I was checking out databaseBasketball.com during lunch, and tried a search for all time NBA scoring leaders PER 48 MINUTES.  The top ten, not surprisingly when you think about it, was entirely made up of guys who had a cup of coffee and hit a couple of shots.  (The all time leader is the immortal Worthy Patterson.)  The top ten played a total of 31 minutes in their NBA careers COMBINED.

Among players who played at least ten games, the all time leader is Travis "Machine Gun" Grant, who averaged 39 points per 48 minutes in the 33 games of his one NBA season.  When you consider that he is the all time scoring leader in college basketball history (he is the only college player to top 4,000 points, which Division II or no is pretty impressive) and that he averaged 25 points per game the one season he got a chance to start in the ABA (his other 2 ABA seasons he topped 30 points per 48 minutes in more limited time) it makes you wonder why the heck he never got more of a chance.  Jeez, even if he couldn't guard his grandmother you'd think a lot of teams could have found a spot for him to score some points off the bench.

Another surprise in the top ten among those who played at least 10 NBA games is Ron Bonham, who averaged 33.7 points per 48 minutes in 76 NBA games.  He was also an consensus first team All American and a national champion at Cincinnati, and when he finished his high school career was the all time leading scorer in Indiana high school basketball history!  Why didn't HE play more?

DERRICK Gervin averaged 30 points per 48 minutes in 77 NBA games.

The top 50 players who played at least 100 NBA games are as follows. 

1.      Michael Jordan          37.8 per 48 minutes
2.      George Gervin           37.5
3.      Freeman Williams        34.4 (#2 all time Division I scorer, twice led nation in scoring)
4.      Shaquille O'Neal                34.3
5.      John Drew               33.6
6.      Dominique Wilkins       33.6
7.      David Thompson          33.2
8.      Jerry West              33.1
9.      Elgin Baylor            32.8
10.     Bob Pettit              32.7
11.     Adrian Dantley          32.6
12.     Walter Davis            32.5
13.     Karl Malone             32.3
14.     Alex English            32.3
15.     Kareem Abdul Jabbar     32.1
16.     Bernard King            32.1
17.     World Free              32.0
18.     Mark Aguirre            32.0
19.     Bob McAdoo              31.8
20.     Allen Iverson           31.7
21.     Billy Ray Bates         31.7
22.     Wilt Chamberlain        31.5
23.     Dan Issel               31.5
24.     Pete Maravich           31.5
25.     Robert Hawkins          31.4
26.     Kiki Vandeweghe 31.3
27.     Billy McGill            30.9
28.     Julius Erving           30.7
29.     Kobe Bryant             30.7
30.     Rick Barry              30.6
31.     Tracy McGrady           30.5
32.     Sam Jones               30.5
33.     John Williamson         30.4
34.     Vince Carter            30.4
35.     Tommy Heinsohn  30.4
36.     Larry Bird              30.4
37.     Clyde Lovellette                30.1
38.     Cliff Hagan             29.7
39.     Flynn Robinson          29.7
40.     Quintin Dailey          29.5
41.     Mike Mitchell           29.4
42.     Paul Westphal           29.4
43.     Ricky Pierce            29.3
44.     Patrick Ewing           29.3
45.     Paul Pierce             29.3
46.     Hakeem Olajuwon 29.2
47.     Oscar Robertson 29.2
48.     Paul Arizin             29.2
49.     Billy Cunningham        29.2
50.     Moses Malone            29.2

Lou Hudson (28.9) and Kevin McHale (27.6) both made the top 100.  Minutes played were not recorded during George Mikan's first three years in the league.

Even more than Travis Grant, I wonder Billy Ray Bates, Robert Hawkins, Flynn Robinson and Freeman Williams couldn't get more playing time.  (Did they have personal/behavioral problems like Quintin Dailey?)