There are many skill sets a player needs to develop to succeed in the game of basketball, but the mastery of one automatically makes you an NBA superstar . The ability to go get a bucket at will.
The NBA has been blessed with offensive talents in every generation, but there are those special players who put the ball in the hoop more than anyone, and they win the NBA Scoring Title.
To do it just once is a career feat. Some players made it a habit.
We’re going through each number of wins, and picking the best pure scorer at each. Starting with zero.
Who’s the best to never win it?
The Ultimate NBA Scorers List
0 – Larry Bird
There are no easy answers on this list (at least until the end), but picking the best player never to win a scoring title is TOUGH. Names like Dirk Nowitzki, Damian Lillard, Elgin Baylor and Clyde Drexler should all get a mention, but none combined elite scoring with dominance of the league the way Bird did.
Bird won three championships and three straight MVPs — 1984, 1985, 1986. No one has done it since. He retired with 21,791 points at 24.3 a game.
His career high was 60 against the Hawks, still the Celtics record. He went 22-of-36 from the floor and 15-of-16 from the line, scoring 19 in the third quarter and 18 in the fourth and hitting 60 with the final shot. Dominique Wilkins said it was like watching a video game.
1 – LeBron James
There was a time when LeBron wouldn’t have made it over some of these other names. A pure scorer has to be a killer from all three levels, and that wasn’t always the case with the all-time scoring leader.
But he has been around a while, and his game has evolved. He has become a very capable shooter, both from the mid-range and beyond the arc. And his inside game has always been up there with the best to do it.
We don’t have to list the accolades. The scoring record speaks for itself – 43,440 points and counting, the most anyone has ever scored. His career high came in March 2014, 61 against the Bobcats in a mask. He went 22-of-33 with 25 in the third quarter alone — matching Charlotte’s entire team that period — and started 8-for-8 from three.
He had to be on this list. The only surprise is that he doesn’t have more than one.
2 – Kobe Bryant
What a selection in the two-time winners pool. To run through some of them; Stephen Curry, Luka Doncic, Shaquille O’Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Tracy McGrady.
Leaving T-Mac off the list hurt my heart. For me, he’s the purest-looking scorer I’ve seen. And Kobe agreed. He once said in an interview: “[McGrady] could do everything I could, but he was 6’10″. He had no weaknesses in his game; he could score from anywhere and defend. He’s the hardest player I have ever had to guard.”
But I had to put my personal bias aside, and acknowledge one of the greats. Kobe was the ultimate ‘give me the ball’ guy. And backed it up.
He finished fourth on the all-time list with 33,643 points, and won his two scoring titles back to back — 35.4 a game in 2005-06, the highest anyone had managed since Jordan, then 31.6 the year after. That first season alone brought 27 games of 40 or more and six of 50-plus.
The 81 against Toronto needs no introduction. Nor does the exit: 60 points in his final game, aged 37, on 50 shots. Kobe-style.
3 – James Harden
I won’t spend time justifying James Harden over George Mikan, Neil Johnston and Bob McAdoo – the other three-time winners. I didn’t see any of them play, nor do they have the numbers to stack up to The Beard.
He turned iso-basketball into a near-unstoppable art form, and made a traditionally unreliable shot his most lethal weapon. Few have ever shown the levels of 1-on-1 dominance Harden possessed on the Rockets.
Harden’s three came in a row — 30.4, then 36.1, then 34.3. That middle season is the seventh-highest scoring campaign in league history, and only Wilt and Jordan sit above him on it. Nobody else that year averaged 30.
He scored 30 or more in 32 straight games, averaging 42.2 across the run. In January alone he went for 43.6 a night. The career high, 61 at Madison Square Garden, came in the middle of it.
4 – Kevin Durant
Four titles puts Kevin Durant level with George Gervin and Allen Iverson. Both have a real case, but neither scored as efficiently, or for as long. Plus, KD is a basketball cheat code.
A seven-footer who shoots like a guard, Durant has spent nearly two decades making contested jumpers look routine. There’s no real way to defend a shot released from that height. He was 21 when he won his first scoring title, 30.1 a game in 2009-10, and is still the youngest scoring champion ever. Two more followed straight after, then a fourth at 32.0 in his 2013-14 MVP season.
That year also brought the 54 against Golden State, on 19-of-28 shooting, his best night yet. He’s now 32,597 points deep, just over 1,000 shy of Kobe for fourth on the all-time list.
7 – Wilt Chamberlain
The last two need little explaining. Seven straight titles, including 50.4 a game in 1961-62, the same season he scored 100 in a night. Wilt doesn’t meet the three-level requirement, because he doesn’t need to.
10 – Michael Jordan
Ten titles and the highest career scoring average the league has seen. There was only ever going to be one name at the top. MJ is the greatest NBA scorer of all time.
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