Shaquille O'Neal vs. Drazen Petrovic: Career Scoring Comparison

We break down the scoring legacies of Drazen Petrovic and Shaquille O'Neal to determine who has the better numbers. Here you can compare their career totals, points per game, games of 40+ points, 50+, etc. and their year-by-year scoring averages side by side, both in the Regular Season and Playoffs.

Shaquille O'Neal is among the NBA's all-time leaders in points and also has one of the highest career averages in league history, and here we compare his scoring stats with those recorded by Drazen Petrovic.

By taking a look at their career numbers for points, the first conclusion one can arrive at is that Shaquille O'Neal has better scoring stats than Drazen Petrovic in averages and totals, both in the regular season and Playoffs. However, we won't stop there and we'll go into detail to analyze what these statistics are made up of, from how many games they had in each threshold (30+ points, 40+, 50+, etc.) to their season-by-season scoring averages.

Career Numbers
Who has the better scoring stats?

Points in the Regular Season

In his 19 NBA regular seasons played, Shaquille O'Neal averages 8.3 points more than Drazen Petrovic in his 4 seasons (23.7 points against 15.4), and he also scored a total of 24,135 points more (28,596 vs. 4,461).

Points Per Game			Seasons
Shaquille O'Neal	23.7	+8.3	19
Drazen Petrovic	15.4		4

Total Points			Seasons
Shaquille O'Neal	28,596	+24,135	19
Drazen Petrovic	4,461		4

Scoring Titles
Shaquille O'Neal	2	+2
Drazen Petrovic	0

Points by Thresholds

Career Shooting Stats Comparison

Year by Year Points Average Comparison

= NBA Scoring Leader

= NBA Champion

Regular Season

Rookie Season	Points per game		Year	Games
Shaquille O'Neal	23.4	+15.8	1993	81
Drazen Petrovic	7.6		1990	77

Season 2	Points per game		Year	Games
Shaquille O'Neal	29.3	+19.1	1994	81
Drazen Petrovic	10.2		1991	61

Season 3	Points per game		Year	Games
Shaquille O'Neal	29.3	+8.7	1995	79
Drazen Petrovic	20.6		1992	82

Season 4	Points per game		Year	Games
Shaquille O'Neal	26.6	+4.3	1996	54
Drazen Petrovic	22.3		1993	70

Shaquille O'Neal's additional seasons:

* Shaquille O'Neal played 16 seasons more than Drazen Petrovic in the NBA. In those years—his seasons 5 to 20, from 1997 to 2011—he averaged 22.0 points in a total of 973 regular season games. During that period, his highest average was 29.7 ppg and his lowest 9.2. In those 16 extra years over Drazen Petrovic, Shaquille O'Neal won 1 scoring title.