The Tape
Was Scottie Pippen better than Kevin Durant?
Scottie Pippen, 1987-2004, against Kevin Durant, 2007-present. The numbers levelled to one league, then the call.
Method, stated plainly: scoring is adjusted to a league averaging 114 points per team per game. Rebounds and assists are printed as they were recorded, with the league scoring rate beside them, because a rebound in 1962 came out of a different number of missed shots and we will not pretend one multiplier fixes that. Career lines for active players run through 2024-25.
What the numbers say
Adjusted to a league averaging 114 points a game, Kevin Durant is the bigger scorer: 36.1 a game in 2013-14 against 24.7 for Scottie Pippen in 1993-94. That is a real gap of 11.4 points, not an era illusion — Kevin Durant's league averaged 101 and Scottie Pippen's averaged 101.5.
Away from scoring they are nearly the same player on paper: 8.7 and 7.4 rebounds, 5.6 and 5.5 assists. The separation is in what their teams asked of them, not what they could do.
Scottie Pippen: The template for the modern do-everything forward, and the best perimeter defender of his decade. Kevin Durant: A 7-footer with a guard's jump shot, and the most efficient high-volume scorer of his generation.
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