There are a plethora of basketball players who many consider to be the greatest of all time; however, there is one that seems to rise above the rest, and his name is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

In the sport of basketball, the entire objective is to score more points than the opposing team. A team can be full of top tier rebounders, defenders, and assist specialists; however, they will still struggle to win games without any offensive stars. This is why in the 2018-19 NBA regular season, the Knicks, who had zero players that averaged over 20 points per game, went 17-65 while the Warriors, who had three players that averaged over 20 points per game: Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant and Steph Curry, went 57-25. Therefore, scoring is the most important aspect of the game. According to NBA.com, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has the most regular season points in NBA history, with a grand total of 38,387. Meanwhile, the three other players that most consider to be the greatest of all time: Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Michael Jordan, sit in third, fourth and fifth place with 33,643, 32,543 and 32,292 points, respectively. In second place is Karl Malone with 36,928 points. He is usually left out of discussions of who the greatest of all time is due to the fact that he never won a championship however it is still quite impressive that he is ahead of much bigger names such as Bryant, James, and Jordan. What makes Kareem’s scoring record even more impressive is the fact that he has only made one three pointer in his entire regular season career while Bryant has made 1,827 threes, James has made 1,727 threes, and Jordan has made 581. As a result of these three players’ abundance of three pointers compared to Kareem’s single three ball, he has made a whopping 4,118 more field goals than Bryant, 3,999 more than James, and 3,645 more than Jordan. To put things into perspective, all-time greats such as Paul George, Dikembe Mutombo, Anfernee Hardaway, George Mikan, and Yao Ming have all scored 4,058 or fewer field goals in their entire careers! Not only has Kareem scored the most points in NBA history with only one three pointer but he also acquired the majority of his points using a shot that is now extinct. As stated in the Bleacher Report article “Scoring Machines: The Greatest Scorers in NBA History” written by Darko Mihajlovski: “Most of the points he scored came from the most difficult shot in basketball, the sky hook”. The sky hook is essentially a spinning hook shot primarily taken from near the hoop with one hand. One of the main reasons that Kareem was so good at this shot is because he stands at a towering 7’2, making the shot extremely hard to block. Nonetheless, there have been a multitude of NBA players who stood taller than this height and not a single one of them managed to master the sky hook like Kareem did, let alone become the all-time NBA regular season leading scorer off of it. The fact that nobody else has ever mastered the sky hook shows how special and unique Kareem’s game was compared to other players that are considered to be the greatest of all time. While many players simply steal the moves of others, Kareem developed an entire arsenal of his own shots and moves that he used to ultimately score the most NBA regular season points ever.

Stats are of course a crucial part of a player’s resumé however other accolades such as MVPs and championships are true indicators to how legendary that player’s career was. This is because it determines whether they played for nothing or if they left a mark on the sport. Throughout NBA history, there have been quite a few dynasties, however, none were as dominant as the Celtics from 1959-1969. In that 11 year span, they won a whopping 10 championships. Due to this streak, the list of players with the most NBA championships is filled with Celtics players from that era. As a matter of fact, the top 8 players with the most rings all played for the Celtics Dynasty. In first place is Bill Russell, who is acknowledged as one of the best defensive players ever, with 11 championships as he won one in 1957 as well. In second place is Sam Jones with 10. Third place is a four-way tie between John Havlicek, Tom Sanders, K.C. Jones, and Tom Heinsohn who all have 8. Two of the three players tied in seventh place, Frank Ramsey and Jim Loscutoff, played for this dynasty team as well. After that, the order goes Robert Horry with 7 and then Bob Cousy, who also played for the Celtics Dynasty; Scottie Pippen, Michael Jordan, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with 6. Nearly all of these players were simply role players that were fortunate enough to play on amazing teams during their careers. However for two of these players, Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the story is different as they were the leaders of their respective teams for all 6 rings that they won. Out of all of the other players that are usually in the “greatest of all time” discussion, they sit on top in the ring department. When it comes to winning an MVP Award, there is absolutely zero luck involved.. In order to achieve this feat, a player has to be the best in the entire league for a whole 82-game season. While there are hundreds of players with a championship ring, there are just a handful with an MVP Award, and an even smaller amount with multiple MVPs. For example, Steph Curry, Steve Nash, Tim Duncan, Karl Malone, and Bob Pettit each have 2 MVPs. Moses Malone, Larry Bird, and Magic Johnson each have 3; LeBron James and Wilt Chamberlain each have 4; and Bill Russell and Michael Jordan each have 5. On top of everyone else is none other than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who racked up 6 MVP Awards in his career. In an article written by Yash Matange on sportskeeda titled “NBA MVP Winners: Ranking the 10 Greatest MVP Seasons EVER”, he touches on Kareem’s 1971-72 seasons where he averaged 34.8 points per game on 57.4% shooting, 16.6 rebounds per game, and 4.6 assists per game. While describing this MVP season, Matange states, “He not only [lead] the league in points per game, he also was at the front in categories like PER, offensive win shares and win shares per 48 minutes”. These stats not only show how dominant Kareem was that season but they also demonstrates how valuable he was to his team as he led the league in win shares which essentially means that he accounted for more of his team’s success than any other player in the league did to their team. Another extremely important career accolade to take into account is All-Star Game selections as they show how many seasons a player has been one of the best in the league for. The list of the top 10 players who were selected to play in the All-Star Game the most starts off with Jerry West, Dirk Nowitzki, Karl Malone, and Michael Jordan who each have 14 selections. Next is Shaquille O’Neal, LeBron James, Kevin Garnett, and Tim Duncan who each have 15 and Kobe Bryant sits in second place with 18. In first place, once again, is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with an amazing 19 selections! When people are asked to name the greatest basketball player of all time, most will proclaim either Michael Jordan, LeBron James or Kobe Bryant however when both the stats and accolades are broken down, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is clearly the best ever. In an article on NBA written by the NBA staff titled, “Legends Profile: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar”, they give a quick recap of his illustrious career, saying: “When Kareem Abdul-Jabbar left the game in 1989 at age 42, no NBA player had ever scored more points, blocked more shots, won more Most Valuable Player Awards, played in more All-Star Games or logged more seasons. His list of personal and team accomplishments is perhaps the most awesome in league history: Rookie of the Year, member of six NBA championship teams, six-time NBA MVP, two-time NBA Finals MVP, 19-time All-Star, two-time scoring champion, and a member of the NBA 35th and 50th Anniversary All-Time Teams. He also owned eight playoff records and seven All-Star records. No player achieved as much individual and team success as did Abdul-Jabbar”. To add onto this quote, Kareem also won 3 championships in college at UCLA along with 2 “College Player of the Year” awards. When it is all said and done, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is hands down the most decorated basketball player of all time and his numerous championships and awards will be remembered forever.