Kevin Durant now has the 8th most 40-point games in NBA history (including the playoffs), passing Jerry West on the all-time list
Harden has also been crazy especially during 17-19. A walking 40 point triple double machine
Averaged 40 points for 40 games one season.
The Unguardable tour is the most underrated season in NBA history in my opinion
The sentiment around his foul baiting ruined what would otherwise be regarded as all time seasons
Which is crazy because he literally did everything he could to drag that roster from 14th to a buzzer beater finish stopping him from 2nd Seed in the West.
Bruh we was GARBAGE that year without harden. Everybody was hurt while at the same time dealing with so many departures from the year before. We had Kenneth faried starting in the middle of the season. People don’t understand the absolute carry job Harden did that year
Also his double stepback
It was so crazy bro he’d be hitting crazy ass step back 3’s and getting and-1’s in his sleep. He was like a way better 2000’s iso ball scorer in that stretch.
ESPN 40 for 40
lmao
I appreciate this.
Easy when you gettin 20 free throws/game 😂
“HE’S AVERAGING 40!”
Harden being so far above Durant is surprising considering their reputations.
I don’t think so cause Harden is a more explosive scorer and KD and Kawhi are more consistent, they’ll get their 25-30 every night regardless of what the defense does
KD has that quote about only taking good shots or something like that. He can score from anywhere but he’s not willing to just jack em up. He’s gonna play his specific game. That leads to less really high scoring games compared to the other great scorers. His career high isn’t even in the 60s.
There’s a lot of current players on this list.
AND WAS SNUBBED FOR MVP! Still pisses me off. Not a big Harden fan but dang if he didn’t deserve it no one did!
Fucking Wilt, lol
Also impressed MJ is that close to him
73 games shy, just under a full season.
Might have gotten it if he didn’t retire those 2 years in the mid 90s. It’d be close at least.
What? He’s nearly a full season of games away from Wilt. If he played those two seasons, he’d need to score 40 or more in HALF of those games.
In reality, he scored 40 in about 1 out of every 5 games. (Which is indeed BONKERS crazy impressive and definitively GOAT stuff).
If he played those two seasons, he’d be like 40-50ish games behind Wilt, instead of 73 games behind him.
Bro don’t bring up shit like math and logic this far down the chain. If that guy wants to glaze, let him glaze
76 games between MJ and the rest of the list
This has always been a crazy stat to me. Like Lebron is one of the GOATs and at his career pace, he’d need another 20 years to catch Jordan, who played in a low scoring era and didn’t really shoots threes. That’s just fucking goofy.
It’s always a Wilt stat
Hey, do you want to give us a link to the actual table on the site? I’m only seeing 40 point games counted in a single seasons and most consecutive 40 points.
Here it is!
Thanks.
Honestly I’m surprised that MJ is as close as he is, especially considering how much faster the pace of play was during Wilt’s era. Wilt’s 2nd year in the league was the league’s highest ever pace, and even by the time he retired the pace was still 115. By comparison, the league’s highest pace during MJ’s career was 102 in his 2nd and 3rd seasons, and for most of his career it was well below 100. And despite all that MJ is still significantly closer to Wilt than he is to Kobe, and Kobe played about 300 more games than either of them.
MJ had 202 40+ point games in his 11 full seasons with the Bulls. That’s an ungodly number, with an average of over 18 40+ point games per season. There are only 4 other seasons a player has recorded more than his average since 1980 (Kobe and Harden each have 2).
Wilt recorded 214 such games in his first 5 seasons. In his 62’ season alone, he dropped 50 more times than any other player has in their entire career and by a massive margin. LeBron, Kd, Steph and Jokic combined have fewer career 50 point games than Wilt did in that single season.
Wilt’s scoring early in his career is such an absurd outlier in the history of the league that it made people only start counting stats as legit once he was on his way out. Kareem’s legacy avoiding the era tax is still the most nonsensical consensus basketball opinion.
At this pace KD just has a chance to pass him in about 36 years!
https://np.reddit.com/r/WiltDidIt/s/mB7Jp8ubns
Years later and I’m still floored every time I see this graphic
What the actual fuck lol
This gotta be fake
I am skeptical of it too personally but it aired during a real ESPN broadcast and cited Elias sports. Maybe BBRef can prove it wrong.
Yes there was definitely a lot of that going on too
In 11 years too fucking legend
Luka already having +60 is insane
24 games behind Durant with 12 less years played
Passing Shaq is wild
Notice Bob McAdoo, all in a 7-year timespan
Just like Luka, insane
The dates next to each other are making my eyes cross even though I know what it means
It’s the span of when these 40-point games occurred.
So for Shaq, his first 40-point game was in the 1992-93 season, and his final one came in 2008-09. A bit confusing, apologies.
I know I get the stat lol I’m just too dumb and couldn’t make a clever meme. Great website. Give me a free subscription please (I know you don’t need a subscription)
The 1999-00 to 2015-16 from Kobe like he time traveled or something.
Elgin Baylor man.
That motherfucker could hoop.
Kind of shocking that AI is still ahead of KD, but then again KD has always been almost robotically consistent. He might not pop off for 40 or 50 as much as you might think, but if you need someone to get you 25-30, I’d take KD over anybody except maybe Wilt and MJ.
Not shocking at all if you watched a lot of KD. KD is such an efficient scorer. He never shot 30 shots a game like a lot of players on this list.
He is as consistent of a scorer as they come which is insane because he’s ethical, three level scorer, and he’s always been an above average/great defender.
KD probably clears in 30 point games.
He’s tied with Kobe for 5th all time.
LeBron 575
Jordan 562
Wilt 516
Malone 435
Kobe/ KD 431
I don’t know if he will catch the top 3.. he averages about 25ish 30 point games a year so he would need to keep that up for another 4 years to pass Wilt and that would take him into his age 41 season. I don’t know how realistic that is.
KD missed a lot of time for injuries as well. 2 years of his prime alone. it’s crazy how high he his despite all of this
Luka gonna be top 5 for sure
I worry about his longevity
I do too, but not enough to doubt he will make it to 100+
If he can take care of his conditioning well enough to stay healthy for another 5 seasons, maybe.
Luka’s next 40 point game will tie Giannis and Dame, despite them having a 5 and 6 season head starts is crazy.
Giannis was not really a scoring threat his first 4 years in the league. He became the scorer he is now in his 5th season which would be the season before Luka came into the league.
Luka Doncic
never knew AI was so high up!
Holy fucking shit it’s Basketball Reference themselves!!!
I definitely do NOT have 12 emails for your free trials…
Damn if he plays 30 more years he might Catch Michael or Wilt
If Harden knew how to put it together in the playoffs and had one chip, his legacy will be so different and would be considered top 3 SG of all time.
Also, Iverson being above KD during a much shorter number of years is wild.
Only two players with more than 200 and Wilt close to 300.
I guess Curry ‘only’ has 83 because he was sat in 4th quarter in blowout games a lot?
I think he has more of these situations than he does actual 50 point games 😳
I was just about to comment that Steph would have way more if he didn’t sit 4th quarters from 2016-2018 (and other years but especially those ones)
This is one of those lists where the top jumps into the statosphere, leaving the main body of the list behind on earth.
Luka at 18 is insane.
Shout out to AI
Luka having already passed Shaq is surprising
Harden what a fking menace. Miss 17-19 , awesome years.
I’m actually shocked at how few he has considering the level of scorer he is. Like seeing him 120 games behind MJ is pretty wild. I knew he’d be behind but not THAT far behind.
McAdoo and Doncic making the list at all within six seasons is crazy
Like OMG
Eventually after all the snake memes go away, people will realize we’ve been watching one of the greatest of all time, and we’ve been lucky to do so
I think if KD and LeBron played in a different Era they would be looked fondly upon like Magic and Bird but because social media and the media in general have over glazed these 2 for so long the majority of fans just don’t really like them.
LeBron “Not a Scorer” James in 5th lol
I mean it’s not really that impressive considering he’s played 22 seasons. His longevity is the most impressive thing about his career but that’s like five 40 point games a season.
how is luka on this list lol? he’s 26
Did Wilt only play twelve seasons?!
james harden is so good in era
Luka has a shot at catching Kobe, his pace is insane
If harden was drafted 5-6 years later to a bad team I bet he’d pass curry in all time 3s
Man I wish I got to watch Wilt. His stats are just insane.
Jordan took whole seasons off and he second. Crazy!
KD isn’t as explosive as the other guys on this list but he is just more inevitable. He’s pretty much guaranteed 25-30 points a game on like 18 shots a game. He prolly much higher on the list for 25+ and 30+ a game.
Him and Kawhi both the same in this regard
Wilt and Jordan’s # are just insanity. Those will never be topped. Luka may be able to get to 150 but that may be about it.
Yeah, but how many twitter burner accounts did Jerry West have?
When Jerry needed to put someone in their place, he didn’t hide it.
