Tyreke Evans became just the fourth player in NBA history to average 20 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists during his rookie season.
The achievement conjured memories of Steve Francis who was often lauded for his averages of 20-6-6 over a three year span with the Houston Rockets.
It’s interesting how we trumpet these arbitrarily determined ‘milestones.’ If dissecting the numbers, in Steve’s case, what did 20-6-6 really mean? Pretty much that he was a pretty good scorer, a bad passer, and a damn good rebounder. So all we should really have taken from the statistical body was Steve’s rebounding prowess. But instead, the line was used to justify belief in Francis’ superstardom. Oops…
The sooner we abandon conventional ‘per game’ statistics for use in anything beyond the NBA Live series, the more informed and better off we will be.
