Once you’ve reached the top 40 of the NBA’s all-time scoring list, you tend not to hit new milestones all that often. It’s common sense. Those players scored so many points and played for so long that passing even one of them takes time. Well, at least it’s supposed to. DeMar DeRozan had other ideas on Wednesday.
The Chicago Bulls star entered Wednesday night’s contest against the Indiana Pacers at No. 35 overall on the scoring list with 23,134 total points in his 15-year NBA career. Immediately ahead of him on that list, at No. 34, was Elgin Baylor, with 23,149 points. Former Bull Dwyane Wade was next at 23,165 points, and Adrian Dantley sat above them all with 23,177 points. DeRozan, therefore, would need 44 points to pass all three in a single night.
He ultimately scored 46, and the Bulls needed every single one of them to escape with a big win over the Pacers. Chicago trailed by as many as 11 points in the game, but DeRozan’s heroics kept the Bulls alive. When they needed a bucket with 2.4 seconds left in regulation, it was DeRozan that forced overtime with this fadeaway beauty.
Stephen Curry is next on the scoring list at No. 31, and his current injury might give DeRozan some time to catch him. He currently trails Curry by 122 points, but even if Curry widens that gap upon his return, Robert Parish, who leads DeRozan by 154 points, is well within his sights. Depending on how much longer he plays, DeRozan has a reasonable chance at eventually winding up in the top 20.
But he’ll never pass three Hall of Famers in a single night ever again. Aligning those stars would simply be too unrealistic. Even if he could line it up so that he was one point behind someone entering a night and proceeded to have the best game of his career afterward, there are no three players above him on the list that are each within 100 points of one another. Everything needed to go right for DeRozan to make his rare bit of history on Wednesday, and he more than delivered.
