Bryant still way short of NBA's top scoring honor
Kobe Bryant became the youngest player in NBA history to score 24,000 points Friday night. He passed Allen Iverson for 16th on the league's all-time scoring list.
Bryant now has a total of 24,027 points during his 14-year career.
Still, he's 14,360 points behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the all-time record of 38,387.
Abdul-Jabbar accomplished his feat over a 20-year career. He retired at 42.
Bryant is 31 and might have to play until he's 40-something to surpass Abdul-Jabbar to be the NBA's scoring king.
"The question is, do I want to play until I'm 40?" Bryant said after practice Saturday. "That's the question."
-- Broderick Turner
Photo: Lakers guard Kobe Bryant drives around Memphis' Sam Young during Friday night's game. Credit: Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times
With Kobe's work ethic he probably could play until he's 40+. Kobe could have more championships, scoring records, and best of all, make everyone forget about that Jordan dude.
Posted by: gdawg | November 07, 2009 at 08:43 PM
Kobe will continue to play until he has the ultimate record in all of basketball: number of points scored. And when he finally achieves it, all of the haters will have to finally give him his due.
Posted by: Chris | November 08, 2009 at 04:33 AM
It's Clear that he is saying, without actually saying it, that he can go after it without a problem whatsoever, its just up to him if he wanted to play that long.
Posted by: Ian Benjamin | November 08, 2009 at 09:50 AM
It doesn't really matter does it, Kareem and Malone scored more points than MJ and Kobe does that make them better than MJ and Kobe, no, so weather or not Kobe will surpass MJ, people will just say he played more seasons and etc etc.
Posted by: KG | November 08, 2009 at 02:15 PM
Yea, KG hit it right on the head. However, most of the players that set those lofty scoring records are big men. I think Kobe would get his due if surpasses Abdul-Jabbar since Mamba is a perimeter player.
Posted by: Henry Chisholm | November 08, 2009 at 08:32 PM
It appears to me that Kobe is attempting to play until he's 40 or so. His new arsenal of moves is custom-designed to play closer to the floor than the rim. This will save the knees, and allow him to play more time with less stress on his body.
Kobe clearly has hops. He wouldn't be making the choices he is with his style if he weren't going for longevity.
Kobe has an indomitable spirit of competition. I don't believe retirement would come easy to him.
My money is on him beating the scoring record, unless he chooses to take some insanely fat contract to play in Europe.
Posted by: Pastorius | November 09, 2009 at 03:11 PM
if kobe will ave at 25pts and play at least 80 games he will catch up kareem when he'll be 38. but i certainly believe he'll overtake kaj before he reach 38.
Posted by: maeve08 | November 11, 2009 at 09:00 AM