Last week, LeBron James crossed the 50,000-point scoring mark (combining regular season and playoffs) and created a club that could only include one member — even decades into the future.
Thursday night, Stephen Curry can create another one-man category. He needs just two 3-pointers to become the first player in NBA history to reach 4,000 in a career. Only one other player in history has even made 3,000 — and that’s LA Clippers’ star James Harden. Harden is 35 and nearly 900 3s behind Curry, who turns 37 on March 14. Getting to 4,000 alone would be difficult for Harden, who has averaged roughly 200 treys per season. But catching Curry? Probably impossible. Curry has added nearly 90 to his career lead over Harden just this season.
When James and Curry retire, the milestones they’ve established could well be headed for immortality. Here is a look at some other individual records across the NBA that will likely stand the test of time.
Season
• Wilt Chamberlain’s entire 1961-62 season is essentially written in statistical concrete, never to be duplicated. He averaged 50.4 points per game, the highest ever — and no one is close. Michael Jordan is the only player besides Chamberlain to average more than 37. Chamberlain averaged 39.5 shots per game, the highest ever — and no one is close. No one else has averaged more than 30. Elgin Baylor once averaged 29.7, Jordan and Allen Iverson each averaged 27 once.
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Another mark sure to stand forever is his 48.5 minutes per game average. He was never substituted out that season; he only missed eight minutes of one game after he was ejected in the fourth quarter. He reached an average of more than 48 minutes because he played seven overtime games. He was miraculously almost never in foul trouble, averaging a career-low 1.5 a game.
• Rasheed Wallace’s 41 technical fouls. Game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference finals lives in infamy in Portland because of controversial whistles. Wallace’s relationship with officials went from bad to worse, and it played out the following season as he racked up a record 41 technicals on the way to 18 ejections. In 2006, the NBA put in new rules that called for suspensions once a player reaches 16 for a season, and it has probably iced Wallace’s record for good. He’s third all time in technical fouls with 317 over his 16 seasons, behind only Karl Malone, who had 332, and Charles Barkley, who had 329. On the other end of the spectrum, Mike Conley has played 1,157 games over 18 seasons and has never been called for a technical.
• Walt Bellamy’s 88 games. In 1968-69, Bellamy started with the New York Knicks and played 35 games. Then he was traded to the Detroit Pistons and, because of an unbalanced scheduling quirk, played 53 games there to reach 88 for the season. Players have played more than 82 games 42 times, most recently when Buddy Hield played 84 between the Pacers and Sixers last season. Second to Bellamy is Tom Henderson, who played 87 games between the Bullets and Hawks in 1976-77.
Career
• Moses Malone’s 6,731 offensive rebounds. When you include his ABA numbers, it’s 7,382. That’s 2,500 more than second-place Artis Gilmore and 2,100 more than Robert Parish when looking at only the NBA numbers. He has the two highest offensive rebounding games in history with 21 and 19. The current active leader in offensive rebounds is Andre Drummond, who is still 3,600 behind Malone.
• John Stockton’s 15,806 career assists. Stockton led the league in assists nine consecutive seasons from 1987 to 1996. He is more than 3,000 ahead of No. 2 all time, current San Antonio Spur Chris Paul. In his 20th season, Paul will turn 40 in May. He’s averaged 9.3 assists per game for his career and he’d have to maintain that production, without missing a game, for nearly five more seasons to catch Stockton. Stockton owns the four highest assist seasons in history and seven of the top 10. He had 31 games of 20 assists or more. Stockton is also the all-time leader with 3,265 career steals, which is almost 600 more than Kidd at No. 2.
Wednesday, March 12Thunder at Celtics, 7:30 p.m. (ESPN)Timberwolves at Nuggets, 10 p.m. (ESPN)
Saturday, March 15Knicks at Warriors, 8:30 p.m. (ABC)
Sunday, March 16Magic at Cavaliers, 1 p.m. (ABC)Suns at Lakers, 3:30 p.m. (ABC)Thunder at Bucks, 9 p.m. (ESPN)
All times Eastern
• A.C. Green’s 1,192 consecutive games. The run lasted 16 consecutive seasons with four different teams from 1986 to 2001. Green passed Randy Smith, who played 906 consecutive games from 1972 to 1982. The New York Knicks’ Mikal Bridges, who is 28, has never missed a game in his career, having played 539 consecutive games over the past seven years. To catch Green, he’d have to do it for nearly the next eight full seasons.
• LeBron James’ 1,290 consecutive regular-season games (and counting) of double-digit scoring. James started the streak in 2007 and has had a few close calls, including last October when he only had seven points with two minutes left in a game against the Suns; he made a late 3-pointer to extend the record. In 2021, he hit a 3-pointer to reach 10 points after badly spraining his ankle in a game and then leaving for the locker room. James passed Michael Jordan, who had the previous record of 866 consecutive games, in 2018. The only ongoing streak that was close belonged to James Harden, but that ended last season at 450 games after he had to leave a game with a hamstring injury. James has scored fewer than 10 points in two playoff games during the span, the last in 2014 when he scored seven points against the Indiana Pacers.
• Hakeem Olajuwon’s 3,830 blocks. Mark Eaton’s record of 5.56 blocks per game in a season is far-fetched, too, but Olajuwon’s number is enormous. He’s more than 500 ahead of second-place Dikembe Mutombo, who is closer to ninth place than first on the list. In case you’re wondering if Victor Wembanyama could make a run at this, well, he’s off to a good start. Wembanyama has averaged 3.7 blocks per game over his first two seasons. He would need to keep that average, without missing a game, for the next 13 seasons to pass Olajuwon.
Game
• Scott Skiles’ 30 assists. This record has already stood the test of time, as it’s been on the books for more than 30 years dating to Dec. 30, 1990. He was stuck on 29 assists, the record held by Kevin Porter from 1978, for six minutes in the fourth quarter before getting the record dime with a minute to play. Skiles, who averaged 8.4 assists per game that season and later had a 20-assist game, scored 22 points that night (and the Orlando Magic scored a team-record 155 points in a win over Denver). The closest anyone has come recently was in 2017, when Rajon Rondo had a 25-assist game with New Orleans. Over the past 10 seasons, Rondo and Russell Westbrook are the only players to have more than 22 assists in a game.
• Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 points. The 63-year anniversary of this feat, accomplished March 2, 1962, just passed, and there’s an excellent chance the 100th anniversary will come without it being touched. Chamberlain had a 78-point game earlier that season (in a triple-overtime loss to the Lakers when Elgin Baylor put in 63 points) and two 70-point games the following year. The key was at the line, where he was 28 of 32. He was a career 51% free throw shooter, and it was easily the best-percentage free throw night for him in that magical season. Second-most ever, of course, were the 81 points Kobe Bryant scored in 2006 taking 17 fewer shots (46 to Wilt’s 63). Since Bryant, only Luka Doncic (73), Donovan Mitchell (71), Damian Lillard (71), Devin Booker (70) and Joel Embiid (70 have been the only players to crack 70.
• Wilt Chamberlain’s 55 rebounds. This happened Nov. 24, 1960, in a game Chamberlain later said was one of the most exhausting of his career. The opponent was Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics, who won by three points. It broke Russell’s record of 51 rebounds set the previous season. Chamberlain and Russell have the 12 highest-rebound games in history. Only two other players have had 40 (Nate Thurmond and Jerry Lucas) in history. There have only been a few 30-rebound games in the past two decades, the most recent one being Jusuf Nurkic, who had 31 with the Suns last season.
