11) Most consecutive double-doubles: 227 (1964-1967)

Chamberlain also once held the record for consecutive triple-double games but that was broken by Russell Westbrook in 2019 (another recent Chamberlain record broken: Mitchell Robinson overcame his mark for field goal percentage in a single season in ’19-’20). However, it’s difficult to imagine any player ever again compiling a double-double in 227 straight contests. That’s over two-and-a-half full seasons of games. Kevin Love recorded a double-double in 53 straight games during the ’10-’11 season, which is the post-merger record and wasn’t even a quarter of the way there to Chamberlain’s streak. During the same ’67-’68 season that his double-double streak ended (which was also his final season with the 76ers before getting traded to the Lakers), Chamberlain also recorded the first double-triple-double in NBA history, with a 22 point, 25 rebound, 21 assist performance against the Pistons (it was the only one for over 50 years until Westbrook also pulled off the feat in 2019). He’s also the only player in NBA history to total over 40 points and over 40 rebounds in a single game, doing so eight times.

10) Most points by a rookie in a playoff game: 53 (March 14, 1960)
9) Most rebounds by a rookie in a playoff game: 35 (March 22, 1960)

With four full years at Kansas under his belt, plus a stint with the Harlem Globetrotters, Chamberlain came to the NBA ready to dominate as a seasoned rookie. He had 43 points and 28 rebounds in his NBA debut and finished his rookie campaign as league MVP, Rookie of the Year, scoring champ, and rebounding champ. In a winner-take-all game three against the Nationals in the Conference Semifinals, Chamberlain dropped 53 points in a Warriors victory. Not only was that a rookie record, it was the overall NBA record for a single playoff game at the time, breaking a mark previously set by Bob Cousy. A week later, Chamberlain dropped 50 points plus a rookie record 35 rebounds in a Conference Finals game five win against the Celtics. In the 60+ years since Chamberlain’s performances, only three rookies have even topped 40 in a postseason game: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with 46 in 1970, Magic Johnson with 42 in 1980 (which is the rookie NBA Finals single game scoring record), and Chuck Person with 40 in 1987.

8) Most minutes played in a season: 3,882 in ’61-’62

For all his incredible accomplishments in scoring, rebounding, and blocked shots, perhaps Chamberlain’s most impressive asset was his durability. He played the full slate of games nine times in his career, led the league in minutes per game nine times, and averaged at least 44.5 minutes per game in each of his first 12 seasons. He’s the only player to log more than 3,700 minutes in a single season, and he did it five times, peaking at 3,882 in the ’61-’62 season. This is especially impressive considering that the NBA regular season lasted just 80 games back then. Chamberlain averaged 48.5 minutes per game that season, which is not a typo. Seven Warriors games went into overtime that year, including a triple-overtime battle with the Lakers on December 8th in which Chamberlain scored a then-record 78 points while playing 61 minutes out of a possible 63. It would turn out to be the only game that season in which he wasn’t on the floor the entire time. Only two players have logged more than 3,500 minutes in a season since the 1976 merger: Truck Robinson in ’77-’78 and Latrell Sprewell in ’93-’94, and neither came anywhere close to Chamberlain’s mark.

7) Most consecutive 30-point games: 65 in ’61-’62
6) Most consecutive 40-point games: 14 in ’61-’62
5) Most consecutive 50-point games: seven in ’61-’62

Late in the ’17-’18 season, LeBron James broke an impressive record previously held by Michael Jordan, scoring 10+ points in his 867th consecutive game. His streak eventually reached over 1,000 but he couldn’t even dream of matching Chamberlain’s records for consecutive 20+, 30+, 40+, and 50+ point games. They were all set in tandem during his legendary ’61-’62 season, when he took advantage of fast paces, a smaller lane, and uncommonly high playing time to average 50.1 points per game for the year. No other player has ever scored 50+ points in three straight games, let alone seven like Chamberlain accomplished. In fact, only 12 other players in history have scored 50 or more points in a game seven or more times over the course of their entire career, let alone consecutively (unsurprisingly, Chamberlain also holds the record for most total 50+ point games, with 118. Jordan is a distant second with 31).

4) Career rebounds per game: 22.9

Famously noted as being obsessed with statistics (to the point where he would ask assistant coaches and score keepers to keep track of his blocks before they became an official stat), Chamberlain managed to keep his rebounding numbers steady late in his career, even as his scoring waned. He led the NBA in rebounds per game in 11 of the 14 seasons he played, which is a record (Dennis Rodman is second with seven rebounding titles), as is his career total of 23,924 rebounds, and his 27.2 rebounds per game in ’60-’61, but maybe most impressive is his career average. Unlike most of the records on this list, Chamberlain didn’t necessarily smash the previous mark, instead just edging out Russell’s 22.5 career rebounds per game with his own total of 22.9. But the next closest on the overall list is Bob Pettit with 16.2 and the highest total post-merger is Andre Drummond, who is averaging 13.4 for his career as of this writing (amongst retired players, the top post-merger mark is Rodman with 13.1 per game).

3) Most points in one game: 100 on March 2, 1962
2) Most rebounds in one game: 55 on November 24, 1960

There’s few numbers as iconic in all of sports as Chamberlain’s 100 points in one game. Its round symmetry adds to the legend, as does the lack of video evidence, since the game wasn’t televised. It’s the one Chamberlain statistic that even casual fans can recite, but it’s really not his most unbreakable single-game record. That would be 55 rebounds, which he tallied two seasons prior. In appropriate Chamberlain fashion, his 55 rebound effort came against the Celtics in a loss, early in the ’60-’61 season. That same year he had 45 rebounds in a game against the Lakers, and finished with an NBA record 27.2 rebounds per game for the season. There have been just 54 games in NBA history where a player had 38 or more rebounds, and 52 of them are attributable to either Chamberlain or Bill Russell (the other two are Jerry Lucas and Maurice Stokes). Russell’s 51 are the second-highest total in league history. The highest post-merger total is Moses Malone with 37 during the ’78-’79 season, and the highest total of the last 30 years was Rony Seikaly with 34 in 1993. Chamberlain’s 100 point game did come in a winning effort, 169-147 over the Knicks. On that night he also set the record for points in a half (59), field goals in a game (36), and free throws in a game (28). At the time of his 1973 retirement, Chamberlain had 32 of the 38 highest-scoring games in NBA history, including 15 of the top 16. He still holds five of the top seven, and 13 of the top 20. He’s also the only player to score 70+ multiple times, having done it on six occasions.

1) Highest scoring average in a season: 50.4 points per game in ’61-’62

The ’61-’62 season for Chamberlain was the greatest individual statistical campaign in NBA history. It was the year of his 100 point game, and he also set still-standing records for points per game, total points, field goals made, 50-point games in a season, 40-point games in a season, consecutive 50-point games, consecutive 40-point games, and consecutive 30-point games. Chamberlain absolutely shattered Bob Pettit’s points per game record in his rookie season, averaging 37.6 to best Pettit’s previous mark of 29.2. Two years later he annihilated his own record, becoming the first – and still only – player to average 40+ points per game in a season, let alone 50. Part of that was a product of its time: the Warriors were regularly scoring and giving up 130 or more points in games, and four other players broke the 30+ points per game barrier that year (including Pettit). But most of it was just Chamberlain’s pure dominance, especially his ability to score at will on anyone that made him such an esteemed and reviled figure. His numbers are so breathtaking that they seem unreal, like a time capsule of a completely different sport, and at the time they were profound almost to the point of ennui. But it’s telling that the year Chamberlain broke all those records he still lost out on the MVP award to Bill Russell and his Warriors fell to the Celtics in the Conference Finals.