Michael Jordan was the last NBA player who won an NBA title after averaging 30+ points per game, achieving the feat during the 1995-96 season with the Chicago Bulls. Since then, multiple NBA legends have come close to replicating the feat, but nobody has managed to crack it. In fact, Jordan is one of only three players in the 77-year history of the NBA to achieve this feat, winning four titles as a 30-point scorer.
In the list below, you can see the full list of players who achieved this amazing feat. The first to do so was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1971 with the Milwaukee Bucks. He was followed by Rick Barry of the Golden State Warriors in 1975. But Michael Jordan came into the league and would achieve the feat four times in his first four Finals appearances. No player has achieved the feat since 1996 (28 years and counting).
1970-71 – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (31.7 PPG)
1974-75 – Rick Barry (30.6 PPG)
1990-91 – Michael Jordan (31.5 PPG)
1991-92 – Michael Jordan (30.1 PPG)
1992-93 – Michael Jordan (32.6 PPG)
1995-96 – Michael Jordan (30.4 PPG)
Not only is Jordan the only person to have done this more than once, but he managed to do it for every single year of his first three-peat and the first title of the second three-peat. Even though Jordan didn’t play enough seasons to add more points to his overall tally, he is still considered arguably the greatest scorer in the history of the NBA.
Jordan won 10 scoring titles, with the second-closest being Wilt Chamberlain with seven scoring titles. Jordan and Wilt are the only players in history to average over 30 points per game for their entire careers as well. Many of his scoring statistics have remained unbroken over the last three decades, but with scoring increasing drastically in recent years, there’s a high chance that future championship-caliber players will have to average 30 points to lead their team to a title.
Only three players are in the running of joining Jordan, Barry, and Kareem in this exclusive club this season.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging 31.2 points on the No. 2 seeded Thunder, while Giannis Antetokounmpo is averaging 30.7 points on the No. 3 seeded Bucks. Luka Doncic is the scoring leader in the NBA this season, averaging 34.4 points, but has to carry the Mavericks out of the play-in tournament as the team is currently the No. 7 seed.
Who Has Come Closest To Replicating Michael Jordan?
Jordan is the only player in the modern history of the game to achieve this feat, with one instance of this before him being 54 years old and the other being 49 years old. While NBA scoring dipped during the Jordan era and remained low through the 2000s, some players could have achieved this feat as well.
Amongst existing champions, Shaquille O’Neal came the closest. He averaged 29.7 points in the regular season in the 1999-00 season for the Lakers, where he won both regular season and Finals MVP. Both he and Kobe Bryant came close in the 2000-01 season, with Kobe averaging 28.5 points while Shaq averaged 28.7 points. If one was without the other, they could’ve gotten a 30-point average but likely wouldn’t have won the title.
Even in Kobe’s historic championship-winning seasons in 2009 and 2010, the most he averaged in the season was 27.0 (2010).
LeBron James won four titles but his highest regular-season scoring average in those title-winning seasons came in 2012 with 27.1 points. He’s averaged over 30 points per game through the season twice, losing in the Finals in 2007 and failing to make the playoffs in 2022.
Kevin Durant has four scoring titles, but he couldn’t average 30 points in his two championship runs with the Warriors in 2017 (25.1 points) and 2018 (26.4 points). During those title runs, he was teammates with the player that has arguably had the best chance of achieving this feat but failed to do so.
Stephen Curry came the closest to making this list for his incredible 2015-16 season. He averaged 30.1 points over the season, leading the Warriors to a historic 73 wins and becoming the first unanimous MVP in league history, something that nobody has replicated. Unfortunately, Curry and the Warriors blew a 3-1 lead to LeBron James’ and the Cavaliers, but LeBron averaged 25.3 points that season and was way short of the mark for this feat himself.
Curry could have achieved this feat during the Warriors 2022 championship run without Durant, but he averaged just 25.5 points during that season.
James Harden averaged over 30 points for three consecutive seasons but never made the NBA Finals. Many other 30-point scorers in NBA history came nowhere close to winning a title, except the aforementioned Steph Curry example and Allen Iverson in 2001, who averaged 31.1 points but fell in the Finals to the Shaq and Kobe Lakers.
The other two recent champions, Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo failed to achieve this as well. While Jokic averaged over 30 points in the Finals, he only managed 24.5 points during the regular season. Giannis is averaging over 30 this season and could add his name to this list this year, but when he won the title in 2021, he averaged just 28.1 points.
Unless the Thunder, Bucks, or Mavericks win the title this year, this list won’t see a name added to itself. The league has become incredibly high-scoring over recent seasons, so the possibility of this record being equalled is high but we just haven’t seen it happen yet. With the NBA thinking about rule changes to reduce scoring, this record will likely become even more unattainable for future players.
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