Quote:
Originally Posted by jruck37
Yeah, removing Kobe's 1st few years closes the gap a bit. It's kind of hard to do traditional statistical comparisons across generations.
For example, in 1987 when MJ averaged 37.1 ppg, the league average was 109 ppg and the worst offensive team in the NBA averaged 103.
In Kobe's best scoring season (2006), he averaged 35.4 ppg, the league average was 97 ppg, and their was only 1 team that averaged over 103.
With that said, I find it nearly impossibe to compare their stats at face value. Had Kobe played in the mid-80's at a faster pace with less micro-managing by the coaches, I think he would have comparable stats to MJ's. Heck, maybe he would have a 100 point game on his resume. Similarly, if MJ's prime had come during this generation, he might not average so many points.
I don't have time to research the per possession breakdowns and efficiency rankings, but I think the gap closes pretty significantly when you take offensive pace into account.
PS- I love this type of discussion. I'm an NBA junky. Thanks for posting this, Terry.
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If you ever feel like doing that go for it and let us know how it comes out. It should be interesting to see how things change. I'd especially like to see it broken down by possession since that might be the most accurate way of comparing their stats. Still, even if you consider those I don't think Kobe will come out favorably since Jordan holds the advantage in not only per game average but per minute.
Jordan's per minute stats as I saw them are:
.1619 RPM, .1384 APM, .0627 SPM, .0209 BPM, .0713 TOPM, .0679 PFPM, .7859 PPM.
Kobe's per minute stats (without considering his 1st three seasons) are:
.1490 RPM, .1328 APM, .0425 SPM, .0149 BPM, .0798 TOPM, .0718 PFPM, .7114 PPM.
If I took out the years of MJ's comeback, a perfectly reasonable thing to do since Kobe hasn't played his declining years (which will lower his averages a bit), the gap in stats would again become greater no matter what time frame we broke them down under. With nearly a 2 PPG and 5% FG% difference I think Kobe would have a lot of ground to make up. Plus, you have to consider that for much of their career they played under the same coach with virtually the same 'triangle offense' which doesn't bode well for Kobe's case.