NBA scoring: Most points in a game… by age
Kyrie Irving
Back on January 28, Cleveland Cavalier point guard Kyrie Irving scored 55 points in a win over Portland. The 55 points in a game are the most scored by an NBA player in a game this season.
The 22-year-old Irving, who turns 23 later this month, just missed a mark by two points in that game. According to research done on basketball-reference.com, Irving’s 55 points fell two points short of the most points scored by a 22-year-old, 57, by Rick Barry in an October, 1966 NBA game.
Just two months earlier, the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant scored 44 points in a loss to Golden State. Kobe’s 44 points as a 36-year-old fell one point short of Shaquille O’Neal’s 45 points he scored at the age of 36 in a February, 2009 contest against Toronto.
Let’s take a look at the most points scored in an NBA game by players ages 18 through 44. Note: Since the research for this stat was done on basketball-reference.com, these stats only go from the 1963-64 season until today. Obviously a 25-year-old Wilt Chamberlain would top the list of most points scored by an NBA player age 25 when he tallied 100 on March 2, 1962.
Here’s a look at the most points scored in an NBA game by each age group from 1963-64 to today.
Age, Player, Points Scored
18: LeBron James, 37
19: Cliff Robinson, 45
20: LeBron James, 56
21: Rick Barry, 57
22: Rick Barry, 57
23: David Thompson, 73
24: Tracy McGrady, 62
25: George Gervin, 63
26: Karl Malone, 61
27: Kobe Bryant, 81
28: David Robinson, 71
29: Pete Maravich, 68
30: Kobe Bryant, 61
31: Wilt Chamberlain, 68
32: Wilt Chamberlain, 66
33: Rick Barry, 55
34: Karl Malone, 56
35: Alex English, 51
36: Shaquille O’Neal, 45
37: Karl Malone, 41
38: Michael Jordan, 45
39: Michael Jordan, 45
40: Michael Jordan, 43
41: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 25
42: Robert Parrish, 16
43: Robert Parrish, 12
44: Kevin Willis, 6
Note: The totals above reflect only regular season games. If we include playoff games, there would be a handful of changes on the leaderboard: Karl Malone scored 50 points in a playoff contest at age 36; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored 26 points at age 41 in a playoff game; and Abdul-Jabbar scored 24 points at age 42 in another playoff game.
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Where does Tony Romo rank on list of the NFL’s greatest undrafted QBs?
The Dallas Cowboys made the NFL playoffs and won their first playoff game this past season since 2009. Quarterback Tony Romo had one of his best seasons with 34 TD passes and led the league with a 113.2 QB Rating (QBR).
Romo was an undrafted player out of Eastern Illinois in 2004, but he has fashioned a solid NFL career after two years of sitting on the bench when he became a starter in 2006 and has now played in 151 regular season games.
But here’s the question: Is Romo the NFL’s greatest undrafted QB in the league’s history? Before you answer that, let me offer a look at some of those NFL QBs who were not drafted yet went on to have good, if not great, NFL careers. Here’s my list of the Top 10 Undrafted QBs in NFL History.
10. Jim Zorn. Zorn spent nine of his 11 years in the NFL with the Seattle Seahawks. He had 111 career TD passes and started 106 games in the league. He didn’t have the greatest QB Rating (67.3) and was only 44-62 as a starter. He did rush for over 1,500 yards in his career.
9. Bobby Hebert. A Pro Bowler in 1993, he spent seven years in New Orleans and four in Atlanta. Hebert had 135 career TD passes and a QBR of 78.0. Had a 56-44 record in his 100 starts.
8. Jon Kitna. Kitna played for four teams in a 16-year NFL career. He threw for 169 TDs with a 77.4 QBR. Was 50-74 as a starter. Was the 2003 NFL Comeback Player of the Year.
7. Jake Delhomme. Had 126 career TD passes in 103 games. Led the Carolina Panthers to the Super Bowl in the 2003 season and got the team into the NFC Championship Game two years later. Was 5-3 as a playoff starter and 56-40 in the regular season. Made one Pro Bowl.
6. Jeff Garcia. Garcia was a four-time Pro Bowler playing in 125 games and tossing 161 career TD passes. Played with five teams in an 11-year career. He had a very respectable 87.5 QBR. Was 58-58 as a starter and won a pair of playoff games. Had over 2,100 yards rushing in his career.
5. Jim Hart. Another four-time Pro Bowler, Hart had a 19-year NFL career, 18 of those seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals. He was 87-88-5 as a starter and threw 209 TD passes in 201 games. Had a low QBR (66.6) but did throw for over 34,000 yards.
4. Tony Romo. He picked up his second playoff win last season and has a 75-48 record as the Dallas starter. Romo has thrown for over 33,000 yards and has 242 TD passes which rank 21st in NFL history. Another four-time Pro Bowler on our list. With a few more years and maybe a few more Cowboys playoff wins he will jump up the list.
3. Dave Krieg. Krieg spent 19 years in the league, playing 12 of those seasons in Seattle. He ranks 12th on the all-time list with 261 career TD passes. He had over 38,000 yards passing and a 98-77 record as a starter with five different teams. He was 3-4 as a starter in the playoffs and led the Seahawks to an AFC title game in 1984. He had an 81.5 QBR. He has a slight edge over Romo on my list, but I can see Romo jumping over Krieg in the very near future.
2. Warren Moon. The toughest decision of the bunch. Moon is a Hall of Famer, nine-time Pro Bowler and his 291 career TD passes rank 8th on the all-time list. He had a 102-101 record as a starter, and played 10 of his 17 years in the NFL with Houston. He passed for just under 50,000 yards in his career. Two downsides: A 3-7 playoff record and a 80.9 QBR. He could easily have been my number one choice, but instead I chose…
1. Kurt Warner. Three Super Bowl appearances, one Super Bowl title, a Super Bowl MVP, and a 9-4 record in the playoffs tipped the scales in Warner’s favor on my list. Warner was another four-time Pro Bowler and a two-time first team All-Pro. He passed for 208 career TDs and had a 66-49 record as a starter. He also had a 93.7 QBR, surpassed only by Romo’s QBR for undrafted QBs.
So… what do you think? Agree? Disagree? Hey, it’s just my opinion… I could be wrong!
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The unique baseball career of Juan Pierre
Juan Pierre
Juan Pierre may not be a household name in a lot of baseball circles, but his recent retirement after 14 years in the majors has revealed a career that may be one of the most unique in MLB history.
For the record, Pierre was a career .295 hitter playing for six teams. His speed set him apart; he stole 614 bases, 18th most in MLB history.
But his appearances at the plate made him a rarity: Of the 247 players who compiled 2,000 or more hits in their careers (Pierre is one of them with 2,217), Pierre had the third fewest number of home runs with 18. Only Clyde Milan with 17 and Larry Bowa with 15 had fewer home runs of those players with 2,000-plus career hits. His 367 career extra base hits are the third fewest of those players with 2,000-plus hits; only Milan with 262 and Maury Wills with 268 had fewer extra base hits among those players in the 2,000-hit club.
Let’s take a look deeper into those numbers. First, Pierre holds the season record for most hits in a season with three or less extra base hits. In 2000, his first year in the bigs with the Colorado Rockies, Pierre had 62 hits but only two of them were for extra bases. Here’s a look at the 12 players in MLB history that had 45 or more hits in a season with three or less extra base hits.
Player, Year, Team, Hits (Extra Base Hits)
Juan Pierre, 2000, Colorado, 62 (2)
Jim Davenport,1968, San Francisco, 61 (3)
Enzo Hernandez, 1973, San Diego, 55 (3)
Jose Tartabull, 1967, Boston, 55 (3)
Brett Butler, 1982, Atlanta, 52 (2)
Brock Davis, 1972, Milwaukee, 49 (2)
Willie Bloomquist, 2008, Seattle, 46 (1)
Ted Kubiak, 1974, Oakland, 46 (3)
Tony Eusebio, 1997, Houston, 45 (3)
Alan Trammell, 1996, Detroit, 45 (3)
Julio Cruz, 1986, Chicago White Sox, 45 (2)
Jerry Adair, 1968, Boston, 45 (3)
Secondly, in 2007, Pierre fell just four hits short of becoming the third player in MLB history to have 200 or more hits in a season without hitting a home run. Pierre had 196 hits for the year as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He had 24 doubles and eight triples that season. The two players in baseball history with 200+ hits and no home runs? Nap Lajoie did it in 1906 with 214 hits and Johnny Pesky did it in 1947 when he had 207 hits and no HRs. Pierre also had another year with 100+ hits and no homers: he had 117 hits in 2009 with no home runs.
One final note: Pierre retires as one of only 12 players in history to have over 2,000 hits and over 600 stolen bases.
A very unique career!
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‘SIX STATS’ you might not know about… Anthony Mason
One of the NBA’s most under-rated players passed away on February 28, Anthony Mason. An all-star in 2001, Mason spent 13 years in the league with six different teams. He was 48.
A third-round draft choice out of Tennessee State, he is probably best known for his five years as a New York Knick.
Following are a few stats you may not know about Mason.
1. Mason is one of 20 NBA players who played more than 2,000 minutes in a season without starting a game in that year. Mason did it twice: 1991-92 and 1992-93. He is one of only four players to accomplish this feat multiple times (the others were Jamal Crawford and Dell Curry, three times each, and J.R. Smith, twice). Mason is one of only two players in NBA history to play over 2,100 minutes in a season without starting a game; Mason did it twice, Crawford three times.
2. In the first six years of his career, Mason started only 23 of the 337 he played (just under seven percent). In the final seven years of his career, Mason played 545 games, starting 536 of them (over 98 percent).
3. Mason was presented the NBA’s Sixth Man Award after the 1994-95 season. The following year he led the NBA in minutes played with 3,457 as a member of the New York Knicks. He started all 82 games that year for the Knicks.
4. J.R. Smith holds the NBA record for most minutes played in a season without starting a game with 2,678 in 2012-13. Mason is second on that list with 2,482 (he did that in 1992-93). Mason also has the eighth-most minutes in this category with 2,198 in 1991-92.
5. Mason’s career numbers include 9,656 points scored, 7,279 rebounds and 2,963 assists. He is one of 39 NBA players to have 9,000 points, 7,000 rebounds and 2,500 assists in a career. Of those 39, 19 are in the Basketball Hall of Fame.
6. Mason played 882 games in his NBA career. He is one of only 14 NBA players to have 9,000 points, 7,000 rebounds and 2,500 assists in a career with less than 1,000 games played. Of the 14, nine are in the Hall of Fame. The other four not in the Hall: Pau Gasol (he will likely pass the 1,000-game mark in his career), Lamar Odom, Chris Webber and Bill Bridges.
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