In the next couple of years Kobe Bryant is going to pass another legendary Celtic in the record book. But not in a good way.
Kobe Bryant is on pace to break the record for most missed shots in a career, according to some fun research by John Hollinger at ESPN (a post behind the site’s pay wall).But the more important one that’s likely to fall is John Havlicek’s record for missed field goals, which Kobe Bryant should break at some point early in the 2013-14 season. My method gives him a 97 percent chance of setting the mark, which essentially means that barring an injury Kobe will hold the record. His current rate is 866 misses a season and he’s only 2,204 short of the record.
Bryant may not own this one for long, however, as several younger players have established a shot to re-break it once he’s moved on. LeBron James (33.3 percent chance to set record), Durant (23.8 percent) and Carmelo Anthony (23.7 percent) all stand a chance to surpass Havlicek in the later parts of their careers.
Of all the “bad” records to hold, this one is not so horrific. Think about what it takes to make this record — longevity, most or all of those years as a player who can get a lot of shots. And no coach is going to let you take that many shots unless you make a lot of shots. Trevor Ariza is not going to have a chance at breaking the all-time miss record for a reason. Notice all the guys on that list — Havlicek, Kobe, LeBron, Carmelo and likely Durant — are all current or future Hall of Famers. (We can debate Melo and Durant if you want, but I think the point stands.)
Still, that’s quite a lot of missed shots.
