Kobe Bryant climbs to fifth all-time in minutes played

Kobe Bryant tries to steal the ball away from Atlanta's DeMarre Carroll during the first half of Monday's 114-100 loss to the Hawks. Pau Gasol has a hand in the play from behind Carroll.

By Eric Pincus

Dec. 17, 2013 4:30 PM PT

With 32 minutes logged in a loss on Monday night to the Atlanta Hawks, Kobe Bryant climbed to fifth on the NBA’s list of players with the most career minutes played, regular and postseason combined.

At 54,176 minutes, Bryant is behind just Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (66,297), Karl Malone (62,759), Jason Kidd (56,199) and Wilt Chamberlain (55,418).

Of the top five in minutes played, all but Kidd played for the Lakers for at least one season.

Bryant missed 19 games to start the season while recovering from surgery in April on his Achilles’ tendon. If he continued to average 29 minutes a night without missing any of the Lakers’ 58 remaining games, Bryant would finish the regular season at 55,858 minutes played, surpassing Chamberlain.

The Lakers are in 12th place in the Western Conference heading into Tuesday night’s visit to the Memphis Grizzlies.

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Email Eric Pincus at eric.pincus@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @EricPincus.