Active NBA Players with Chances to Break All-Time Records
In the game of basketball, all-time greats are often measured by their career accomplishments. Scoring the most points, grabbing the most rebounds or hitting the most three-pointers will most assuredly nab you a spot in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Unless Michael Jordan decides to attempt a third comeback (which isn't out of the question until he can't walk), there are a few active NBA athletes with a good chance to break records that have stood for decades.
In the world of records, numbers don't lie. Here are five records that should be broken by guys currently playing in the league right now, so get your eraser out if you keep NBA records on your own time.
Turnovers
1 of 5The Candidates: LeBron James, Jason Kidd, Deron Williams, Russell Westbrook
Westbrook's turnover numbers are scary. The way he is going, he's set to break the record during his 16th season if he doesn't cut down on his average of 3.5 per game.
Williams has an outside shot, with his 1576 career turnovers far behind Karl Malone's record of 4524. But he's a possession point guard, and most of the offense that his team is going to run is going to go through him. He's got to kick up his 2.6 per game to threaten, but since this is only his seventh season, it could go either way.
Jason Kidd could very well break this record soon. He's got 3916 in his career, just a shade over 600 fewer than the number one spot. If he plays until he is 40 years old, which is his goal, it will take two very sloppy seasons of play to get there.
However, Kidd is an iron man; he has the drive to play until his body no longer allows him to. If he does break the record, I don't think he will claim it for very long.
With 2264 career turnovers at the close of his ninth NBA season, LeBron figures to be about halfway through his NBA career. He also is about halfway to the all-time turnover record, due to his initiating the offense in the system he plays in and his decision making, which has led to a career 3.5 per game.
Turnovers, like interceptions in football, are a product of having the ball in your hands. They're going to happen, but it's not a record you'd like on your mantle.
Games Played
2 of 5The Candidates: Jason Kidd, Kobe Bryant
If you play the game at a high level for as long as Jason Kidd has, you figure to wind up at the top of more than one list. This one is no exception, as Kidd finds himself only 300 games behind career leader Robert Parish.
Sure, he would have to play four more seasons to eclipse the mark, but if anyone can do it, it's Kidd, who's elevated his game at age 39 in ways no one ever thought possible.
Is it unlikely? Sure. But people said he couldn't hit a jump shot, and look how that turned out (third on the all-time three-point list).
But like the turnovers, he likely won't hold this one for long either. Kobe Bryant, the high school phenom who's still playing like an MVP in his 15th NBA season. He's already at 1158 career games.
Kobe is one of the toughest players of this era. If he's on the team, he'll play 80 games, and he'll do so at a high level. I take Kobe as one of those "If I can't play well, I won't play at all" guys.
At his current pace, Kobe would break the all-time games-played mark at age 39, where Kidd currently stands, barring another lockout, injury or retirement.
Kobe is one of the most competitive guys this league or any sport has ever seen, so bet he'll have his eye on all the records he can rewrite.
Free-Throw Percentage
3 of 5The Candidates: Steve Nash, Kevin Durant
Nash sits only .0007 percentage points behind all-time leader Mark Price. With a solid couple of seasons, wherever he decides to play them, Nash should overtake that No. 1 spot and become the most prolific free-throw shooter to ever play the game, as weird as that sounds.
Durant, the sharpshooting superstar from the Oklahoma City Thunder, is already 12th on the all-time list with an .8772 percentage over the course of his first five seasons.
By comparison, Nash was only at .8574 after his fifth season in the league. If Durant continues to perfect his craft at the free-throw line, he will likely be right there in the mix for the best of all time. He figures to get plenty of chances, since he is such a top-notch player in the league.
That kind of volume is the only thing I see slowing Durant down, who might have to shoot way more from the line than Nash by the time it's all over.
Assists
4 of 5The Candidates: Chris Paul, Ricky Rubio, Rajon Rondo
Rubio, the smooth-passing Spaniard whose rookie season was derailed by an ACL tear, averaged a respectable 8.2 per game. Passing to the likes of Kevin Love, Derrick Williams and Nikola Pekovic as their game evolves around him, he should be in for a much higher total than that in the coming seasons.
It's too early to tell, but Rubio might be the closest thing to John Stockton since Stock himself. In that same mold, Rajon Rondo, widely considered the best passing point guard in the league, finds himself behind the curve somewhat, but still in a position to make a run at the record.
While Rondo's 3.8 and 5.1 totals over his first two seasons certainly hurt, the 11.2 and 11.0 the past two seasons will certainly push him up the ladder. If he continues to improve, which seems to be the trend, he'll move right up the list as he gets better and older.
Paul seems to have the inside track on the record. He's quietly led the league in steals in five of his seven seasons, and led it in assists two others. When he led the NBA in steals prior, he did it with Tyson Chandler, David West and a bunch of nobodies.
Now, he has Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan and lob city to boost his totals. With a full 82-game slate and a year to mesh chemistry-wise, there's no telling to the number Paul could put up while chasing Stockton's career mark of 15806. His career average is also 9.8, only 0.7 off the mark of Stockton's 10.5.
Points
5 of 5The Candidates: Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant
Of all the records to break, this one is the one most kids dream about in their driveway at night, a la the Michael Jordan child scene in Space Jam.
Kevin Durant has the league abuzz, captivating audiences and defenders alike with his ability to seemingly score at will. It will help in his quest that he entered the league at 19, and that he is a natural jump-shooter, giving his body a chance to make it deep into his 30's.
James, another guy who entered the league in his teens, is close to halfway home on the all-time scoring record with 18,726 points. His scoring averages are down during his first two seasons in Miami, but what do you expect with two other All-Stars taking shots away from him?
He can score 30 points at will, and James is not to be messed with. However, as his career progresses and he becomes more of a shooter, time will tell if he's equipped to handle that kind of scoring pressure when he can't blow right past someone.
Kobe should break this record. Since he entered the league at age 18, he's been a scoring machine. And if anyone is going to take a run at Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's record 38,387, it should be a fellow Los Angeles Laker.
Kobe has the scoring prowess and killer instinct that will push him to break the all-time mark. He's only around 9,000 behind the mark. If he plays for another six seasons and averages 1500 points per season (which would be 18.3 per game, well below his career average), he'll reach that plateau.
All these records are contingent on health and desire, but it would be pretty special as an NBA fan to see any of them broken in one's lifetime.
