The obvious choice for the candidate to threaten Kareem’s record is Bryant for obvious reasons. The main one is the fact that Bryant is quickly climbing the charts on the scoring leader’s list, seemingly passing a legend each and every week.
As of right now Bryant sits in sixth place on the all time scoring list, with the only active player sitting ahead of him being a washed up and often injured Shaquille O’Neal. For this very reason Bryant is the only player who currently has a realistic chance of breaking the record.
Although Bryant is the only legitimate threat to the record at the moment, he still has years of work to do in order to catch Kareem. Bryant currently has 27,705 points to his name, yet still trails the master of the sky hook by 10,682 points.
Bryant seems to be a viable threat but he will need to maintain his high level of play at least to the midpoint of the decade. If Bryant can continue to average somewhere around 25 points per contest and remain healthy, he could seemingly break the record in about five years.
Five more seasons at 25 points per game would seem nearly impossible for most 14 year veterans, but if we have learned one thing from the 14 year career of Bryant it’s that we shouldn’t be surprised by his greatness.