Bit of a boxing lesson real quick. For most of boxing’s history, there have been multiple entities that have handed out championship belts. An “undisputed champ” occurs when one boxer holds all the belts for his weight class at the same time. I’m using a bit of that logic here for scoring champs.

For most* of NBA history, we just consider the scoring champ to be the player that led the league in points per game for the regular season. What I’m doing is adding 3 additional belts:

Regular Season Total Points

Playoff Points Per Game

Playoff Total Points

Regular Season PPG is understandably the default scoring champ, but leading the league in any of those other categories gives a player a legitimate, albeit smaller, claim to being the best scorer that season.

With all that said, here is every instance where a player led the league in all 4 categories, which gives them the undisputed scoring championship belt that season:

Season Player
2013-14 Kevin Durant
1999-00 Shaquille O’Neal
1997-98 Michael Jordan
1996-97 Michael Jordan
1995-96 Michael Jordan
1992-93 Michael Jordan
1991-92 Michael Jordan
1990-91 Michael Jordan
1989-90 Michael Jordan
1988-89 Michael Jordan
1981-82 George Gervin
1966-67 Rick Barry
1963-64 Wilt Chamberlain
1949-50 George Mikan
1948-49 George Mikan
1946-47 Joe Fulks

There were 15 seasons where a player was just 1 best away from being the undisputed scoring champ:

Season RS PPG Leader RS Total Points Leader Playoff PPG Leader Playoff Total Points Leader
2023-24 Luka Doncic Luka Doncic Joel Embiid Luka Doncic
2017-18 James Harden LeBron James LeBron James LeBron James
2016-17 Russell Westbrook Russell Westbrook Russell Westbrook LeBron James
2010-11 Kevin Durant Kevin Durant Kevin Durant Dirk Nowitzki
2007-08 LeBron James Kobe Bryant Kobe Bryant Kobe Bryant
2006-07 Kobe Bryant Kobe Bryant Kobe Bryant LeBron James
2004-05 Allen Iverson Allen Iverson Allen Iverson Tim Duncan
1986-87 Michael Jordan Michael Jordan Michael Jordan Larry Bird
1979-80 George Gervin George Gervin George Gervin Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
1978-79 George Gervin George Gervin George Gervin Gus Williams
1977-78 George Gervin George Gervin George Gervin Elvin Hayes
1974-75 Bob McAdoo Bob McAdoo Bob McAdoo Rick Barry
1971-72 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Walt Frazier
1950-51 George Mikan George Mikan George Mikan Arnie Risen
1947-48 Joe Fulks Max Zaslofsky Joe Fulks Joe Fulks

*note from 1947-69, the scoring champ was awarded to the player with the most total points in the regular season.

  • 30anotherBEnglish
    1·
    3 months ago

    Using total points is pretty dumb imo. Penalizes good team/player for sweeping.

  • NaLu_LuNa_FairyPieceBEnglish
    1·
    3 months ago

    Man if Jordan didn’t play baseball… should’ve just played those 2 years and screw the Wizards.

  • TigerKlawBEnglish
    1·
    3 months ago

    For Jordan in 87 and 88, he doesn’t have the highest total playoff points but was leading in both points per game in RS (not playoffs in 88 because Hakeem scored 37.5 in his first round series vs Jordan’s 36.5 in 2 rounds), and total points in reg season.

  • powerpuffpepperBEnglish
    1·
    3 months ago

    Playoff total points doesn’t really make sense to me. Of course the guy playing at minimum 16 games (finals appearance) is gonna have more points than a first round or second round exit. Embiid had a higher PPG than Luka in the playoffs but only played 6 games, Luka played 22. To me it makes sense that someone playing more games will have a scoring drop off in PPG

  • the_dan_dcBEnglish
    1·
    3 months ago

    Jordan has so many factoids like this. My favorite: only 6 times has a player won the scoring title, MVP, and Finals MVP in the same year, and 4 of them were Jordan.

  • Icy_Juice6640BEnglish
    1·
    3 months ago

    Joe Fulks was a 5’9 center and was the 3rd tallest person in NYC at the time. True story.

  • youguanbumenBEnglish
    1·
    3 months ago

    Does playoff ppg have a minimum games played cutoff? A first round against a blah team can really juice someone’s numbers

  • BeetsbananasbaconBEnglish
    1·
    3 months ago

    Crazy Jordan top playoff scorer in 2 seasons he doesn’t even make the finals