Ranking the 5 Most Unbreakable NBA Records (2024)

As the saying goes, records are meant to be broken. In some cases, though, the records are unattainable. In the NBA , this is due to the constant evolution of the game. There are more athletic and skilled players that enter the league every season, making more teams competitive than ever in NBA history.

Technically, there is no NBA record that is unattainable. Somebody had to have set the record in order for it to be broken. This means that it could eventually be broken in the future.

For most of the unreachable records, longevity has proved to be a crucial piece of the record. Most players in today's NBA do not play all 82 games in a season. Most also do not play in more than 15 seasons, let alone more than 20. Because of this and the constant evolution in the NBA, some records have become realistically unbreakable.

Here are the top five most unbreakable NBA records.

Honorable Mention: Most career assists: John Stockton: 15,806

5 Average Points Per Game in a Single Season

Record Holder: Wilt Chamberlain - 50.4 PPG in 1961-62

Wilt Chamberlain is one of the most dominant NBA players of all time. A whole list of records that Wilt Chamberlain set during his 14-year NBA career could be made into a list. Other records that he holds include 65 consecutive games scoring 30 or more points, grabbing 55 rebounds in one game and being the only player to score 100 points in one game. Only one of his numerous records makes this list though, which is him averaging 50.4 points per game during the 1961-62 season.

After winning the MVP award as a rookie and finishing fourth in voting during his second season, many knew that Chamberlain was going to go down as one of the greatest players of all time. During the 1961-62 season, just his third season in the NBA, he averaged 50.4 points per game, a record that no other player since has ever come close to matching. The crazy part of this historic season, was the fact that, despite averaging 50.4 points and 25.7 rebounds in 80 games, Chamberlain finished second in MVP voting to Bill Russell.

Since his record-setting season, only Chamberlain has ever come close to breaking his own 50.4 points per game record. Chamberlain holds five of the top six spots in points per game in a single season, the only player other than him in the top five being Michael Jordan in 1986-87. The only active player to have come even close to breaking into the top five is James Harden during the 2018-19 season, where he averaged 36.1 points per game.

While the NBA has become a more offensive-minded game, averaging more than 30 points per game in a season has become difficult. This is due to the number of star players every team has, where they no longer have to rely on one player to help them win games. Players nowadays also do not see the minutes on the floor that Chamberlain and other players during his time saw.

4 Most Consecutive Games Played

Record Holder: A.C. Green - 1,192 games

It has become increasingly harder over the last decade to play a full 82 game season as a player, let alone play in 1,192 consecutive games like A.C. Green did from the 1985-86 season to 2000-01. In fact, even playing hundreds of consecutive games has been difficult for players to accomplish since the beginning of the NBA. Green is the only player in NBA history to have played in over 1,000 consecutive games during their playing careers.

Green started his career in 1985 after being selected 23rd overall by the L.A. Lakers . He went on to play 16 seasons, missing just three games during that span. All three games that he missed were in his second season in the league.

Despite not being the main star of the Lakers, Green was not a scrub. He averaged more than 28 minutes per game over his career as a member of the Lakers, Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks . Along with averaging the minutes during his career that he did, he also played during the NBA's most physical eras, making this record even more impressive.

The only other player besides Green to even come close to playing in 1,000 consecutive games was Randy Smith. Mikal Bridges holds the longest active streak at 474 games, and he will continue to extend it this season with the New York Knicks .

With NBA players rarely seeing the floor for the regular 82 game schedule nowadays due to injuries, rest, and "load management", Green's record may never be broken or even come close to in the future.

3 Most Consecutive Championships as a Team

Record Holder: Boston Celtics - 8 straight championships

The Boston Celtics made winning look easy during the 1960s. Led by head coach Red Auerbach and a team consisting of eight Hall of Famers including Bill Russell, Bob Cousy and Sam Jones, Boston won eight straight NBA championships from the 1958-59 season to the 1965-66 season. Since then, there have been just two teams who have won three straight titles, let alone eight in a row.

There have been just three teams besides the Celtics who have three-peated. The then Minneapolis Lakers won three straight titles from 1952 to 1954 behind George Mikan. The Chicago Bulls did it twice, both from 1991 to 1993 and again from 1996 to 1998, thanks to Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. The most recent team to three-peat was the Lakers from 2000 to 2002, behind Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal .

While winning just one championship has become increasingly difficult due to the abundance of great teams in the NBA today, winning even back-to-back championships has become almost impossible. The last team to go back-to-back was the Golden State Warriors in 2016-17 and 2017-18 behind the big three of Stephen Curry , Klay Thompson and Draymond Green . Before the Warriors, the Miami Heat were able to go back-to-back in 2011-12 and 2012–13 thanks to the big three of LeBron James , Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

As championships continue to become harder to win in today's NBA, the Celtics' run in the 1960s may never be topped. With Boston being the only team in NBA history to win more than three straight championships, winning eight straight titles is almost impossible to do.

2 Most NBA Championships as a Player

Record Holder: Bill Russell - 11 NBA championships

Bill Russell is the most accomplished player in NBA history. He is one of only two players, the other being his Celtics' teammate Sam Jones, to win 10 or more championships during their career.

For Russell, he won 11 championships over his 13-year NBA career. It helped that he was part of the Celtics' team that was mentioned one spot higher on this list that won eight straight championships. What was even more impressive was the fact that Russell won his last two championships as both a player and a coach.

While Russell and most of his teammates won at least eight championships, there are still a multitude of players who have won more than six. Robert Horry and Frank Ramsey won seven championships, while Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won six.

The active players who lead with the most championships include LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green, who have all won four titles. With championships becoming increasingly difficult to win, winning 11 in 13 seasons like Russell did is basically impossible to do in today's NBA. In the future though, do not count out another player who could bounce around the league and possibly come close to Russell's record.

1 Most Career Points

Record Holder: LeBron James - 40,474 and counting

Many believed that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's record for most career points would never be broken. His 38,387 points record stood for 39 seasons before LeBron James broke it on February 2, 2023, against the Oklahoma City Thunder . Since then, James has become the only player to surpass 40,000 career points, and he has shown no sign of slowing down despite entering the final years of his career.

With LeBron still playing at an All-NBA level, he has a chance to extend the scoring record even more before he retires. He will enter his 22nd season this year, where he may extend the record to where no other player has a chance to break it.

Before James broke Abdul-Jabbar's record, only Karl Malone had come close to even matching the record. He still fell over 1,400 points shy of breaking it. The next active player behind James in scoring is Kevin Durant, who has just 28,924 points over 16 NBA seasons.

In order to break James' record as of now, a player would have to average 24.7 points per game while playing all 82 games in 20 seasons. With the unlikelihood of anyone being able to do that, that is why it is number one on this list.

With the NBA's increase in scoring per season, there could be a chance to break James' record in the future, but it would be very tough to do. Despite that, many believed that Abdul-Jabbar's record would stand forever, but The King proved that wrong, meaning that a player could do the impossible and break LeBron's record in the future.