Nets: 4 Players You’d Never Believe Led Team in Scoring for a Season

Keith Van Horn looking on during a game against the Houston Rockets in 1999.
Keith Van Horn looking on during a game against the Houston Rockets in 1999.
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1. Kendall Gill

Brooklyn Nets
Brooklyn Nets guard Kendall Gill

Kendall Gill was the No. 5 overall pick of the 1990 NBA Draft.

If you forget who led the Nets in scoring during the 1996-1997 campaign, that’s probably because they were one of the worst teams in the NBA.

In fact, their 28-54 record was good enough for the 13th-best mark in the Eastern Conference.

The honor lies with Kendall Gill, who notched a career-best 21.8 points per game that season. Gill was a former No. 5 overall pick of the Charlotte Hornets back in 1990 and was a pretty serviceable player throughout his 15-year career. He was part of the All-Rookie team and even led the league in steals (2.7) in 1998-99.

What makes his accomplishment of being the Nets top scorer in 1996 so impressive is the fact that they had a whopping seven players — Gill, Jim Jackson, Kerry Kittles, Jayson Williams, Robert Pack, Sam Cassell and Shawn Bradley — average double digits in scoring for the full season.

The Illinois product posted 13.5 points per game for his career, so his status as New Jersey’s leading points contributor is nothing short of a shocker.