Kobe Bryant, the All-Time Leading Scorers, and What Could Be

I've only recently gotten into basketball. The first games I watched were the 2010 finals. No, I've never seen Michael Jordan play besides some old  videos on the Internet. And now I'm watching a deteriorating Kobe Bryant play his last few seasons ( I don't think he's going to play until he's 40).

So I may seem ignorant to those who have watched Jordan and Kobe in their primes. However, I'm not here to discuss who is better, or if Kobe is going to match or surpass MJ in rings. I'm just writing this because, while on ESPN, I noticed something.

 

Player Games
PTS 1. K. Abdul-Jabbar 1,560  38,387 2. Karl Malone 1,476
 36,928 3. Michael Jordan 1,072 32,292 4. Wilt Chamberlain 1,045 31,419 5. Shaquille O'Neal* 1,195 28,504 6. Moses Malone 1,329 27,409 7. Elvin Hayes 1,303 27,313 8. Hakeem Olajuwon 1,238 26,946 9. Kobe Bryant* 1,058 26,720 10. Oscar Robertson 1,040 26,710 * Active Player

Do you notice that? No, no, not the points. The games played is what I'm seeing. All these players in the top 10 have played 1,000 games or more, but only 4 have played past 1,100 games.

Kobe, young for his position on the scoring list, has played 1,058 games, that's the 8th highest amount, and he has the 9th highest point total. By the time he hits the playoffs, Kobe will be near the 1,100 games mark.

He's going to pass Michael Jordan in terms of games played by the end of the season. If he doesn't suffer any major injuries, and retires at 38, he's going to be around Karl Malone's total games played. If he plays until 40, and he'll probably pass Mr. Jabbar in games.

Alright, so enough of those what-ifs. Let's move on to some cold cut facts. Here's some division for you. If you take the total points, and divide them by the total games played, you get the average points scored over a NBA career, or Points Per Game(PPG).

So, let's take...