If Bryant continues to score at his career average of 25.5 points per game, he will catch Jordan early in the 2013-14 season.

In the Los Angeles Lakers’ 103-98 victory over the Sacramento Kings Saturday March 30th, Kobe Bryant’s pull-up jumper in the second quarter gave him 31,421 points for his career, edging past Chamberlain’s 31,419 and moving Kobe into the fourth place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. Bryant finished the game with 19 points, a career-high tying 14 assists and nine rebounds.

At age 34, Bryant now trails only Michael Jordan (32,292) by less than 900 points, Karl Malone (36,928) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387) on the league’s list of top scorers.

Wayne Gretzky would go on to tally 894 goals and 2,857 points in his career. He broke 61 offensive NHL records along the way including most goals in a season with 92 in 1981-82, and most points in a season with 215 in 1985-86. That tally beat his own previous record of 212 points set four seasons earlier. No. 99 surpassed the 200-point mark four times in his career with the Edmonton Oilers, Los Angeles Kings, St. Louis Blues and the New York Rangers.

By the time he retired after the 1999 season as a Ranger, Gretzky had scored 1,000 more points than Gordie Howe, who had previously held the NHL record.

Photograph by: Al Bello , Vancouver Sun Getty Images

Cy Young finished his career with 511 wins, a 2.63 ERA and 2803 strikeouts. During his career he had 5 seasons with 30 or more wins and 15 seasons with 20 or more wins. His 511 wins is by far the most career wins by anyone in MLB history as Walter Johnson finished second with 417. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937. Cy Young died in 1955 and the following year MLB created the Cy Young Award given to the best pitcher in baseball that year.

Gretzky played 20 seasons in the NHL for four teams from 1979 to 1999. Nicknamed “The Great One”, he has been called “the greatest hockey player ever” by many sportswriters, players, and the NHL itself. He is the leading point-scorer in NHL history, with more assists than any other player has points, and is the only NHL player to total over 200 points in one season – a feat he accomplished four times. In addition, he tallied over 100 points in 16 professional seasons, 14 of them consecutive. At the time of his retirement in 1999, he held 40 regular-season records, 15 playoff records, and six All-Star records. In addition to being its greatest scorer, Gretzky was the most gentlemanly superstar in the modern history of the NHL. He won the Lady Byng Trophy for sportsmanship and performance five times, and he often spoke out against fighting in hockey.

The scoring record was previously held by Bob Pettit at 20,880. Chamberlain would eventually finish his career with a total of 31,419 points, which currently ranks him fourth all-time.

Since retiring, Chamberlain’s point total has been surpassed by only Michael Jordan (32,292), Karl Malone (36,928) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387). Kobe Bryant (30,913, as of February 13, 2013) is the only active player close to surpassing Wilt Chamberlain on the NBA career scoring leaders list.

Chamberlain holds numerous NBA all-time records in scoring, rebounding and durability categories. He is the only player to score 100 points in a single NBA game or average more than 40 and 50 points in a season. He also won seven scoring, nine field goal percentage, and eleven rebounding titles, and once even led the league in assists. Chamberlain is the only player in NBA history to average at least 30 points and 20 rebounds per game in a season, a feat he accomplished nine times. He is also the only player to average at least 30 points and 20 rebounds per game over the entire course of his NBA career.

Although he suffered a long string of professional losses, Chamberlain had a successful career, winning two NBA championships, earning four regular-season Most Valuable Player awards, the Rookie of the Year award, one NBA Finals MVP award, and being selected to 13 All-Star Games and ten All-NBA First and Second teams. Chamberlain was subsequently enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978, elected into the NBA’s 35th Anniversary Team of 1980, and chosen as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History of 1996.

Record: 69-13, first place in Pacific Division

There were two big changes for the Lakers, as Bill Sharman took over as coach, and Elgin Baylor retired early in the season because of continuing problems with his knees. The season was going on like any other when the Lakers defeated Baltimore, 110-106, on Nov. 5, 1971. That would be the first of an NBA-record 33 consecutive wins, shattering the old mark of 20 consecutive victories set by Milwaukee the previous season. Milwaukee ended the Lakers’ streak with a 120-104 win on Jan. 9, 1972. The 33-game winning streak is an American pro sports record. The Lakers finished the season 69-13, setting an NBA record for wins in a season that would last until 1995-96, when Chicago won 72 games.

Playoffs: The Lakers stormed through the playoffs, defeating the New York Knicks, 4-1, in the NBA Finals and winning the team’s first championship since moving to L.A.

- via Los Angeles Times

During that span, Gretzky scored 61 goals and had 92 assists for a total of 153 points (exactly 3 points per game).

“The Great One” holds 40 regular season records,15 playoff records, and five All-Star records to make a grand total of 60 NHL records credited to his name.

Upon his retirement, Gretzky owned 61 records; two of them have since been broken, and he has gained another one.

His then-record 15 regular season overtime assists has been broken three times and is currently held by Mark Messier with 18.

He also held the All-Star assist record with 12, but that has been broken as well and is held by Joe Sakic with 16.

Gretzky finished his career with a 1.921 points per game average. Only Mario Lemieux had a better points per game average at that time.

Lemieux came out of retirement in 2000, and his points per game average has dropped to 1.883 before he retired again in the middle of the 2005–2006 season.

However, one of Gretzky’s more impressive feats was his 51-game point scoring streak from Oct. 5, 1983, to Jan. 28, 1984.

via: bleacherreport.com