Kobe Bryant Set An NBA Record For Failure, Because Of His Greatness

Only the greats can fail this often, for this long.

Playing in his 19th NBA season, Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard Kobe Bryant broke the NBA record for missed field goal attempts in a career, passing the previous mark of 13,417 missed shots set by Boston Celtics legend John Havlicek. Bryant passed Havlicek with his 13th errant shot against the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday night. The record-setting miss came on a fadeaway jump shot in the fourth quarter with the Lakers trying to rally for just their second win of the 2014-2015 season. Bryant finished with a game-high 28 points on 10-26 shooting from the field in the Lakers' 107-102 loss.

"I don't care about it, to be honest with you," Bryant said of the record after the defeat, via ESPN.com. "It is what it is. I remember when I was a kid and I watched Michael shoot 49 times in an NBA Finals game. Can you imagine if I did that and lost? Puts things in perspective."

Putting the significance of the all-time miss record in perspective is the group of players near the top of the list: Following Bryant and Havlicek are Hall of Famers Elvin Hayes, Karl Malone, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Michael Jordan, according to the LA Times.

Bryant entered the season with 31,700 career points thanks to all of the shots he has made. That total was good for fourth on the NBA's all-time scoring list, behind Abdul-Jabbar (38,387 points), Malone (36,928 points) and Jordan (32,292 points).

“Well, I’m a shooting guard,” Bryant told reporters on Tuesday, via the OC Register, “who’s played 19 years.”