Insignificant Stat of the Week

I read this article tonight about Kobe Bryant. Apparently, he reached 17,000 points in his NBA career faster than anyone else in the league's history--28 years 86 days old.

C'mon. Where do statisticians come up with numbers like this? 17,000 points? 86 days?

Can we get any more arbitrary than considering 17,000 points as a milestone?

Yup. We sure can.

The Associated Press article lists other NBA players and their respective ages when the reached 17,000 points: Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Shaquille O'Neal.

The article notes: "Chamberlain and Jordan did so at 28, but Chamberlain was 16 days older than Bryant and Jordan was 196 days older. Robertson, Abdul-Jabbar and O'Neal were all 29."

Whatever...wake me up when Larry Bird comes out of retirement.