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Basketball’s greatest scorers: where does Kobe fit in?

Roar Pro
4th April, 2013
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Kobe Bryant plays his final NBA All - Stars game, as the Western Conference do battle with the Eastern Conference in Toronto. (AFP, Mark Ralston)
Roar Pro
4th April, 2013
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Kobe Bryant passed Wilt Chamberlain for fourth on the NBA’s all-time scoring list on 30 March, to help the LA Lakers squeeze past the Sacramento Kings by 103-98.

Bryant finished the game with 19 points to pass Chamberlain’s total of 31,419. Bryant trails only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387), Karl Malone (36,928) and Michael Jordan (32,292) on the list of all time leading scorers.

Barring injury, Bryant should pass Jordan during the 2013/14 season, although it is unclear whether he will play long enough to pass Malone and Abdul-Jabbar.

As he nears the end of his career, Bryant’s legacy is assured. Five championship rings, two Finals MVPs and one regular season MVP.

Not to mention the countless game winners and iconic performances such as the 81 point explosion against the Toronto Raptors on 22 January 2006.

When he retires he will be widely viewed as a top 10 player of all-time, sitting among exalted company such as Jordan, Chamberlain, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and his former teammate Shaquille O’Neal.

Bryant’s achievement has been widely lauded.

However, some analysts suggest that the achievement is somewhat hollow since Bryant played 188 more games to pass Chamberlain. Where does Bryant stand on the list of all-time greatest scorers?

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The most common way to compare players is per game averages. By this measure Bryant is 10th all-time at 25.5 points per game.

By comparison, both Jordan and Chamberlain averaged 30.1 points per game over their careers. Bryant’s average currently exceeds both Malone and Abdul-Jabbar.

Points per game are a good measure but a flawed one since players benefit by playing more minutes.

During the 1960s star players would often play almost every minute. For example, Chamberlain averaged almost 46 minutes per game across his 1045 game career, while Bill Russell and Oscar Robertson both averaged around 42 minutes per game.

Coaches today are more conservative with their star players and sports science frowns on players playing every minute of every game. This factor, combined with a faster game, creates the illusion that star players from that era were more dominant that modern players.

Chamberlain famously scored 100 points against the New York Knicks during 1962, in route to averaging 50 points per game that season – two marks that are unlikely to ever be broken.

Robertson remarkably averaged a triple-double the same season (achieving ten or more in three different statistical areas such as points, rebounds and assists). While both players were tremendous basketballers they did benefit significantly due to the era they played in.

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A better way to compare scorers are measures such as ‘points per minute’ or ‘points per 36 minutes’ – it does not matter since both provide the same result.

By this measure Bryant’s achievement is more impressive; he averages 25.1 points per 36 minutes compared with Chamberlain who averaged 23.6 points.

Although Bryant needed an additional 188 games to pass Chamberlain he actually did so by playing around 2,700 fewer minutes over the course of his career (the equivalent of about 75 games).

How does Bryant compare to the game’s other great scorers? Jordan is predictably at number one averaging 28.3 points per 36 minutes (Table 1).

NBA Leading scorers

Bryant’s average exceeds Abdul-Jabbar and Malone, and is also practically the same as contemporaries LeBron James and Kevin Durant.

The biggest surprise is George Gervin, the San Antonio guard / forward who led the league in scoring four times between 1976 and 1982.

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There is one final factor that should not be overlooked. The pace of the game of basketball has changed dramatically over the NBA’s history. If a modern fan watched a game played during the 1960s they would be struck by how quick the game was and how many shots were taken.

The pace of the game back then was reminiscent of an All-Star game, rather than the slower, more deliberate pace that we now associate with the NBA. This factor, which primarily affects players such as Chamberlain, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor, makes the scoring exploits of players in the 1960s less impressive relative to modern players.

It is not a surprise that Kobe Bryant is one of the game’s greatest scorers according to a variety of measures. With the exception of Michael Jordan and George Gervin, Bryant has scored as easily as anyone who has ever played the game including Chamberlain.

This analysis suggests that the scoring prowess of players such as Chamberlain is often overstated due to a variety of factors which boosted scoring during the 1960s.

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