Kobe continues his destined march towards greatness as he surpassed another legend on the NBA All-Time Scoring list yesterday, to put him at #6 above Moses “Fo-Fo-Fo” Malone.
The Lakers star went into Tuesday’s night game, against the Atlanta Hawks, just 12 points shy of Malone’s 27,409 points, and he easily surpassed that mark when he dropped 26 points on the Hawks before the game got out of hand and Kobe sat in the 4th quarter as the Lakers won their 8th straight game.
The NBA superstar passed Malone when he made three free throws with 2:05 remaining in the first half.
Bryant has moved past an impressive list of Hall of Fame scorers this season. He passed Malone one week after eclipsing Elvin Hayes for seventh. He also has topped the scoring totals of Hakeem Olajuwon, Oscar Robertson, Dominique Wilkins and John Havlicek this season. He began the season at #12 on the list and now he’s #6.
And guess who’s next on the list.
That’s right, it’s Shaq, who’s Kobe’s former teammate/arch nemesis, and the both of them have won three championships with each other. Shaq currently sits at #5 on the all-time scoring list with 28,590 points as of Tuesday and is the only active player with more career points than Bryant.
At #4 is Wilt Chamberlain with 31,419; Michael Jordan is at #3 with 32,292; Karl Malone is at #2 with 36,928; and the all-time scorer in NBA history is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with 38,387.