There are two reasons we shouldn't shrug off Kobe Bryant's current rank on the all-time scoring list. First, there is an extremely good chance that he will move up one or two spots on that list in the next couple of seasons. Second, we should all be awake to the fact that a career like Kobe Bryant's is truly rare (Wojnarowski: "Brand New Kobe").
Watching Bryant play, we are witnessing the prowess and the personality of one of the NBA's greatest players and scorers, yet when we hear about where he ranks in the history books people tend to diminish his contribution to the game. He's got plenty of anti-fans out there, I know, but even the people who love to root against Kobe Bryant ought to recognize how much he has accomplished.
Number Five for a While
Only six players in NBA history have tallied over 28,000 points. Shaquille O'Neal is one of them. Playing for the Orlando Magic, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Miami Heat, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Boston Celtics over a twenty year career (!), Shaq ranks above pretty much everyone else who has ever played the game (when we're talking about points).
Kobe Bryant is one of only five people who have scored more and he is joined on that list by Wilt Chamberlain, Michael Jordan, Karl Malone and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, arguably the heftiest of names in the NBA lexicon.
When Bryant passed Shaquille O'Neal to become number five on the list I was surprised at what I didn't hear the commentators talking about. No one was especially impressed. There's something I think we've come to take for granted about Kobe Bryant - his drive to be one of the best of all-time, to win, to break records.
Even though it is exactly this trait that makes us want to watch Kobe Bryant play, we seem to shrug off the truly impressive place this attitude has carved out for him in history.
Moving Up?
Maybe there's a reason we didn't all stop and think much about Kobe Bryant's place on the all-time scoring when he passed O'Neal. Maybe the reason is that Shaquille O'Neal is so fresh in our minds. Jumping to fifth all-time, for Kobe, didn't require him to pass an "old" legend. He just had to pass his rival.
The next name Bryant passes on the list is going to make everybody stop and think about what he has done in his time in the NBA. Fourth on the all-time scoring list is…Wilt Chamberlain.
At the beginning of the playoffs in 2012, Kobe Bryant has 29,484 total points compared to Wilt Chamberlain's 31,419 career points. If we can assume that the Lakers guard can continue to score at the pace he has set over the last several years (roughly 25 ppg.), Bryant will pass Chamberlain next year. Yes, less than one season from now, Kobe Bryant could move ahead of Wilt Chamberlain.
That should be enough to get people thinking. That should be enough to invite NBA fans around the country and around the world to look at this guy as a bit of live history, a person who we are all lucky to get to see suit up year after year.
Eric Martin is a lifelong basketball fan living in the Los Angeles area, lucky to have lived in Illinois during Jordan's reign and in Philadelphia when Allen Iverson was in his prime.
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Sources
YahooSports - - NBA.com - - Basketball Reference.com
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