NBA StatisticsArlo Leckie and Adam Murchie

Objective and Data The objective of this report is to compare the statistics of

five past and five current NBA players to find out who is

the best of all time.

Player Games MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG TO PPG

Kobe Bryant 1161 36.5 0.453 0.337 0.838 5.3 4.7 1.5 0.5 3 25.4LeBron James 689 39.9 0.483 0.331 0.746 7.2 6.9 1.7 0.8 3.34 27.6

Kevin Durant 380 38.1 0.468 0.364 0.878 6.3 2.8 1.2 1 3.14 26.3

Dirk Nowitzki 1055 36.3 0.475 0.38 0.878 8.3 2.6 0.9 1 1.9 22.9Steve Nash 1152 31.4 0.491 0.428 0.904 3 8.6 0.8 0.1 2.9 14.5 Michael Jordan 1072 38.3 0.497 0.32 0.835 6.2 5.3 2.4 0.8 2.73 30.1

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 1560 36.8 0.559 0.56 0.721 11.2 3.6 0.9 2.5 1.71 24.6Larry Bird 897 38.4 0.496 0.376 0.886 10 6.3 1.7 0.8 3.14 24.3

Wilt Chamberlain 1045 45.8 0.54 * 0.511 22.9 4.4 * * * 30.1Magic Johnson 906 36.7 0.52 0.303 0.848 7.2 11.2 1.9 0.4 3.87 19.5

Points

KOBE

LEBRON

KEVIN

DIRK

STEVE

MICHAEL

LARRY

MAGIC

KAREEM

WILT

10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32

Points per Game

Michael Jordan has the highest score, and is also consistently high, making him the best point-scorer of all time, with LeBron James not far behind.

Assists

KOBE

LEBRON

KEVIN

DIRK

STEVE

MICHAEL

LARRY

MAGIC

KAREEM

WILT

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Assists per Game

Magic Johnson has a very high amount of assists per game, and it is much higher than anyone else, giving him the best record of assists of all time.

Steals

KOBE

LEBRON

KEVIN

DIRK

STEVE

MICHAEL

LARRY

MAGIC

KAREEM

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5

Steals per Game

Judging by the boxplot, no player has a consistently high rate of steals per game, but the highest average is that of Michael Jordan, making him the best ever in terms of steals.

Turnovers

KOBE

LEBRON

KEVIN

DIRK

STEVE

MICHAEL

LARRY

MAGIC

KAREEM

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5

Turnovers per Game

Magic Johnson has a very high amount of turnovers per game, which is not good. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has the lowest rate ever, but Dirk Nowitzki has a consistently low rate, making both of them the safest players in the NBA

Blocks

KOBELEBRONKEVINDIRKSTEVEMICHAELLARRYMAGICKAREEMWILT

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8

Blocks per Game

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is by far the best shot blocker ever in the NBA. His average blocks per game well exceeds that of every other player in the league. His scores are high and are usually well above those of Kevin Durant and Larry Bird.

Rebounds

KOBE

LEBRON

KEVIN

DIRK

STEVE

MICHAEL

LARRY

MAGIC

KAREEM

WILT

0 5 10 15 20 25

Rebounds per Game

All players are at a similar level in terms of rebounds per game, apart from Wilt Chamberlin. Many of the other players have average-low rebound rates, but Chamberlin averaged between 17 and 24 rebounds per game, every season. This makes him the best rebounder ever.

Points v Assists

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 120

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

APG

PP

G

It is commonly believed that the more assists one player gets, the less points he will obtain. However, this has been proved false. It is possible to see that the highest point-scorer does not have the lowest amount of assists, and the player with the most assists does not have the fewest points. It also becomes apparent that there is almost no trend whatsoever in terms of assists compared to points scored per game.

Conclusion

This report was successful in finding out who the best player of all time is. However, it is a matter of opinion in the end. Both Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlin are to be considered as the two best, as their statistics in all areas are the highest, but it is not fully possible to distinguish between the two. This report also proved that there is not pattern between points and assists per game.