Shaquille O’Neal has moved into fifth place all-time in NBA scoring, surpassing Moses Malone during the Suns’ 128-96 win over the Washington Wizards on Saturday night.
At this stage, the chances of the Big Cactus playing long enough to move past fourth-placed Wilt Chamberlain are slim, with the Stilt sitting a shade over 4,000 points ahead. At the Diesel’s current scoring rate he’d need at least three more seasons to move that far. Despite his current renaissance season, that would seem to be an optimistic goal.
The current NBA scoring list looks as follows:
| Rank | Player | PTS |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | 38387 |
| 2. | Karl Malone | 36928 |
| 3. | Michael Jordan | 32292 |
| 4. | Wilt Chamberlain | 31419 |
| 5. | Shaquille O’Neal | 27411 |
In terms of combined NBA and ABA scoring, O’Neal ranks eighth, with Dan Issel and Dr J joining the leaderboard. However Shaq should pass Issel in the next two or three games.
The Arizona Republic had the Big Aristotle’s usually confident thoughts on the milestone:
“It shows how I’ve been consistent at what I’ve been doing, and the next guy is my illegitimate father, Wilt Chamberlain,” O’Neal said.
“So just like in ‘Star Wars,’ hopefully I can catch up to my father.
“If I get one last deal then, yeah, (I could catch him). The way Nellie (head athletic trainer Aaron Nelson) has me feeling, I could average 20 and 10 until I’m 41 (or) 42. Easily.”
For the NBA media department’s sake, we hope that he keeps on going. He just makes the league that much more entertaining. And Twitter wouldn’t be the same without his constant presence on the hardwood.
