sound quality improver.

All good things that will improve sound regardless whether or not it was static that blew out that channel. I spray Static Guard over everything on a pretty regular basis and every night when I get out my "special" recordings, for just that extra little something. My static is seldom bad enough to make obvious crackles but its often bad enough to hear improved clarity after spraying.