We already knew Kobe Bryant had joined rare company by winning 5 NBA Championships, making 14 NBA All Star appearances, in addition to passing Oscar Robertson, Hakeem Olajuwon, and John Havilcheck in career scoring. Now, thanks to ESPN Stats, we now can clearly see that Bryant is within a whisker of joining only Wilt, Karl Malone, Kareem, and the G.O.A.T as the only players in NBA history to score 30,000 points.
Even more amazingly, as the above graphic points out, Kobe will become the youngest ever to reach the vaunted 30,000 point milestone, by a full 2 years ahead of MJ and a more than a year faster than Kareem. Of course, Jordan missed nearly 2 full seasons due to his first retirement, and also didn’t go straight to the NBA from high school like Kobe.
We’ve all heard the rumors that “The Mamba” is considering retiring in a year or two when his existing contract expires but considering he finished 2nd in scoring last season and he currently leads the Association in points this year, could Kobe stick around a little longer in an attempt to pass Jordan and catch Kareem?
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen has also provided content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, Cleveland.com, CSN Philly.com, Buckets Magazine, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
