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The Highest Scoring Basketball Players by Decade

The National Basketball Association (NBA) formed in the summer of 1946. Since then, basketball has evolved considerably in strategy and pace. One way to gauge the development of professional basketball over time is to explore the volume and efficiency of the league’s top scorers by decade. Six of the top eight scorers in league history were drafted in different decades.

Wilt Chamberlain, drafted in 1959, is one of the most prolific scorers in league history. The 7-foot center set the league record for most points scored in a game at 100. He averaged at least 30 points in his first nine years in the league and ended his career with an average of 27.6 points per game, making him No. 7 of all time.

Another center, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, dominated the league’s scoring records and held the record for most career points - 38,387 - until the 2022-2023 NBA season,. Abdul-Jabbar was drafted exactly 10 years after Chamberlain, and like Chamberlain, won multiple championships with the Los Angeles Lakers.

The highest scoring player of the 1970s was drafted just three years after Abdul-Jabbar. Julius Erving played most of his career for the Philadelphia 76ers. While the first few decades of professional basketball had produced a number of talented forwards, Erving was the first small forward to rank among the all-time great scorers, at No. 8. Erving accomplished much of his scoring under the time, like the great centers before him. Erving scored 5 points per game at the free throw line and attempted more than one 3-pointer per game only once in his career.

The highest scorers of the 1980s show further evidence of a shift from big men to smaller, quicker, more athletic forwards and guards. Utah Jazz center Karl Malone finished his career with 36,928 points, trailing only Abdul-Jabbar until LeBron James passed him in 2022. Malone was drafted in 1985, just one year after shooting guard Michael Jordan, who averaged at least 30 points over the course of eight seasons. Jordan ranks No. 5 of all time, approximately 6,000 points behind Malone.

While Malone and Jordan played different roles on the court, both relied heavily on their inside games for offense. The highest scoring players of the 1990s, on the other hand, represented different brands of basketball. Shooting guard Kobe Bryant finished his career with 33,643 points, No. 4 of all time, while Dirk Nowitzki’s 31,560 career points rank him at No. 6. Despite playing at power forward and center, Nowitzki developed a reliable 3-point shot, averaging 38 percent in his career compared to Bryant’s 32 percent.

LeBron James, the first overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft, became the highest scorer in league history on February 8, 2023. He broke Abdul-Jabbar’s record as a Laker. James has scored at least 25 points per game in every season since his rookie year.

The highest scorer drafted in 2010 or later is Damian Lillard, the sixth overall pick in the 2012 draft. As of the start of the 2022-2023 NBA season, Lillard had played all 10 seasons as a point guard for the Portland Trailblazers. A 3-point specialist, he has attempted more than eight 3-point shots per game at a 37-percent clip. He averaged 30 points during the 2019-2020 season and scored 17,510 points through nine seasons.