LeBron James Career Minutes

Data

This plot uses the lebron_mp data frame from the gcubed library. This data frame has columns MPR and MPP for minutes played by LeBron James during the regular season and playoffs respectively of the corresponding season.

The original data source is Basketball Reference.¹

library(gcubed)
head(lebron_mp)

## # A tibble: 6 x 3
##   Season    MPR   MPP
##   <chr>   <dbl> <dbl>
## 1 2003-04  3122     0
## 2 2004-05  3388     0
## 3 2005-06  3361   604
## 4 2006-07  3190   893
## 5 2007-08  3027   552
## 6 2008-09  3054   580

Code for plot

First, add columns for cumulative career minutes for both playoffs and the regular season.

library(dplyr)

df <- mutate(lebron_mp, Playoffs = cumsum(MPP),
                    `Reg Season` = cumsum(MPR))
head(df)

## # A tibble: 6 x 5
##   Season    MPR   MPP Playoffs `Reg Season`
##   <chr>   <dbl> <dbl>    <dbl>        <dbl>
## 1 2003-04  3122     0        0         3122
## 2 2004-05  3388     0        0         6510
## 3 2005-06  3361   604      604         9871
## 4 2006-07  3190   893     1497        13061
## 5 2007-08  3027   552     2049        16088
## 6 2008-09  3054   580     2629        19142

library(tidyr)
df <- gather(df, key = RegPlayoffs, value = MP, Playoffs:`Reg Season`) 

head(df)

## # A tibble: 6 x 5
##   Season    MPR   MPP RegPlayoffs    MP
##   <chr>   <dbl> <dbl> <chr>       <dbl>
## 1 2003-04  3122     0 Playoffs        0
## 2 2004-05  3388     0 Playoffs        0
## 3 2005-06  3361   604 Playoffs      604
## 4 2006-07  3190   893 Playoffs     1497
## 5 2007-08  3027   552 Playoffs     2049
## 6 2008-09  3054   580 Playoffs     2629

First version of the plot:

library(ggplot2)
library(scales)

lbj_plt <- ggplot(df, aes(x = Season, y = MP, fill = RegPlayoffs)) + 
  geom_bar(stat = "identity") + 
  scale_fill_manual(values = c("#D9717D", "#4DB6D0")) + 
  scale_y_continuous(label=comma, limits = c(0,70000)) + 
  theme_bw() + #change the background colour to white
  theme(panel.grid.major = element_blank(), panel.grid.minor = element_blank(), 
        axis.text.x = element_text(angle = 90),
        plot.title = element_text(size = 18, face = "bold", hjust = 0.5),
        legend.title = element_blank()
        )+ 
  ylab("Cumulative Minutes") + 
  ggtitle("LeBron James Career Minutes Played")

lbj_plt

Adding annotations for other significant NBA players:

lbj_plt <- lbj_plt + 
  geom_segment(x = 12, xend = 17, y=66297, yend = 66297, linetype="dashed") + 
  geom_text(aes(14,66297,label = "Kareem Abdul-Jabbar", vjust = -1)) + 
  geom_segment(x = 8, xend = 17, y = 62759, yend = 62759, linetype="dashed") + 
  geom_text(aes(9,62759,label = "Karl Malone", vjust = -1)) +
  geom_segment(x = 5, xend = 17, y = 57278, yend = 57278, linetype="dashed") + 
  geom_text(aes(6,57278,label = "Kobe Bryant", vjust = -1)) +
  geom_segment(x = 5, xend = 17, y = 56738, yend = 56738, linetype="dashed") + 
  geom_text(aes(6,56738,label = "Tim Duncan", vjust = 1.5)) +
  geom_segment(x = 1, xend = 17, y = 50016, yend = 50016, linetype="dashed") + 
  geom_text(aes(2.5,50016,label = "Shaquille O'Neal", vjust = -1)) +
  geom_segment(x = 1, xend = 17, y = 48485, yend = 48485, linetype="dashed") + 
  geom_text(aes(2.4,48485,label = "Michael Jordan", vjust = 1.5)) +
  geom_segment(x = 7.2, xend = 17, y = 41329, yend = 41329, linetype="dashed") + 
  geom_text(aes(8,41329,label = "Larry Bird", vjust = -1)) +
  geom_segment(x = 7.2, xend = 17, y = 40783, yend = 40783, linetype="dashed") +
  geom_text(aes(8.5,40783,label = "Magic Johnson", vjust = 1.5)) 

lbj_plt

Code for complete plot

lbj_plt <- ggplot(df, aes(x = Season, y = MP, fill = RegPlayoffs)) + 
  geom_bar(stat = "identity") + 
  scale_fill_manual(values = c("#D9717D", "#4DB6D0")) + 
  scale_y_continuous(label=comma, limits = c(0,70000)) + 
  theme_bw() + #change the background colour to white
  theme(panel.grid.major = element_blank(), panel.grid.minor = element_blank(), 
        axis.text.x = element_text(angle = 90),
        plot.title = element_text(size = 18, face = "bold", hjust = 0.5),
        legend.title = element_blank()
        )+ 
  ylab("Cumulative Minutes") + 
  ggtitle("LeBron James Career Minutes Played") + 
  geom_segment(x = 12, xend = 17, y=66297, yend = 66297, linetype="dashed") + 
  geom_text(aes(14,66297,label = "Kareem Abdul-Jabbar", vjust = -1)) + 
  geom_segment(x = 8, xend = 17, y = 62759, yend = 62759, linetype="dashed") + 
  geom_text(aes(9,62759,label = "Karl Malone", vjust = -1)) +
  geom_segment(x = 5, xend = 17, y = 57278, yend = 57278, linetype="dashed") + 
  geom_text(aes(6,57278,label = "Kobe Bryant", vjust = -1)) +
  geom_segment(x = 5, xend = 17, y = 56738, yend = 56738, linetype="dashed") + 
  geom_text(aes(6,56738,label = "Tim Duncan", vjust = 1.5)) +
  geom_segment(x = 1, xend = 17, y = 50016, yend = 50016, linetype="dashed") + 
  geom_text(aes(2.5,50016,label = "Shaquille O'Neal", vjust = -1)) +
  geom_segment(x = 1, xend = 17, y = 48485, yend = 48485, linetype="dashed") + 
  geom_text(aes(2.4,48485,label = "Michael Jordan", vjust = 1.5)) +
  geom_segment(x = 7.2, xend = 17, y = 41329, yend = 41329, linetype="dashed") + 
  geom_text(aes(8,41329,label = "Larry Bird", vjust = -1)) +
  geom_segment(x = 7.2, xend = 17, y = 40783, yend = 40783, linetype="dashed") +
  geom_text(aes(8.5,40783,label = "Magic Johnson", vjust = 1.5))

I did do some data manipulation to arrive at only these columns. More complete statistics for LeBron James’ career are in the lebron and lebron_playoffs data sets also contained in the gcubed package. The career totals for the other players in the plot were also sourced from their respective player pages on Basketball Reference.↩