Lebron James is getting closer to becoming the leading scorer in NBA history. An occasion when the current leader, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, He would celebrate if it ends up happening, because according to him, it would favor sport and competition.
It is the law of life. The game evolves year after year, players become faster, more talented and more resourceful, a rule that applies to all previous seasons of the league.
MORE | When will LeBron James pass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the all-time leading scorer in NBA history?
The scoring list is a good reflection of the NBA’s historical development, but How has the number one position changed over the years? Which players had the honor of being the most productive and who did they pass?
Joe Fulks, the first leader
The legendary player of the Philadelphia Warriors was the first big star of the then BAA, which in 1949 would become the NBA after the merger with the NBL. A volume scorer who was always able to step up when the team needed it most, his bursts in the Playoffs being famous.
fulks He managed to capture his first two scoring titles in 1947 and 1948 with 23.2 and 22.1 points, and was close to doing so the following year when he increased the number to 26.0, but fell to rookie George Mikan. Between 1946 and 1952 the Warriors player scored 7,021 points averaging 19.6 per game when there was no 3-point line or shot clock.
George Mikan, historical sovereign
Mikan’s arrival in the NBA was a game changer as it represented the first time a truly tall player dominated the competition and the sport in general. During the 1951-1952 season, after winning all the leading scoring titles in his 3 seasons, the man from Illinois was almost nothing short of being the all-time leader in the league.
During on the first day of the 1952-1953 campaign, held on November 1, Mikan was able to chase down Fulks in the narrow win over the Celtics where the interior scored 13 points, while that of the Warriors only 10 against the Nationals.
moment of change
His rise mikan He was as fast as his final, retiring at the age of 29 due to injuries, though he would later return for 37 more games in 1956. In doing so, the infield managed to raise his numbers to 10,156 points. With the introduction of the shot clock, the pace and speed of the game increased and with it the chances of higher scores.
Soon, ed Macauley, one of the best players of the 1950s according to the staff of this website, became the NBA’s all-time leader. At the start of the 1957-58 campaign, after a productive career with the Celtics, the interior surpassed Mikan as a new player for the St. Louis Hawks scoring 24 points.
The joy would not last long Dolph Schayes, who had previously been in third place with 9,973 goals, experienced tremendous growth to achieve 1,791 points and overtake Macauley. The Syracuse Nationals player would become an era legend, he was the first to surpass 15,000 in January 1960.
The top goalscorer honor remained in Sayes’ possession until the 1963-64 season, when bob pettit established itself at the top of the list. At 31, Big Blue had a 2,190-point campaign to finish first with 19,756 points, extending that number to 20,880, the first to break that barrier.
The Chamberlain era
Few dominated the NBA like Wilt Chamberlain. Its name is usually accompanied by the eternal list of all its files, records and impossible statistics. A player who just entered the league managed to set the scoring bar very high, posting a rookie-best 37.6 per game and excelling in 1962 when he averaged 50.4 points per night.
In his first 5 seasons he had already scored more than 15,000 goals in his middle years 1965-1966 campaignshortly after transfer to Philadelphia 76ers interior became the leading scorer in NBA history. Bob Pettit’s more than 20,000 points were pulverized in that run by Chamberlain who added 2534, taking his sixth consecutive leading scorer title.
Although the Philly native would drop his averages over the next few years, they would continue to be over 20 a night until he finished his career in 1973 with 31,419.
Abdul-Jabbar, absolute leader
Kareem was called upon to be the replacement for Chamberlain’s own generation and in his first campaign he has already managed to average 28.8 pointsthe fourth-highest total by a rookie, beginning a meteoric rise that led him to back-to-back leading scorers in 1971 and 1972.
Abdul-Jabbar, in addition to a very long and productive career, with almost no physical problems, managed to be an extremely regular and reliable player. Until his landing no one had managed to add so many seasons with more than 2000 points in each of them, setting the record at 9, which would later be surpassed by LeBron James (10), Michael Jordan (11) and Karl Malone (12).
It took the New Yorker a long time to catch up to Chamberlain, 1166 games to be exact, it finally happened on April 5, 1984 against the Utah Jazz. In a low post action against Mark Eaton who performs his legendary skyhook to pass Wilt and put the top at 31,420 points. Abdul-Jabbar played nearly 400 more games in his NBA career, chipping away year after year from the rest of mortals until he retired with 38,387.
The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the NBA or its organizations.
