Before the ladies who check in periodically check back out because this post is about basketball, I would like to give a quick shout out to Ruth and Elaine, two people who, until recently, I had no idea read my blogs.

Interesting fact about Ruth: She's more athletic than her man. (It's true.)

On to basketball.

--With 92 free throws made in 106 attempts after just eight games, Kobe Bryant is on pace to join a pretty select group in NBA history. Only five players have made 800 or more free throws in a season.

Jerry West (1965-66): 840 of 977 (86.0%)
Wilt Chamberlain (1961-62): 835 of 1363 (61.3%)
Michael Jordan (1986-87): 833 of 972 (85.7%)
Adrian Dantley (1983-84): 813 of 946 (85.9%)
Oscar Robertson (1963-64): 800 of 938 (85.3%)

Averaging 11.5 free throws made per game so far, Kobe is on pace to obliterate West's record with 943 total free throws made.

Of course, "on pace" pans out about as often as an athlete's rap album goes platinum, and at this rate, Kobe will be in the infirmary with a broken arm, broken collarbone, broken face, and broken balls by the All-Star break.

Still, I think this is a pretty revealing stat, and shows, possibly, how much Kobe's dominating the ball now that Shaq's gone and he can do whatever the hell he wants. Even though he's only shooting 38% from the field, he's managed to be one of the league's top scorers through eight games because of his renewed willingness to attack the basket.

His wife is a hoochie.

--A shameless attempt at hyping up a Sonic.
NBA Scoring Leaders, points per game (after Tuesday's games)
1. Lebron James, 28.6
2. Kobe Bryant, 28.3
3. Ray Allen, 27.4
4. Dirk Nowitzki, 27.0
5. Allen Iverson, 26.4
6. Amare Stoudemire, 26.1
7. Dwyane Wade, 25.5
8. Kevin Garnett, 24.8
9. Ron Artest, 24.8
Michael Redd, 24.8

Now let's see how those 10 rank in points per shot attempt:

1. Ray Allen, 1.32
2. Amare Stoudemire, 1.251
3. Dwyane Wade, 1.247
4. Dirk Nowitzki, 1.245
5. Ron Artest, 1.20
6. Lebron James, 1.14
7. Michael Redd, 1.12
8. Kobe Bryant, 1.11
9. Kevin Garnett, 1.09
10. Allen Iverson, 1.05

Of course, the PSA stat doesn't take into account a player's ability to create his own shot, so you have to take it with a grain of salt. (A couple of years ago, the immortal Fred Hoiberg led the league in PSA, probably because he only took wide-open, spot-up jumpers. Eric "The Creator" Piatkowski also makes an annual appearance on the PSA leaders list, as does Brent Barry.) That's why I only listed the PSA's of the players with the highest scoring averages, because, obviously, if you score a lot, you have to shoot a lot, too. Make sense?

This list isn't by any means a conclusive way to determine the league's best scorer (mainly because we're only eight games through the season), but I think it does a good job of separating the efficient scoring machines from the players who only score a lot because they shoot so often. Cough! Allen Iverson! Cough!

Ray Allen's obviously not going to keep up that 1.32 PSA -- most #1 scoring options just don't have PSA's THAT high -- but right now he's a much better scorer than the two players ahead of him, Kobe and Lebron, because he does so much without wasting many of his team's possessions.

--Oh, don't mind me, guys. I'm just trying to make the most of the Sonics' annual hot start before they hit their annual midseason wall. As I broke it down for a few of my friends recently: Hot start, mini wall, mini win streak, mini wall, KABOOM. Standard stuff, really.