Heading into the 2014-15 season, Dirk Nowitzki was certainly going to (or was expected to) leapfrog a few of the Top 10 scorers in NBA history. Now, it’s just a matter of where he might end up by the end of this season, and beyond. Dirk passed Hakeem Olajuwon on Tuesday night to become the top-scoring foreign-born player in NBA history, needing only 17 points to pass The Dream’s career mark of 26,946. He ended the game with 23 points as the Dallas Mavericks somehow rallied back from a 24-point deficit to defeat the Sacramento Kings, 106-98.
Next on Dirk’s list are a couple of other big men — Elvin Hayes and Moses Malone — who he should, barring a catastrophic injury, also pass up this season. If he goes on a real tear, he could even catch Shaquille O’Neal, who stands at 28,596 career points. Dirk would have to average slightly more than 22 points per game over Dallas’ remaining 74 games to reach the Big Fella. Considering Dirk hasn’t averaged that many since 2011, it’s probably accurate to say Shaq is safe for this season.
One person Dirk won’t be catching on the scoring list is Kobe Bryant. Kobe currently sits in fourth place all time on the scoring list, and is only 405 points away from passing Michael Jordan (which, again barring injury, will happen this season). However, in order to score that many points, one must take a lot of shots to get there. And that means there are a lot of misses along the way. Heading into Tuesday’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies, Kobe needed to miss 13 shots at pass John Havlicek for first all-time in missed field goal attempts. Kobe scored 28 points on…wait for it…10-of-26 shooting from the field. Mission accomplished, Kobe.
Oh, about that longevity thing, here are the all-time leaders in a couple other categories:
Turnovers: Karl Malone (4,524)
Personal Fouls: Kareem Abdul Jabbar (4,657)
Basically, if you play forever, you’re going to rack up incredible numbers in some unglamorous statistical categories.
Kobe on setting NBA record with 13.418 career misses: “Well, I’m a shooting guard that’s played 19 years.” Emphasized the word “shooting.”
— Mike Bresnahan (@Mike_Bresnahan) November 12, 2014
[ESPN]
