1) Most field goals missed: Kobe Bryant (14,481)

There was a fair amount of piling on Kobe Bryant when he broke John Havlicek’s long standing record for most field goals missed in a career in November of 2014. Hondo had been holding on to the designation since the ’74-’75 season, when he took it from Elgin Baylor. When Kobe shifted into the lead, many were quick to label it as the latest in a long line of instances where his selfish play was to the detriment of his team. It didn’t help that the Lakers were flailing to a historically terrible start to that season, once that ended with a franchise record 61 losses (they would break it with 65 the next year). But here’s the thing: you don’t break the record for field goals missed unless you’re enough of a truly legendary scorer to get the necessary amount of opportunities. Bryant is also sixth all-time in career field goals made, with 11,719, and fourth in career points, with 33,643. His reputation as an unabashed gunner was well-earned, but so was his reputation as one of the great clutch scorers in basketball history. His record for missed field goals is safe for at least a couple more years, but LeBron James could eventually pass him.

2) Most free throws missed: Wilt Chamberlain (5,805)

There’s a simple truth to this one, and it’s that Chamberlain was a just plain bad free throw shooter. He shot just 51.1% on free throws in his career and he attempted a boatload of them. 11,862 free throws, to be exact. Thus, while Chamberlain is first all-time in career missed free throws and second all-time in career attempts (behind only Karl Malone), he sits only 18th in career free throws made. Long before Hack-a-Shaq, teams would employ Jilt-a-Wilt to send Chamberlain to the free throw line to neutralize him, trying to exploit the only noticeable Achilles’ heel in his otherwise impenetrable offensive arsenal. It’s unsurprising that Shaquille O’Neal, a 52.7% career free throw shooter, sits second on the all-time missed free throw list with 5,317 and third is their free throw missing kindred spirit, Dwight Howard.

3) Most personal fouls: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (4,657)
4) Most technical fouls: Rasheed Wallace (317)

Speaking of Wilt Chamberlain, the renowned defender and shot blocker committed just 2,075 fouls in his long career, and somehow never fouled out in a game. Compare that to Abdul-Jabbar, who fouled out 46 times in his career and holds the record with 4,657 total fouls. These kind of things tend to pile up when you’re also the all-time leader in minutes played and points scored, and third in rebounds and blocked shots. The 46 total foul-outs is actually not even close to the record of 127 held by Vern Mikkelsen, who played in less than half the total games that Abdul-Jabbar did. Kareem’s record, compiled over 20 NBA seasons, was nearly broken by Karl Malone but will now likely live on in infamy for a long time, as modern NBA players are committing less fouls than ever before. Even more unlikely to be broken is Wallace’s record for technical fouls. Granted, it’s not even a guarantee that Wallace is the record holder, as NBA tracking of technical fouls before the late ’90s was spotty, at best. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Jerry Sloan actually holds the all-time record for technicals as a player and coach with close to 500 total, but maybe Wallace will embark on a lengthy coaching career to try and match it. Wallace has four of the top ten technical foul season totals since the NBA starting track the stat reliably, and his record of 41, set in ’00-’01 while playing for Portland, is actually impossible to match under current rules, where every technical foul above your 15th triggers an automatic suspension.

5) Lowest career field goal percentage (minimum 100 attempts): Moe Becker (19.72%)

He was a legend on the New York playgrounds, an all-time great at Duquesne University, and a star player for several barnstorming teams, but things didn’t work out so well for Becker in the pro ranks. After a few seasons as an end-of-the-bench role player for the Wilmington Blue Bombers, Baltimore Bullets, and Youngstown Bears of the NBL, Becker’s time in the BAA (the precursor to the NBA) was memorable only for how poorly it went. He lasted just one season, the inaugural BAA season in ’46-’47, and was traded twice, from the Pittsburgh Ironmen to the Boston Celtics to the Detroit Falcons. Becker’s 3.8 points and 0.7 assists per game are nothing to crow about but also pretty typical of role players in the NBA’s early days. But it was his historically bad shooting that stands out, as Becker took 358 field goal attempts and made just 70 of them, good for a 19.72% average. No one has ever shoot more poorly while taking at least 100 attempts, though it’s notable that everyone in the top 20 of that list played in the late ’40s and early ’50s when teams would typically just throw the ball at the basket with impunity, hoping it would fall semi-regularly. The worst shooting percentage with 100 minimum attempts in the modern era belongs to Shane Heal, an Australian point guard who shot 27.3% over the course of two seasons with the Timberwolves and Spurs.

“Throughout his career, O’Neal seemingly had a penchant for joining teams right after they reached the NBA Finals or leaving them right before they made it all the way.”

6) Most games played without a playoff appearance: Tom Van Arsdale (929)

While his twin brother Dick was drafted by the rising Knicks in 1965 and eventually made four postseason appearances, including the 1976 NBA Finals with Phoenix, Tom was selected that year by the lowly Pistons. He bounced from Detroit to Cincinnati to Kansas City to Philadelphia to Atlanta before finally joining his brother in Phoenix in ’76-’77. The Suns pulled a rare feat that year, completely missing the postseason immediately after playing in the Finals. Van Arsdale subsequently retired without ever playing a playoff game. Though resigned to only regular season action in his 12-year career, he had some accomplishments there, including three All-Star appearances and a career high of 22.9 points per game in ’70-’71. But it’s only appropriate that Van Arsdale’s resume also includes a season played with arguably the worst team in NBA history, the ’72-’73 Sixers, who finished 9-73. He also holds the marks for most points scored without a playoff appearance (with 14,232, he’s the only player to break 10,000+ without reaching the postseason), and is second in assists and fourth in rebounds. The next highest total of 682 games without reaching the postseason belongs to Otto Moore, a shot blocking specialist that toiled mainly for the Pistons and Jazz in the ’70s, and third is Nate Williams, who was Van Arsdale’s teammate briefly with both the Royals and the Kings. As of this writing, the highest total amongst active players in the ’20-’21 season is Alex Len, with 474 games.

7) Most playoff appearances without an NBA Finals appearance: Jermaine O’Neal (14)

Contrasting to Tom Van Arsdale, Jermaine O’Neal was thrown right into the postseason fire as a 19-year-old rookie. He went on to reach the playoffs 14 times in his 18-year career, but never further than the Conference Finals. His first near-miss came early on, as a youngster at the end of the bench for Portland when they blew a huge lead late in game seven of the 2000 Conference Finals against the Lakers. In his career peak with the Lakers, O’Neal was arguably the best player on the ’03-’04 team that lost to Detroit in the Eastern Conference Finals, and the ’04-’05 team that looked like a legitimate title threat until the Ron Artest-led Malice at the Palace spiraled their season out of control due to suspensions. Throughout his career, O’Neal seemingly had a penchant for joining teams right after they reached the NBA Finals or leaving them right before they made it all the way. He was traded to the Pacers in 2000 right after their NBA Finals loss to the Lakers, left the Heat as a free agent in 2010 just as they were bringing in LeBron James via free agency, signed with the Celtics in 2010 right after they lost in the NBA Finals, then retired as a member of the Warriors in 2014 right before they won the first title of the Stephen Curry era. O’Neal’s playoff appearance with Golden State in 2014 gave him the record of 14 without reaching the Finals, breaking a previous tie with Terry Cummings.

8) Most playoff appearances without a title: Karl Malone and John Stockton (19)

Starting in 1985, the Jazz had a stretch of 19 consecutive years of reaching the postseason. That era included two NBA Finals appearances and five Conference Finals appearances, but never a title. John Stockton was there for all 19, having been drafted by the team in 1984, while Malone, drafted in 1985, appeared in the final 18. Before Stockton and Malone the franchise had just one playoff appearance in 10 prior seasons. Since 2003, when Stockton retired and Malone signed with the Lakers, the team has logged just nine playoff appearances, and as far as the Conference Finals just once. Elgin Baylor had previously held the records for most career postseason points, rebounds, and assists without a title, but he had the points and rebounds totals crushed by Malone, while Stockton cruised past him in assists. While Stockton played his entire career with Utah, Malone chased an elusive ring for one season with the Lakers, making his 19th playoff appearance and third NBA Finals appearance in 2004. Malone is also the record holder for playoff games played without a title with 193, while Stockton is second with 182. Kyle Korver is now third on that list with 145, followed by Charles Oakley, Derrick McKey, Clifford Robinson and then longtime Malone/Stockton teammate Jeff Hornacek.

9) Lowest points per game average (minimum 100 games played): Mario West (1.0)

A walk-on at Georgia Tech in 2003 after a star career at nearby Douglas County High School, West eventually rose to team captain. He caught the eyes of NBA scouts by winning the NCAA Slam Dunk Contest in 2007 and then, after going un-drafted, earning the nickname “Truck” for his defensive intensity for the Hawks in the summer league. Though that defensive prowess carried over some in his rookie season, he was essentially a non-entity on offense. In 64 appearances, West never scored more than seven points in a game, and went scoreless from the field 41 times. This included one game against the Heat in which he logged over 19 minutes of playing time without scoring. Somehow, he still managed to stick on the Hawks roster for three seasons and eventually did break double-digit scoring in the final game of the ’09-’10 season, in a game in which Atlanta rested all their starters for the playoffs. All told, West scored 154 points in 162 NBA games, good for 0.951 points per game, which the NBA technically rounds up to 1.0. He eventually played four seasons overseas, including stints in the Dominican Republic, Italy, and Mexico, before officially retiring as a player in 2016 to take a gig as the director of player personnel at his alma mater. The next guy on the list with 100 or more games played is Bart Kofoed, who averaged 1.5 points per game in 111 games with the Jazz, Warriors, Sonics, and Celtics in the late ’80s and early ’90s. For the record, the lowest scoring average of all-time for a player with 500 or more games played is DeSagana Diop with 1.97 points per game in 601 career games.

10) Most career playoff turnovers: LeBron James (975)

This comes as no surprise to anyone who watched a Cavaliers playoff game over the last 15 years, which typically involved James acting as essentially the entire offense. Yes, there were some solid play making stretches from Kyrie Irving for a three-year stretch, but other James handled everything in his nine playoff appearances with Cleveland, five of which ended with NBA Finals appearances. He was usually the main ball handler in Miami as well, with the underwhelming Mario Chalmers starting at point guard. James led the NBA in playoff turnovers in 2012 with 81 as he won his first title with the Heat, then topped that amount with 82 three years later as he carried the Cavaliers to the NBA Finals despite Irving and Kevin Love missing time due to injuries. But that was nothing compared to 2018, when James, saddled without a true point guard or secondary play maker, broke the single-season playoff turnover record with 94 in 22 games (4.3 per game). The record had previously been held by his former Heat teammate Dwyane Wade, who set it during the team’s 2006 title run. But before you judge James for his turnover total, keep in mind that he also led the NBA in total playoff assists that year with 198, which is the highest single season total by a non-guard. While he now holds the career playoff turnover record by a massive amount, James also now holds the career postseason scoring title and is second all-time in career playoff assists, behind only Magic Johnson.

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