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Youngest NBA Scoring King, a Jew, Unseated

Durant to take top spot from 1948’s Zaslofsky

by
Marc Tracy
April 14, 2010
Durant, in February.(Nick Laham/Getty Images)
Durant, in February.(Nick Laham/Getty Images)

If you notice an uncharacteristic lack of sports-related posts for the rest of this week and all of next, it is because I will be on vacation, and The Scroll will be in the hands of people who spend their time in more productive ways than watching pituitary cases hurling balls at or near each other. But before I go …

When the NBA regular season concludes tonight, Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder will be 21 years, 197 days old, and will become the youngest scoring champion in NBA history. (The Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James will take second.)

And who, you ask, is the current youngest scoring champion? That would be Max Zaslofsky, who won the 1948 scoring title at the tender age of 22 years, 105 days. Zaslofsky, who would go on to play for the New York Knicks, was one of two Jewish players (the other was Dolph Schayes) who was named one of the 25 best of the NBA’s first 25 years.

Records are made only to be broken. Mazel tov, Mr. Durant.

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.