Top NBA Playoff Points Scorers of All Time
Figure 1 It is always all about the points
The Boston Celtics may have won the NBA championship this year but if you take a look at the individual leaders in the playoffs, the star of the show was Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks. He led the way in points, rebounds, assists, and steals. Usually, this would be enough to win the title and anyone looking to predict an MVP winner as one of the best NBA finals bets would take these statistics into consideration.
But, as good as Doncic undoubtedly is, the Slovenian baller has a way to go before he reaches the achievements of some of the best ever to play basketball. Scoring points in the regular season is obviously important but it is in the playoffs when things really get serious.
We thought we would take a look at the record books and highlight the stars of the game that have scored the most points in NBA playoff history. These are the players that Luka Doncic needs to emulate to further etch his own name into the game’s history.
Tim Duncan
The San Antonio Spurs already had a number one draft pick on its roster in 1997 when it took Tim Duncan from Wake Forest at the top of the show. But thanks to an injury to David Robinson – and the resulting poor record – the year before, the Spurs were able to take the first selection again. Thus, the “Twin Towers” were born.
Duncan is now regarded as one of the greatest power forwards of all time and he took just two years to win his first championship. He was the MVP in those finals in 1999 and won two more such accolades on the way to finishing his career as a five-time NBA champion. All those games come with the opportunity of scoring a lot of postseason points and Duncan retired with 5,172.
Shaquille O’Neal
Shaq once scored over 700 playoff points in a single season and was the all-time scorer for a while. But his position at fifth is still a huge achievement for someone who was notoriously bad at free throws. He may now get to critique NBA players on TV but he was once the best of the best.
Shaq’s sheer size was the first thing you noticed but his talent was undeniable. He turned Orlando into a playoff regular before winning championships with the Lakers and the Heat. He was still playing postseason basketball at the very end of his career and finished with a points total of 5,250.
Kobe Bryant
One of the most loved and sorely missed basketball players of all time, Kobe was such an outstanding prospect in high school that he dispensed with the college game completely and was still picked 13th overall in the 1996 NBA Draft. Only injury stopped him from playing in the postseason in every year of his career.
Although he had ended a season with most playoff points while Shaq was still at the Lakers, it was after the big man left that Kobe really began to take over. He was the all-time leader until a certain LeBron James came along – and contributed 5,460 points on the way to two NBA finals MVP awards and five championship titles.
Figure 2 Legends get murals
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
The only player on our list that started playing before the start of the 1980s, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s postseason points tally is probably even more impressive considering how much harder it was to get past defenses in his day. Six championship titles prove that he is truly one of the greats.
He was still known by the name Lew Alcindor when he won his first ring with the Milwaukee Bucks. But he then converted to Islam and became especially known for his height and presence on the court – as well as his trademark skyhook shot. He held the NBA’s career scoring record until LeBron James broke it last year and ended his career with 5,762 playoff points.
Michael Jordan
There have been some incredible athletes in the NBA over the course of its existence but for a long time, it was almost universally considered that Michael Jordan had been the best of the lot. Six championship wins, five NBA Finals MVPs, and five MVP awards tell only part of the story of his greatness.
Jordan even left the game to play professional baseball before returning to lead the Bulls to a second three-peat in the late 1990s. He really could do everything and will probably forever be the player that all young starlets are compared to. As for his postseason points record, his 5,987 in 13 playoff seasons has only been beaten by one man.
LeBron James
There are some incredible players in this profile of the most impactful postseason stars in NBA history. But it says something that the one that has scored the most playoff points is beating the rest by a huge margin. Currently the oldest player in the league, LeBron James has managed a staggering 8,162 in a 21-year career.
Missing out on college altogether and joining his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers, LeBron didn’t even play a postseason game until his third year in the league, as he pulled the franchise up to playoff standard. He left the Cavs before winning his first ring (although he returned later on to check that particular job off of the list) and has also won championships with the Heat and the Lakers.
It is frankly only a surprise that he has not won more than the four NBA titles in such a long and glittering career. He may not manage to ever win a fifth, or even get the chance to score another postseason point. But the statistics don’t lie – LeBron James is the absolute king of the playoffs and his points record will surely never be broken.