Ralph Sampson played 9 seasons (1984–1992) for HOU, GS, SAC and WSB. Early Bloomer career, peaking in 1984. Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2012.
Sport-specific career totals from the active profile tables, with VAL shown whenever the sport has a value file.
8 seasons · peak 7.4 in 1984
| Season | Team | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | Virginia | 34 | — | 29.9 | 54.7% | — | 70.2% | 11.2 | 1.1 | 0.8 | 4.6 | 14.9 |
| 1981 | Virginia | 33 | 31 | 32.0 | 55.7% | — | 63.1% |
Career boards only, within NBA · corpus from 2002
Cross-sport prominence: 78.2th percentile among NBA careers — a within-sport percentile, because career value is not comparable across sports.
NBA Age Milestones — Youngest to 20 PPG, 10 RPG and 100 Career VALNBA Breakout Seasons — Biggest Career-High LeapsNBA Career Arc TypesNBA Career Dominance — top-25 in multiple all-time categoriesNBA Clutch Delta — Who Rises in the PlayoffsNBA Compilers vs Comets — Career ShapeNBA Consistency Index — Mr. Reliable vs Boom-BustNBA Era-Adjusted Careers — Greatest Careers on One ScaleNBA Era-Adjusted Seasons — Greatest Seasons in Modern TermsNBA Franchise Mt. Rushmores — Four Faces of Every TeamNBA Greatest Single Seasons by VAL (All Positions)NBA Hall of Very Good — Great Careers on the Hall's DoorstepNBA JourneymenNBA League Leader Marks — Most League-Leading SeasonsNBA LoyaltyNBA Only Club — Statistical Exclusivity
Players whose careers had the same shape — total value, peak, best three-season stretch, length and when the value came — measured with VAL against their own leagues.
Box scores, rosters, and draft data (2002+) come from sportsdataverse's hoopR release. College, international, and pre-2002 per-game rows are backfilled additively from Wikipedia.
Fan Rating
Rate Ralph Sampson — All-Time
VAL (Value Above League) measures each NBA season against that season's league; the dashed line is zero — a season that added nothing above the league's fringe. ● peak · ○ league-best season.
13.2 career wins over 8 seasons · 1 win = 1.73 VAL
Best season · 1984 · +4.3 wins
Latest season · 1991 · −0.5 wins
VAL 3.0 measures each part of a NBA player's game in his sport's own currency against what that season's fringe players produced, converted to team wins with rates fitted from every team-season in the encyclopedia.
How often Ralph Sampson led or placed top-ten on a NBA season board, and the shape of the career — computed from the same per-season boards the year pages publish, so every number is checkable.
Career arc
Early Bloomer
Peaked in the first third of their career — came in fast and hot. Peak 1984, 8 rated seasons.
Swipe sideways for the full stat line →
| 11.5 |
| 1.5 |
| 0.8 |
| 3.1 |
| 17.7 |
| 1982 | Virginia | 32 | 31 | 31.3 | 56.1% | — | 61.5% | 11.4 | 1.2 | 0.6 | 3.1 | 15.8 |
| 1983 | Virginia | 33 | 33 | 30.2 | 60.4% | — | 70.4% | 11.7 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 3.1 | 19.0 |
Wore 4 distinct franchise crests across 9 seasons (1984–1992) — a true nomad. The crest trail: