NBA players who never came off the bench
It is fairly uncommon to see players come into the league and start right away – let alone play their entire careers without coming off the bench. Kobe Bryant spent most of his rookie year for the Lakers as a reserve for Eddie Jones. Even LeBron James came off the bench for the Cavaliers once. During the 2007-08 season, James returned after missing five games with a sprained index finger in what would be his only game not starting.
HoopsHype used statistics and data from Basketball-Reference dating back to the 1981-82 season to put together a list of the Top 7 players who we know for sure have not come off the bench at any point of their NBA careers. That list had Chris Paul at No. 1 coming into this season, but that top spot belongs now to Damian Lillard.
Damian Lillard: 832 games
Kyrie Irving: 747 games
Regular season: 673 games
Playoffs: 74 games
Jayson Tatum: 535 games
Regular season: 441 games
Playoffs: 94 games
Karl-Anthony Towns: 529 games
Regular season: 513 games
Playoffs: 16 games
Joel Embiid: 450 games
Regular season: 397 games
Playoffs: 53 games
Trae Young: 383 games
Regular season: 356 games
Playoffs: 27 games
Luka Doncic: 360 games
Regular season: 332 games
Playoffs: 28 games