In looking for an answer to DB's challenge, I did find this which I thought was interesting:

"Steals, Blocks and Turnovers were not recorded in the NBA until 1973"

"Efficiency is a new stat the NBA developed in 2002. It is calculated using the following formula:
(pts + rebs + stls + assts + blks) - ((fga - fgm) + (fta - ftm) + to))/g
Since Efficiency is calculated on a per game basis, it is good at seeing how well a particular player has performed, regardless of the number of games that the player has played during that season."

Hmmm. I didn't realize that the way our league does the scoring is an official NBA statistic.