Kareem Abdul-Jabbar vs. Josh Giddey Season by Season Comparison

Side by side comparison of each NBA season of Josh Giddey and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, from their rookie seasons to their last year played, in chronological order with awards, stats, championships and playoff performance of their teams every year.

Who had the better rookie season? Who had best stats in their 10th season? Who won a championship first? These questions and many others, are answered here.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played 20 years in the NBA, 16 more than Josh Giddey, who played 4. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had the first of his seasons in 1969-70, while Josh Giddey had his rookie season in 2021-22. With that starting point, here you can take a look at each of their seasons side by side and compare how their careers evolved in achievements, awards and championships won, the stats they recorded both in the Regular Season and the Playoffs and how their teams performed in the postseason.

Rookie Season
	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	Josh Giddey
Season	1969-70	2021-22
Team	Milwaukee Bucks	Oklahoma City Thunder
Honors & Awards	All-NBA Second Team	-
	All-Defensive Second Team	-
	Rookie of the Year	-
	All-Rookie First Team	-
	-	All-Rookie Second Team
	All-Star Game	-
Playoffs	Bucks Lost East Div Finals	Did Not Play

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Rookie Season Stats Comparison
Regular Season Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	82	43.1	28.8	-	-	14.5	4.1	-	-	-	3.5	11.4	22.1	.518	-	-	-	5.9	9.1	.653
difference:	+28	+11.6	+16.3			+6.7	+2.3				-1.9	+6.2	+9.7	+.099				+4.9	+7.6	+.056
Josh Giddey	54	31.5	12.5	1.8	6.0	7.8	6.4	0.9	0.4	3.2	1.6	5.2	12.4	.419	1.0	3.9	.263	1.0	1.5	.709
Playoffs Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	10	43.5	35.2	-	-	16.8	4.1	-	-	-	2.5	13.9	24.5	.567	-	-	-	7.4	10.1	.733
Josh Giddey	DNP	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Season 2
	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	Josh Giddey
Season	1970-71	2022-23
Team	Milwaukee Bucks	Oklahoma City Thunder
Honors & Awards	Finals MVP	-
	Season MVP	-
	All-NBA First Team	-
	All-Defensive Second Team	-
	Scoring Leader	-
	All-Star Game	-
Playoffs	NBA Champion	Did Not Play

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2nd Season Stats Comparison
Regular Season Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	82	40.1	31.7	-	-	16.0	3.3	-	-	-	3.2	13.0	22.5	.577	-	-	-	5.7	8.3	.690
difference:	+6	+8.9	+15.1			+8.1	+2.9				-1.3	+5.9	+7.8	+.095				+4.3	+6.4	+.041
Josh Giddey	76	31.2	16.6	1.9	5.9	7.9	6.2	0.8	0.4	2.8	1.9	7.1	14.7	.482	1.0	3.1	.325	1.4	1.9	.731
Playoffs Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	14	41.2	26.6	-	-	17.0	2.5	-	-	-	3.2	10.9	21.1	.515	-	-	-	4.9	7.2	.673
Josh Giddey	DNP	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Season 3
	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	Josh Giddey
Season	1971-72	2023-24
Team	Milwaukee Bucks	Oklahoma City Thunder
Honors & Awards	Season MVP	-
	All-NBA First Team	-
	Scoring Leader	-
	All-Star Game	-
Playoffs	Bucks Lost West Conf Finals	Thunder Lost West Conf Semis

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3rd Season Stats Comparison
Regular Season Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	81	44.2	34.8	-	-	16.6	4.6	-	-	-	2.9	14.3	24.9	.574	-	-	-	6.2	9.0	.689
difference:	+1	+19.1	+22.5			+10.2	+0.2				-1.5	+9.3	+14.3	+.099				+4.9	+7.4	+.117
Josh Giddey	80	25.1	12.3	1.4	5.0	6.4	4.8	0.7	0.6	2.1	1.4	5.0	10.6	.475	1.0	3.0	.337	1.3	1.6	.806
Playoffs Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	11	46.4	28.7	-	-	18.2	5.1	-	-	-	3.2	12.6	28.9	.437	-	-	-	3.5	4.9	.704
difference:	+1	+28.3	+20.0			+14.6	+3.0				-2.3	+9.2	+21.4	+.016				+2.8	+4.1	+.171
Josh Giddey	10	18.1	8.7	0.7	2.9	3.6	2.1	0.2	0.4	1.2	0.9	3.4	7.5	.453	1.2	3.4	.353	0.7	0.8	.875

Season 4
	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	Josh Giddey
Season	1972-73	2024-25
Team	Milwaukee Bucks	Chicago Bulls
Honors & Awards	All-NBA First Team	-
	All-Star Game	-
Playoffs	Bucks Lost West Conf Semis	Did Not Play

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4th Season Stats Comparison
Regular Season Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	76	42.8	30.2	-	-	16.1	5.0	-	-	-	2.7	12.9	23.3	.554	-	-	-	4.3	6.1	.713
difference:	+6	+12.6	+15.6			+8.0	+2.2				-1.0	+7.6	+11.9	+.089				+1.8	+2.9	+.068
Josh Giddey	70	30.2	14.6	1.8	6.3	8.1	7.2	1.2	0.6	2.9	1.7	5.3	11.4	.465	1.5	4.0	.378	2.5	3.2	.781
Playoffs Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	6	46.0	22.8	-	-	16.2	2.8	-	-	-	4.3	9.8	23.0	.428	-	-	-	3.2	5.8	.543
Josh Giddey	DNP	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Additional Years
* Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played 16 seasons more than Josh Giddey in the NBA. In that period—his seasons 5 to 20, from 1974 to 1989—Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played in 14 Playoffs and won 5 NBA Championships. In those 16 extra years over Josh Giddey, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar got these achievements:
Honors & Awards	1 Finals MVP 4 Season MVP 7 All-NBA First Team 4 All-NBA Second Team 5 All-Defensive First Team 4 All-Defensive Second Team 1 Rebounds Leader 4 Blocks Leader 15 All-Star Game