(Originally posted on Saturday, 2 January 2021)
The present post features the lists of most productive NBA careers according to my calculations done after the end of the 2019-20 season. The previous lists (calculated after the end of the 2018-19 season) can be found (together with in-depth explanations) here:
The most productive NBA careers
All the data I used to create the present post I found on these sites:
http://www.basketball-reference.com/
https://basketball.realgm.com/
Unfortunately the awesome player finder on the site
https://www.basketball-reference.com/
isn't working anymore (it now redirects you to another site that is paid and I am not going to pay for such things). It means that now I have to gather the data player by player, which is extremely time-consuming. There is no way I would gather all the needed data for every active player, so I used the same data I used to create this post:
The NBA GOAT list after the season 2019-20
There is a tiny possibility that I ignored some very productive active NBA players just because they played too little playoff games, but I really doubt that. I did calculate the productivity of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Anthony Davis, but they still didn't make any list.
I was tempted to give you per-game values based on total values, but that would be a waste of my time – we shouldn't compare averages from 1500 games with averages from 900 games. That would be ridiculous! This is why any GOAT values should be based on career peaks (with the same number of games).
On the playoffs list there are two players that were VERY good, but nowhere near the GOAT status in any way – Tony Parker and Manu Ginóbili. This is another example that any GOAT values should be based on career peaks (with the same number of games).
The most productive NBA careers in regular seasons from 1977-78 to 2019-20:
1. Karl Malone: 35883.1 (number of games: 1476)
2. LeBron James*: 34533.1 (number of games: 1265)
3. Dirk Nowitzki: 31776.6 (number of games: 1522)
4. Kevin Garnett: 30420.3 (number of games: 1462)
5. Michael Jordan: 30013.8 (number of games: 1072)
6. Hakeem Olajuwon: 29818.4 (number of games: 1238)
7. Tim Duncan: 29707.4 (number of games: 1392)
8. Kobe Bryant: 29476.1 (number of games: 1346)
9. Shaquille O'Neal: 28149.7 (number of games: 1207)
10. John Stockton: 27667.1 (number of games: 1504)
11. Moses Malone: 26528.1 (number of games: 1247)
12. Charles Barkley: 26408.5 (number of games: 1073)
13. Robert Parish: 25349.7 (number of games: 1534)
14. Paul Pierce: 24884.9 (number of games: 1343)
15. Patrick Ewing: 24881.6 (number of games: 1183)
16. Jason Kidd: 24397.7 (number of games: 1391)
17. Larry Bird: 23946.6 (number of games: 897)
18. Vince Carter**: 23934.6 (number of games: 1541)
19. David Robinson: 23813.4 (number of games: 987)
20. Reggie Miller: 23684.8 (number of games: 1389)
* Previously LeBron James was also 2nd.
** Previously Vince Carter was 20th.
Karl Malone is still hanging on! He was insanely durable and at the same time he was of near GOAT level. However, in just one year LeBron James will be at the top of the list.
The 7 players closest to the list who played in the season 2019-20 are:
Chris Paul: 23158.8
Carmelo Anthony: 22594.9
Dwight Howard: 21290.0
James Harden: 20734.6
Russell Westbrook: 20217.5
LaMarcus Aldridge: 19352.5
Stephen Curry: 17131.9
The most productive NBA careers in playoffs from 1978 to 2020:
1. LeBron James*: 7649.4 (number of games: 260)
2. Tim Duncan: 5645.9 (number of games: 251)
3. Michael Jordan: 5406.2 (number of games: 179)
4. Magic Johnson: 4983.6 (number of games: 190)
5. Shaquille O'Neal: 4972.3 (number of games: 216)
6. Kobe Bryant: 4862.0 (number of games: 220)
7. Karl Malone: 4392.6 (number of games: 193)
8. Larry Bird: 4328.3 (number of games: 164)
9. Hakeem Olajuwon: 4040.9 (number of games: 145)
10. Scottie Pippen: 3920.4 (number of games: 208)
11. Kevin Durant: 3825.0 (number of games: 139)
12. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: 3731.8 (number of games: 169)
13. Dirk Nowitzki: 3649.4 (number of games: 145)
14. Dwyane Wade: 3582.8 (number of games: 177)
15. Tony Parker: 3280.8 (number of games: 226)
16. John Stockton: 3259.8 (number of games: 182)
17. Kevin McHale: 3242.2 (number of games: 169)
18. Charles Barkley: 3152.0 (number of games: 123)
19. Manu Ginóbili: 3128.9 (number of games: 218)
20. Clyde Drexler: 3110.3 (number of games: 145)
* Previously LeBron James was also 1st.
The 7 players closest to the list who played in the season 2019-20 are:
Stephen Curry: 2953.4
James Harden: 2945.4
Kawhi Leonard: 2754.5
Chris Paul: 2571.2
Russell Westbrook: 2458.5
Draymond Green: 2333.6
Dwight Howard: 2130.9
Now let's combine regular seasons with playoffs, which will lead us to the final list.
The most productive NBA careers (regular seasons and playoffs combined) from 1977-78 to 2019-20:
1. LeBron James*: 42182.5 (number of games: 1525)
2. Karl Malone: 40275.7 (number of games: 1669)
3. Dirk Nowitzki: 35426.0 (number of games: 1667)
4. Michael Jordan: 35420.0 (number of games: 1251)
5. Tim Duncan: 35353.4 (number of games: 1643)
6. Kobe Bryant: 34338.0 (number of games: 1566)
7. Hakeem Olajuwon: 33859.4 (number of games: 1383)
8. Kevin Garnett: 33329.5 (number of games: 1605)
9. Shaquille O'Neal: 33121.9 (number of games: 1423)
10. John Stockton: 30926.9 (number of games: 1686)
11. Charles Barkley: 29560.5 (number of games: 1196)
12. Moses Malone: 28448.4 (number of games: 1329)
13. Robert Parish: 28301.7 (number of games: 1708)
14. Larry Bird: 28274.9 (number of games: 1061)
15. Magic Johnson: 27876.2 (number of games: 1096)
16. Paul Pierce: 27867.3 (number of games: 1513)
17. Patrick Ewing: 27701.8 (number of games: 1322)
18. Jason Kidd: 27130.9 (number of games: 1549)
19. David Robinson: 26360.9 (number of games: 1110)
20. Reggie Miller: 26290.4 (number of games: 1533)
* Previously LeBron James was 2nd.
The 7 players closest to the list who played in the season 2019-20 are:
Chris Paul: 25730.0
Vince Carter: 25400.2
Carmelo Anthony: 24086.4
James Harden: 23680.0
Dwight Howard: 23420.9
Russell Westbrook: 22676.0
LaMarcus Aldridge: 20759.2
Karl Malone is now second, so it's definitely NOT a GOAT list.
Please, notice that Michael Jordan is 4th with a much smaller number of games played than the rest of the top-10 players.
The newest GOAT values based on career peaks are in this post:
The NBA GOAT list after the season 2019-20
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