Kevin Durant became the 8th player in NBA history to score 30,000 points in a NBA career. The 36-year old, who is in his 17th year in the league joined the offensive greats of the game like James, Jabbar, Malone, Bryant, Jordan, Nowitzki, and Chamberlain as the 8th best all-time scorer. His 30,008 points puts him only 411 points behind Wilt. KD, who is in his 17th NBA season, is in rarefied air with these NBA icons. He was selected to his 15th All-Star team this year. He has been a 11x All-NBA selection, won 4 NBA scoring titles, won 1 NBA-MVP award, and was 2x NBA Finals MVP. He has a career 27.3 points per game average with a 52.8% field goal average (38.8% from 3), and 88.4 % from the free throw stripe.
This past year in June I posted a series of articles about MY best defensive player of All-Time, MY best point guard of all-time, My best shooter of all-time, My best rebounder of all-time, and MY best scorer of all-time. I based my picks on statistics, research, and the “eye test”. I have seen every player that has played in the NBA since the early 50’s. Besides being a fan for 70 years I have coached at the high school and college level for 22 years. That does not make me an authority on basketball but I think it gives me some credibility. I spent over 10 months doing research for my book “The G.O.A.T.: The Quest to Find the Best” about the 75 greatest basketball players in history. In doing that research and studying the players I came to this conclusion on who I thought were the best in each facet of the game. Many readers agreed with my picks in all the categorizes. My pick for the best scorer got the most push back. I respect each reader’s opinion but I think some of the fans misunderstood what a scorer really is and the difference between a shooter and a scorer. In my original post I defined a scorer as someone who can get their own shot, score inside or out, shoot 3’s efficiently, difficult to match up with defensively, and can handle the ball. I made a clear distinction between a scorer and a SHOOTER in my post. That is the reason I did not choose Wilt. I did not pick Curry, either. They are great point producers but can not do the things that Kevin Durant can do on the court with the basketball. In my original article I said that Bird, Gervin, and Jordan would be my next choices as the best scorer.
After KD’s scoring achievement last night I am even more convinced I picked the right player as my best scorer of all-time. Teammate Devin Booker recently said “KD is the greatest offensive player in the history of the NBA”.
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Jack has spent 70+ years playing, coaching, and watching basketball. Former D1 player at Middle Tennessee State, assistant coach at Oral Roberts University (3 All-Americans, 7 NBA Draftees, Top 10 rankings, 1974 Elite Eight), and author of three books on the sport he loves.
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Jack Sutter has spent 70 years playing, coaching, and watching players play the game he loves. His books are written for the casual basketball fan as well as the "hard core" fan.
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