NBA
The NBA’s Most Unbreakable Records
From Wilt Chamberlain's 50.4 PPG to John Stockton’s 15,806 AST, these are the most unbreakable NBA records in history
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Only five 20-game victory streaks have occurred in the NBA’s 75-year history, demonstrating how impressive such a run is. Consider the last two to get a sense of what it takes to put something even close together. The 2015-16 Warriors started 24-0 and finished 73-9, making them the best regular-season club in NBA history. The Miami Heat won a whopping 27 games in a row in 2012-13 with LeBron James at the top of his physical abilities and three other HOF’s (Chris Bosh, Ray Allen, and Dywane Wade) playing in sync.
Despite this, the 1971-72 Lakers, headed by Hall of Famers Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, and Gail Goodrich (Elgin Baylor having retired nine games into the season, literally right before the streak began), had a very safe record. Beyond team winning streaks, here are some of the individual records that have survived the test of time and are expected to stand the test of time even when the NBA celebrates its 100th season in a quarter-century.
Wilt Chamberlain’s whole 1961-62 season is basically written in statistical concrete, and it will never be repeated. He had the greatest ever scoring average of 50.4 points per game, and no one came close. Apart from Chamberlain, Michael Jordan is the only other player to average more than 37 points per game, and even he couldn’t get to 40. No one has ever come close to Chamberlain’s 39.5 FGA average.
Wilt’s 48.5 minutes per game average is another record that will live on forever. That season, he was NEVER benched and only missed eight minutes of one game after being ejected in the fourth quarter. Because seven of his games that season went to OT, he averaged more than 48 minutes a game. He was nearly never called for a foul, averaging a career-low 1.5 per game, prioritizing being able to stay on the floor and put the ball in the basket.
From 1987 to 1996, Stockton led the league in assists NINE times in a row. He is approximately 4,000 assists ahead of Jason Kidd, who is second all-time, and 5,000 ahead of Chris Paul, who now sits third all-time. Paul, who is 36 years old, is averaging a league-high 9.9 assists per game this season. To pass Stockton, he’d have to keep that pace up until he was 42 years old, which is obviously very unlikely.
The former Utah Jazz great has all of the four best assist seasons in NBA history and seven of the top ten. He had an inconceivable 31 games with 20 or more assists. Stockton also holds the NBA record for most career steals (3,265), over 600 more than Kidd, who is in second place. The all-time Jazz legend is the only player with 13,000+ career assists or 3,000+ career steals with 15,806 and 3,265 respectively.
LeBron James has scored in double figures during 1,067 consecutive regular-season games and counting. James began his streak in 2007 and has had a few close calls, including last season when he scored a 3-pointer to reach ten points only after seriously spraining his ankle in a game and having to exit. He departed a game earlier this season with an abdominal ailment after scoring exactly 10 points. In 2018, James surpassed Jordan’s old record of 866 consecutive games.
The only other run that came close was James Harden‘s, which lasted 450 games before he had to exit a game due to a hamstring injury last season. During that time, James has only scored less than 10 points in two postseason games, the most recent of which was in 2014 against the Indiana Pacers, when he scored seven points. Keep tracking it in sports betting in NJ to see how far the King can extend this record.
Mark Eaton‘s season-long record of 5.56 blocks per game is also improbable, but Hakeem Olajuwon‘s total of 3,830 is massive. He’s almost 500 blocks ahead of second-placed Dikembe Mutombo, who is closer to ninth place on the list than first. To catch up to Olajuwon by replicating his 3.1 BPG average, a player would have to play every game for 15 seasons. Only three active players have averaged three blocks in a season at least once (Ibaka, Turner, & Whiteside).
From 1986 to 2001, A.C. Green‘s streak of 1,192 consecutive games played spanned 16 seasons with four different teams. From 1972 to 1982, Green passed Randy Smith, who played 906 games in a row. Joe Ingles of the Utah Jazz has the longest recent record, appearing in 384 straight games from 2015 to 2021. From 2011 to 2017, Tristan Thompson was a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers for 447 straight games.
Scott Skiles‘ record of 30 assists in one game has already endured the test of time, dating back to December 30, 1990, and has stayed in the record books for more than 30 years. He was locked on 29 assists for six minutes in the fourth quarter, matching Kevin Porter‘s mark from 1978, until earning the record-breaking dime with a minute to play.
Skiles added 22 points that night, averaging 8.4 assists per game that season, and subsequently added a 20-assist game later that year. The closest person to Skiles’ record came in 2017 when New Orleans’ Rajon Rondo posted a 25-assist game. Only Rondo and Russell Westbrook have had more than 22 assists during one game over the last decade showing how truly unbreakable this record is alongside the others mentioned on the list.
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