Are any of these records
untouchable?



Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's scoring
record of 38,387 points:

It could easily be several
decades before this one is
challenged. The only
players in the league with a
reasonable shot at it are all
in their first few seasons:
Carmelo Anthony, Gilbert
Arenas, LeBron James, Amare
Stoudemire, and Dwyane Wade.
Kobe Bryant could do it if he
kept up his current pace for
8-10 years, but it's not very
likely. He just finished his
11th season, and is only 28.
If he plays 8 years and
doesn't miss any games
(instead of the average of 8
per year he's missed as a
starter), he'd have to average
almost 29 points per game.
Even though he's young, he
probably won't get that many
points as a 34 or 35 year old.
And it's likely the Lakers
will get one player sometime
in the next 8 years who can
also score, lowering Kobe's
average.
Here's what it takes to score
38388 points, assuming the
player never misses any games
in his career:
15 Years=1230 Games=31.21 Avg.
16 Years=1312 Games=29.26 Avg.
17 Years=1394 Games=27.54 Avg.
18 Years=1476 Games=26.01 Avg.
19 Years=1558 Games=24.64 Avg.
20 Years=1640 Games=23.41 Avg.
Of the 10 players with career
scoring averages in at least 10
seasons that are higher than
Abdul-Jabbar, the average
number of 82-game seasons
completed is 12.1. So the
average career of big scorers
isn't long enough, and the
circumstances that led
Abdul-Jabbar to keep playing 20
years (accountants stealing his
money) probably won't happen
again. And there aren't too
many players like Malone who
play their career virtually
injury- free. Here are the
players with career scoring
averages over 24 points
(400 game minimum):
Name             Avg. Years *
Michael Jordan   30.12  15 13.1
Wilt Chamberlain 30.07  14 12.7
Allen Iverson    27.73  12 10.1
Elgin Baylor     27.36  14 10.3
LeBron James     27.34   5  4.8
Jerry West       27.03  14 11.4
Bob Pettit       26.36  11  9.7
George Gervin    26.18  10  9.6
Oscar Robertson  25.68  14 12.7
Shaquille O'Neal 25.23  16 12.7
Karl Malone      25.02  19 18.0
Kobe Bryant      24.96  12 10.6
D. Wilkins       24.83  15 13.1
K. Abdul-Jabbar  24.61  20 19.0
Carmelo Anthony  24.44   5  4.6
Larry Bird       24.29  13 10.9
Adrian Dantley   24.27  15 11.6
Pete Maravich    24.24  10  8.0
Dwyane Wade      23.92   5  3.8
Vince Carter     23.83  10  8.5

* 82-Game Seasons (Games/82)

There are only 5 players in
history who've played the
equivalent of 16 seasons,
including Malone and Stockton,
and nobody's had a high enough
average. The only two players
with a career average high
enough to do it in 16 years
(Jordan and Chamberlain) both
played around 13 seasons
worth of games. Since Karl
Malone didn't do it, it will
be at least 10 years before
anyone can come close to it.



Wilt Chamberlain's rebounding
record of 23,924:

As amazing as John Stockton's
assist record is, Wilt's
rebounding record will be
much harder to break. I don't
think anyone will ever get
within 5000 rebounds of
him. Nobody is going to average
22.9 rebounds per game ever
again. Robert Parish has played
more games (1611) than any
other player. He would've had
to average 14.9 rebounds per
game, well above his 9.1 career
average. Dennis Rodman had
several years in his career
higher than 14.9, but his
career average is 13.1, which
is the highest career average
of any player in the last 20
years. For him to get Wilt's
record, he would've had to play
over twice as many games as he
played in his career. The
highest current career averages
are 11.8 by Tim Duncan, 11.5 by
Shaquille O'Neal, 11.2 by Kevin
Garnett, and 10.4 by Dikembe
Mutombo. At that rate, it would
take 1945 games, almost 24
82-game seasons. Only 5 players
in history have averages over
14.0 per game, and none played
any of their careers in the
last 25 seasons, and the
average number of career games
of those players is 919, or
11.2 82-game seasons. Only 16
other players have half the
number of rebounds Wilt has.
Nobody will EVER challenge this
one. It's kind of like Jim
Brown's per carry rushing
record in the NFL. He would be
a super-star in the NFL today,
but he wouldn't average over 5
yards per carry because he and
everybody else that comes into
the league now and in the
future wouldn't have the luxury
of playing against a lot of
fatter, slower guys like he
did. It's the same for Wilt:
He was the tallest player in
the league most of his career,
the average size of all the
other players was a lot shorter
than today, and he was much
more agile than almost every
other player over 6'6" in the
league, which wouldn't be true
today. Nobody will ever average
50.4 points, or 27.2 rebounds
in one season, or lead the
league in rebounding and
assists in the same season ever
again. Here's what it would
take to do it:
15 Years=1230 Games=19.45 Avg.
16 Years=1312 Games=18.24 Avg.
17 Years=1394 Games=17.16 Avg.
18 Years=1476 Games=16.21 Avg.
19 Years=1558 Games=15.36 Avg.
20 Years=1640 Games=14.59 Avg.



John Stockton's assist
record of 15,806:

I don't think this will ever be
broken, either, but it's a
little more likely than Wilt's
record. Only 6 players in the
history of the NBA have over
HALF the number of assists as
Stockton. But 9 of the 10
highest per game assist
averages are by players who've
played in the last 20 years,
and none of the top 10
rebounding averages are by
players who've played in the
last 20 years, so players do
get a lot more assists per
game than they did 30-40 years
ago, but don't get anywhere
near the number of rebounds per
game as 30-40 years ago. John
Stockton has half again more
assists than Mark Jackson,
who's number two in assists.
Magic Johnson is the only
player with a higher average
than Stockton, but obviously
lost the opportunity to get a
few thousand more due to his
HIV infection. Mark Jackson is
the only other player to get
10,000 assists, but I don't
think anyone will even get
12,000 any time soon, let
alone challenge Stockton's
record.



John Stockton's steals
record of 3,128:

He's got a pretty big lead in
this category, too, but steals
and blocked shots have only
been counted since 1973-74, so
there's plenty of room in those
two categories for other
players with great longevity
like Stockton and Abdul-Jabbar
to break them. But again, it
should be a while before this
one falls.



Hakeem Olajuwon's blocked shot
record of 3,830:

Olajuwon is retired, but this
record should also last quite a
while. I don't see anybody in
the top 50 right now with much
chance to beat it. If Dikembe
Mutombo had graduated from
college at 21 years old instead
of 25, he would've had a shot.
Shawn Bradley would need a lot
more playing time than he's
getting these days, and Alonzo
Mourning would need to stay
much healthier. Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar would probably
have 4,000 blocks if they were
counted during his first 4
years. Referee Earl Strom once
said that Wilt Chamberlain and
Bill Russell both probably
averaged about 8 blocks per
game in their prime. People
talk about Bill Russell's shot
blocking ability, but most
people think Wilt blocked more
shots. It's said that he
blocked 25 shots in a game
against the Celtics once, and
that the 35-year-old Wilt
blocked 20 shots in two
consecutive games in the 1972
playoffs against Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar's Bucks, 11 of
them against Kareem!
Chamberlain and Russell could
easily have 6,000 blocks in
their careers.