Random Thoughts on the NBA

Have to say, I am so damn sick of lockout talk. I am tired of all sides of the die and I am pretty damn sure none of us, or anyone else who has been writing about it besides economists and people directly involved with it know how to solve it. I feel sorry for the people who need the NBA to make a living and the fans. Basketball lives on though, NCAA season is upon us and I know the NBA will come to its senses eventually.

Well, here are some random thoughts and facts that I wanted to share and hopefully get something going. Many of you are incredibly creative people, and we all love basketball. This board is a great way to talk about it, get different opinions on it and learn. I hope people can learn from this and hopefully get some ideas as to what to do to bring our board BACK TO LIFE! No, occupying NBA is not an option (yet), so here we go:

• Only 59 players have averaged or are averaging 20 ppg or more. According to Basketball-Reference.com there have been 3980 players in their database. This means that only 1.48% of players in league history have averaged this many points.
• Of those, only 14 (Ones not listed on Basketball-Reference are Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose and Blake Griffin, who have played too few games or have not scored enough to be counted yet) are still current players going into the 2012 (hopeful) season
• Only 12 players listed on the Basketball-Reference database have averaged over 8 assists for their career (including Chris Paul and Deron Williams, but not Rajon Rondo who has averaged 7.56 for his career thus far)
• 43 players in the database have averaged 10 rebounds for their career. The Top 9 on the list all played a majority of their games before 1980. The 10th is Dennis Rodman, the 12th Dwight Howard. Only 13 players who played a majority of their games post 1980 listed on the current database list as averaging 10 rebounds per game. Carlos Boozer and Marcus Camby, who are at 10.09 and 10 currently, could definitely slip below this mark by their retirements.
• 9 players on the database have averaged 2 spg or more. Jason Kidd and Scottie Pippen slipped just below that number both at 1.96 (though Kidd should finish with a lower average)
• 22 players have an average of 2 blocks per game for their career. Would likely be more had blocks been counted as a statistic before the 1973-74 season.
• 55 players have averaged over 36 minutes per game (or over 3 quarters of play)
• 182 players in the database have shot over 80% from the FT line for their career
• 109 players have shot over 50% for their career
• 36 players have shot over 40% from 3 for their career. Ray Allen is just below this percentage.
• Only 20 players in NBA history have averaged 20 and 10 for their career. They all did it with points and rebounds. Magic Johnson and John Stockton are the only two players to average over 10 assists per game for their career. Neither averaged 20 per game for their career, though Magic was at 19.5 (19.7 before his comeback, so it did not destroy his 20 ppg average)
• 97 players have played in over 1000 NBA games. If you have done that, it is an amazing accomplishment

These are just really rare accomplishments, for an entire career. Every year, only about 20 or so players, if that, average 20 ppg. Even fewer still average 10 rebounds and than you have maybe 1-3 who average double digit assists. Just something to keep in mind when projecting career or season totals. Their are so many interesting things out there in NBA statistics. They do not tell the whole story, but they are definitely something that can show big time accomplishment. 

Finally, just for fun, I decided to compare the point leaders of the site to the NBA’s All-Time Points Leaders (Just took the player at whatever rank on the All-Time Points list and put them next to the poster with the same ranking right now). Here is what it looks like right now:

1. McDunkin-Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

2. IndianaBasketball-Karl Malone

3. JNixon-Iggy9-Michael Jordan

4. RUDEBOY_-Wilt Chamberlain

5. llperez-Shaquille O’Neal

6. butidonthavemoney-Kobe Bryant

7. JoeWolf1-Moses Malone

8. mikeyvthedon-Elvin Hayes

9. MagikKnick-Hakeem Olajuwon

10. DanEBoy-Oscar Robertson

11. OrangeJuiceJones-Dominique Wilkins

12. M-DYMES-John Havlicek

13. yupyup-Alex English

14. Based-Out-Like-23-Reggie Miller

15. I May Be BASED-Jerry West

16. mess.eee-Patrick Ewing

17. OhCanada- -Allen Iverson

18. Scottoant93-Charles Barkley

19. marcusfizer21-Robert Parish

20. WizardofOz-Kevin Garnett

Well, hope this at least gives you some stuff to forget about. South Park is funny. Peace I’m outta here.

10. Dan