One thing that really annoys me, especially in baseball and basketball, where players can enter and have entered the leagues at various stages of life, is when a player achieves a record or a milestone and is lauded as being the “youngest player in the history of the league to accomplish ‘X’”. I always look at that as being a stat for the sake of creating a stat, because being the youngest does not actually mean that said player is the best, it just means that he entered the league at an age where he is probably going to be the youngest to do a lot of things because he or she had had more time in their career to try.
Recently, Detroit Pistons’ Center Andre Drummond notched his 16th career 20-rebound game, to which ESPN lauded Drummond by announcing that he had achieved the most 20-rebound games before the age of 22 in the history of the NBA. ESPN displayed a graphic that indicated that Drummond’s 16 games were more than previous leaders Dwight Howard and Shaquille O’Neal, who both had 13, and Moses Malone who had 12. What made this stat so maddening is the disparity between the four men on the list with regards to the number of games that they each had played before their 22nd birthdays.
Andre Drummond entered the NBA after one year of college, and played his first game of NBA basketball in October of 2012, at the age of 19 years and 2 months. Dwight Howard entered the NBA directly from high school, and played his first NBA game in October of 2004, at the age of 18 years and 10 months. Seemingly, these two individuals, if their rebounding prowess is such that they are able to have repeated 20-rebound games, should be able to produce numerous 20-rebound game before the age of 22, as Drummond will turn 22 at the conclusion of his third full NBA season, and Howard turned 22 two months into his fourth.
Shaq, who was tied for second on the list with Howard, entered the NBA after three years of college, and turned 22 just after the All-Star Break of his second NBA season, meaning that he had roughly 120 games in which to accomplish the feat, meaning that he achieved the same number as Howard in less than half the number of games.
Malone’s case is the most unique because he came to professional basketball straight from high school just like Howard, but he graduated from high school at the age of 19, and spent two full seasons in the ABA before joining the NBA. Malone played his first NBA game at the age of 21 years and 7 months, meaning that he had approximately 70 games to play before he would turn 22. Malone would reach 20 rebounds 12 times in those 70 games, meaning that once every 6 games that his team played, Malone would grab 20 rebounds. This is compared to Shaq doing it once every ten games, or Howard and Drummond doing it once every twenty games.
The point is that being the youngest to do something does not mean that said player is the best to achieve it because I always ask how long it took the player to achieve the milestone.
Wilt Chamberlain averaged 27 rebounds per game during his rookie season, but he played his first NBA game two months after his 23rd birthday. Bill Russell average just under 20 rebounds per game during his rookie season, but played his first NBA game eight months after his 22nd birthday, meaning that, if ESPN was to count 20-rebound games before the age of 24, chances are, these two men would have the most by a wide margin.
Dwight Howard is credited as being the youngest player in the history of the NBA to achieve every rebounding milestone from 1,000 to 9,000. As I mentioned, Howard entered the NBA from high school, meaning that he is going to be the youngest player to achieve a number of career milestones, provided he is good enough to reach those milestones. Unfortunately for Howard and the stat keepers, Howard grabbed his 9,000th rebound with the first rebound of the last game of his 9th NBA season. Chamberlain grabbed his 9,000thin the 41st game of his 5th season, and Russell got his in the 47th game of his 6th season. By the time Howard got his 9,000th, Chamberlain already had more than 17,000 and Russell had more than 15,000, which is why I say that being the youngest is fine, but how long did it take the player to achieve it?
Now, I am not attempting to belittle the accomplishments of Andre Drummond, Dwight Howard, Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, Alex Rodriguez, Ken Griffey, Jr. or any other professional athlete who has the opportunity to enter his or her league at a point earlier in life than most other players.
However, being the youngest player to achieve a milestone is not an automatic sign of greatness, especially if the playing field is not level. Howard, James, Bryant A-Rod, Junior Griffey, Moses, Shaq, Wilt, Russell, Magic and others achieved greatness over time. Time will tell if Andre Drummond is truly great, or is achieving milestones younger than most solely because he is younger than most.
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