Comparing the Laker careers of Magic, Kareem, and Wilt

Yesterday one of the greatest basketball players of all-time, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, embarrassed himself on the Mike & Mike in the Morning radio show by basically demanding that the Lakers erect a statue in his likeness and place it outside the Staples Center. Kareem, I believe, means well, but his social skills are so inept, he often comes across as a pompous jerk. This was one of those occasions.

I believe Kareem’s true beef had nothing to do with any statue, but rather had to do with the broader resistance throughout the NBA to his coaching overtures. This lack of opportunity must be frustrating for him, and I believe he clumsily chose the statue issue to make a symbolic protest against what he has perceived to be disrespectful treatment.

Anyway, I ran some numbers to determine whether Kareem’s career, as a Laker, deserves to be memorialized in bronze, as he seems to demand. My conclusion: eh, maybe. But the case is not as clear cut as he would like the public to believe.

Kareem’s best seasons, by far, were spent with the Milwaukee Bucks. After Kareem left Milwaukee, he posted some elite level seasons for the Lakers throughout the remainder of the 1970s, but he was pretty ordinary after the calendar turned to the decade of the Rubik’s Cube.

Magic Johnson, as I have argued before on this blog, is far and away the greatest Los Angeles Laker. His “Value” contribution to the team vastly exceeds Kareem. He most definitely deserved to be immortalized before the “Big Fella”.

In fact, the case for Kareem over Magic was so definitively in favor of Johnson, I wondered whether the short Laker career of Wilt Chamberlain exceeded Kareem. In other words, should Wilt be crying out from above for a statue?

Well, you could argue that he should. He was marvelous in all but one season with the Lakers, a season in which he injured himself. And though his total ”Value” score falls well short of Kareem’s, that’s only a function of opportunity. Wilt only played five seasons in LA, but even his last season was MVP level. He should have continued his career. He had reigned his game in so beautifully late in his career, taking only high percentage shots, and commanding the boards, it ought to serve as a model of enormous win production and efficiency.

Here are the numbers. Here is the Glossary to tell you what the numbers mean. Also, if you wish, visit the “Pages” section to the right to learn more about the statistics used to construct this chart. 

Kareem vs. Magic vs. Wilt: their Laker Years

KAREEM	WS	oppWS	MWS	W%	W__L	W>0.5%	VALUE
75-76	22.87	12.66	5.11	1.369	19.3__(-5.2)	12.2	31.5
76-77	22.24	11.91	5.17	1.379	17.2__(-4.7)	10.9	28.1
77-78	22.28	12.39	4.95	1.349	12.7__(-3.3)	8.1	20.8
78-79	21.23	12.33	4.45	1.259	16.5__(-3.4)	9.9	26.4
79-80	19.86	11.89	3.99	1.181	15.3__(-2.3)	8.8	24.1
80-81	18.08	11.75	3.17	1.039	12.8__(-0.5)	6.6	19.4
81-82	15.98	12.86	1.56	0.771	8.5__2.5	3.1	11.6
82-83	15.73	11.79	1.97	0.839	8.9__1.7	3.6	12.5
83-84	14.17	11.63	1.27	0.719	7.8__3.1	2.3	10.1
84-85	16.52	11.42	2.55	0.939	10.2__0.7	5.7	15.9
85-86	13.01	11.94	0.53	0.599	6.5__4.4	1.1	7.6
86-87	12.11	11.51	0.31	0.559	5.6__4.5	0.5	6.1
87-88	15.98	11.93	2.03	0.849	8.1__1.5	3.3	11.4
88-89	7.51	11.83	-2.16	0.139	1.0__6.0	-2.5	-1.5
TOTAL	16.969286	11.988571	2.4928571	0.9278571	150.4__(-3.2)	73.6	224
MAGIC	WS	oppWS	MWS	W%	W__L	W>0.5%	VALUE
79-80	15.08	5.72	4.68	1.299	15.0__(-3.5)	9.2	24.2
80-81	18.37	5.41	6.48	1.611	9.2__(-3.5)	6.3	15.5
81-82	18.37	5.77	6.31	1.579	19.5__(-7.1)	13.3	32.8
82-83	18.15	5.93	6.11	1.541	18.6__(-6.5)	12.6	31.2
83-84	18.37	6.06	6.16	1.549	16.6__(-5.9)	11.2	27.8
84-85	16.88	5.97	5.46	1.429	16.4__(-4.5)	10.4	26.8
85-86	16.39	6.03	5.18	1.391	14.9__(-4.2)	9.6	24.5
86-87	17.36	5.59	5.89	1.509	18.3__(-6.2)	12.2	30.5
87-88	15.01	6.04	4.48	1.269	13.8__(-2.9)	8.3	22.1
88-89	19.36	5.88	6.74	1.649	19.6__(-7.7)	13.6	33.2
89-90	17.34	5.53	5.91	1.511	18.3__(-6.2)	12.2	30.5
90-91	16.95	5.21	5.87	1.499	18.1__(-6.0)	12.1	30.2
95-96	13.66	6.81	3.43	1.091	4.4__(-0.4)	2.4	6.8
TOTAL	17.022308	5.8423077	5.5923077	1.4559231	202.7__(-64.6)	133.4	336.1
WILT	WS	oppWS	MWS	W%	W__L	W>0.5%	VALUE
68-69	24.45	14.33	5.06	1.361	20.7__(-5.4)	13.1	33.8
69-70	21.48	14.18	3.65	0.921	2.3__0.2	0.9	3.2
70-71	21.68	12.28	4.69	1.299	19.6__(-4.5)	11.9	31.6
71-72	24.74	14.54	5.11	1.368	19.6__(-5.2)	12.4	31.9
72-73	25.08	14.88	5.09	1.367	20.1__(-5.4)	12.7	32.8
TOTAL	23.486	14.042	4.72	1.2632	82.3__(-20.3)	50.9	133.3

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