Reader question:
In this sentence from an AP story on the NBA (James' Triple-Double Leads Cavs Over Raptors, November 24, 2007) – "If he continues with this scoring and stats, I would hate to see the numbers at the end," Cleveland teammate Damon Jones said. "They will be off the charts" – what's "off the charts".
My comments:
"Off the charts" means exceptional. "The charts" is a standard list of achievements people make, such as the pop music charts. People whose records make the charts are obviously very good, i.e. his latest song has stayed in the Top 10 charts for seven consecutive weeks. When something or somebody is "off the charts", they"re said to be extra-standard, exceptionally great.
In the case of our discussion, Jones was simply marveling at teammate LeBron James and his extraordinary numbers (stats) early in the NBA season. James had just scored 37 points to go with 12 rebounds and 12 assists (a triple double, a rarity these days) in the Cavaliers' 111-108 win over the Raptors. What Jones meant by "they'll be off the charts" is if James kept on having these high numbers till the end of season, those numbers would be phenomenal, unprecedented, uncharted, unbelievable, unheard of, beyond compare.
James is not new to getting "off-the-charts" numbers, of course. In fact, in his NBA debut four years ago, he scored 25 points prompting Marc Stein to write in ESPN.com, "James' Start Goes off the Charts". In that game, James scored 25 points. In comparison, Kevin Garnett, another superstar, had 9 points in his first game as a starter. Kobe Bryant had 12 and Tracy McGrady had 13. Even Michael Jordan, star of all stars, had just 16 points in his debut (back in 1984). Hence, Stein's off-the-charts assessment.
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