Is LeBron the most consistent athlete ever?
Is LeBron the most consistent athlete ever?
A fresh comparison of LeBron's 40,000 to Wayne Gretzky, Pete Rose and Emmitt Smith's untouchable records.
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Quick Sunday post here.
As someone who has covered LeBron’s career up close for the last decade, it’s rare to see a LeBron stat or visual that stops me in my tracks.
Ben Golliver’s graphic, depicting LeBron’s 40,000-point career, was one of those moments.
I was mesmerized by it.
Look at this beauty.
This, to me, is the magic of data visualization. It’s so simple and yet it tells such an amazing story.
We know LeBron James has been a steady metronome of greatness throughout his 21-year career. I’ve tried to boil it down by showing that he’s put together four full Hall of Fame careers. But this one? This one takes the cake.
I mean, WHAT? How is that real?
Shouts to Golliver and Artur Galocha of the Washington Post for such an elegant, yet mind-blowing visualization. I’ve long felt that the ultimate compliment a journalist can receive is when a peer tells them, “Damn, I wish I thought of that!” I felt that emotion deep in my loins when I saw Golliver’s post on my timeline. Hell yeah, Ben and Artur.
I mean, that line never moves! It’s like you held down the shift button in MS Paint and it straightened out your line for you. It doesn’t even feel real.
Most careers have an arc to it. A slow ramp up as an athlete approaches its peak, a steeper incline and then a leveling out as they reach the twilight of their career.
Not LeBron. Or at least, not yet.
With a nudge from my pal Ben Aronson, it got me thinking: How does this compare to other untouchable sports records?
What about Wayne Gretzky’s points record?
Emmitt Smith’s rushing yards record?
Pete Rose’s hits record?
So, I spent a little time reproducing the same chart for each of those players. I wanted to hit all five of the Sports Reference sports sites — god bless the Sports Reference sites, get you some Stathead — but doing a soccer one was such a game-log mess due to the varying competition levels. So, I left Ronaldo and Messi for a smarter analyst to handle.
Anyway, what does the curve of the other greats look like?
Look at that: LeBron’s consistency stands out even more. This doesn’t settle the ultimate question of whether he’s the most consistent athlete ever. But looking at this little slice of analysis, the unflappable steadiness of LeBron’s 20-something points per game jumps off the page.
There’s a uniformity to LeBron’s points “arc” that the others can’t really duplicate. The others show a slight bend.
An arc.
A human quality to it.
We haven’t seen that bend yet for LeBron. It probably will come as the years go on.
Right?
Right?
@Tom Haberstroh I had thought maybe NBA stars were just more consistent in general — and I think that might be true, if you compare them to your arcs for other sports’ leaders. But even relative to the other top scorers in NBA history, LeBron’s pace of scoring is as close to perfect consistency as it gets.