So, Kobe Bryant just captured the record for the most missed shots in NBA history. No kidding.
What exactly does that mean?
Well, if you're familiar with his career between the late 90s and now, it means absolutely nothing.
Kobe takes a lot of shots and makes a lot of shots. And, unlike most other shooting guards, he has also played in the NBA for a crazy amount of years.
Bryant said it best himself. He told ESPN LA's Baxter Holmes,
Well, I'm a shooting guard that's played 19 years. Like I said, 'shooting' guard, 19th year.
The only thing missing from his comment on the record was a sarcastic, "duh." And it wouldn't have been out of hand either; the record itself (13,418 shots missed, to be exact) falls in line with everything he's done during his career.
He's also the fourth all-time in points scored, at least for the time being.
It's already a foretold conclusion that Kobe will pass Michael Jordan who, at the time of writing, stands 405 points ahead of the Lakers star in the all-time rankings.
Once Kobe does pass Jordan for third all-time on the scoring charts, it will inevitably prompt people to make comparisons between their careers. But, those comparisons are relevant today, too.
If you do buy into the notion that Kobe's record is a mere consequence of being a player who takes and makes a lot of shots over a long period of time, then it's interesting to point out that MJ, a player whose game Bryant's mimics, stands on the all-time-shots-missed list.
Jordan is sixth, having missed 12,345 shots. He stands right behind guys like Karl Malone and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who were also great scorers with longevity.
It is no surprise Jordan is up there, too. After all, MJ averaged 11.5 missed shots throughout his career, which is more than Kobe's average of 10.7 missed shots during his career.
In fact, you could make a case that had Jordan not had two premature retirements, he might hold the record for most missed shots himself.
If he did break that record, it's not likely to be something he would have been ashamed of either.
This Michael Jordan quote puts Kobe Bryant's missed FG record into the right perspective. pic.twitter.com/4LZ0GAoa66 — SportsNation (@SportsNation) November 12, 2014
The one obvious fact to point out here is that Jordan was much more efficient than Kobe. While hosting 22.9 shots per game throughout his career, Jordan averaged a near-50 percent success rate.
Kobe, shooting 19.5 shots per game, currently has a career shooting percentage of about 45 percent. Kobe has never topped 47 percent shooting in a single season. Jordan did it 10 times.
This, too, is unsurprising. Kobe Bryant is very similar to Jordan, but the Lakers star is simply a less talented player of the two, which is still pretty freaking amazing.
Bryant owning the all-time record for shots missed in the NBA is not something to be proud of, per se. But, it isn't something to be ashamed of, nor is it an indicator that Kobe is any less great than we thought he was.
The record simply comes with the territory.
He is the least impressive out of the class of players who played 15-plus years at the premier shooting position on their teams. The only other person in that class just happens to be Michael Jordan.
Like Jordan, who was more efficient but played less, Kobe takes and makes an insane amount of shots.
Duh. It's what makes him great.
