1) Stephen Curry (three-point field goals)

As soon as he started tallying 250+ three-point field goals per season, instantly altering offensive schemes across the league, it seemed inevitable that Curry would take over Ray Allen’s all-time three-point crown. When the NBA first instituted the three-point line in the ’79-’80 season, its first three-point king was the Clippers’ Brian Taylor, a former ABA All-Star that lasted a few years post-merger thanks to his long range shooting. Larry Bird held the record for a few years until it was broken by Dale Ellis, who became the first player to top 1,000 three-pointers in a career, who was replaced by Reggie Miller, the first player to reach 2,000. Allen topped Miller’s record in ’10-’11 and held it for a decade at 2,973. Not only did Curry break the record in ’20-’21, he also became the first player with 3,000+ career three-pointers, a satisfyingly symmetric milestone. Easily the greatest long range shooter in league history, Curry also holds the records for three-pointers in a single season (402 in ’15-’16), three-pointers in a single postseason (98 in 2015), and career postseason three-pointers (though not the record for three-pointers in a game, which is held by his longtime Warriors teammate, Klay Thompson). James Harden surpassed Miller for third on the career three-pointer list in ’20-’21 and will likely join Curry in the 3,000 club before his career is over.

2) Steve Nash (free throw percentage)

When he eventually calls it a career as the all-time three-point leader, Stephen Curry might be holding another record in free throw percentage. He is currently neck-and-neck at the top of the leaderboard with Nash, who retired in 2014 with a 90.043% free throw shooting average. That just barely eked out the career mark of 90.039% for Mark Price, who had held the record for over two decades. In fact, it came down to the wire for Nash, who attempted just 24 free throws in his final season and made 22 of them. If he had instead made just 20 of those attempts, Price would still be the record holder. Even if he ultimately doesn’t break the record, at a minimum Curry seems primed to join Nash and Price as the only players to shoot over 90% from the free throw line in their careers (former career record holder Rick Barry came incredibly close, at 89.98%). One more thing Curry, Nash, and Price have in common: they are three of the nine members of the 50/40/90 club, players who averaged 50+% from the field, 40+% from three-point range, and 90+% from the free throw line in a single season (Nash is the only player to accomplish this more than twice, doing so four times in his career).

3) Wilt Chamberlain (rebounds, rebounds per game)

As is the case with so many of his records, Chamberlain’s career mark of 22.9 rebounds per game is the one entry on this list most unlikely to ever be broken. Only his peers Bill Russell, Bob Pettit, Jerry Lucas, and Nate Thurmond are even relatively close. This was due to an increased pace of play in the ’60s, coupled with lower field goal percentages begetting more rebounding opportunities. The highest rebounds per game average for a post-merger player is Dennis Rodman, who comes in way behind Chamberlain’s pace at 13.1. As high as that mark is for Chamberlain, it actually dropped late in his career and from ’64-’65 through ’69-’70 his career average was 24+ rebounds per game. He also holds the records for total rebounds and rebounds per game in a single season (2,149 and 27.2, respectively, both set in ’60-’61), rebounds in a game (55), and rebounds in a single postseason (444 in 1969). But Chamberlain’s most iconic boarding record is his 23,924 career rebounds. He took over that lead from Bill Russell during the ’71-’72 season and besides those two, no other player has even reached 18,000 rebounds in their career. Chamberlain was also the all-time leading NBA scorer for 18 years before Kareem Abdul-Jabbar surpassed his mark.

4) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (points, field goals, minutes played)

In Las Vegas in April of 1984, Magic Johnson was the appropriate assist man on a historic shot. On a skyhook in the fourth quarter that gave him 22 points on the night, Abdul-Jabbar surpassed Wilt Chamberlain as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, with 31,420 points. Though he was already 37 years old at the time, Abdul-Jabbar played for five more seasons, extending the record to 38,387 before retiring in 1989. Only five other players have managed to surpass Chamberlain’s mark since then: Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Dirk Nowitzki, Karl Malone, and LeBron James, who is currently on track to break Abdul-Jabbar’s mark within the next few weeks. Just a few months prior to becoming the all-time points king, Abdul-Jabbar broke another of Chamberlain’s less heralded records, when he compiled his 12,682nd field goal in a win over the Bullets in January of 1984. It took him a couple more seasons to chase down the minutes played record, which was held by Elvin Hayes with a satisfyingly even 50,000 minutes (yes, he did retire at that total on purpose). After surpassing Hayes in ’85-’86, Abdul-Jabbar ultimately ended his career with 57,446 minutes played. He also retired as the all-time leader in blocks (broken in ’95-’96 by Hakeem Olajuwon), games played (broken in ’95-’96 by Robert Parish), and personal fouls (still holds this one). Abdul-Jabbar was also retroactively granted the all-time career win shares record, when the website Basketball Reference first started generating the advanced statistic.

5) Alvin Robertson (steals per game)

Thanks in large part to the looser defensive restrictions (like hand checking) and holistically laxer ball handling skills of the time, the ’80s were the peak of stealing in the NBA. At the center of it were Robertson, a fearless, quick-handed shooting guard for the Spurs, and the menacing Knicks point guard Micheal Ray Richardson. In ’84-’85, Richardson led the league in steals per game for the third time and was the reigning all-time leader in steals per game in a season (3.2 in ’79-’80) and for a career (2.6). Things shifted completely in ’85-’86, when Robertson set the new (and still standing) single season mark of 3.7 per game, while earning Defensive Player of the Year (something Richardson never accomplished) and getting named to his first of four All-Star teams (matching Richardson’s total). Meanwhile, in February of that season, Richardson was banned for life by Commissioner David Stern for repeated violations of the substance abuse policy. Robertson took over the career steals per game mantle as soon as he had reached the minimum of eligible games, in ’89-’90, and has held it ever since. At his peak in ’90-’91, Robertson had a career average of 2.9 per game but it eventually settled at 2.7 per game by his 1996 retirement after multiple back surgeries. Richardson is still second on the career steals per game list, with Michael Jordan third.

6) Artis Gilmore (field goal percentage)

Master of the dunks, tip-ins, finger rolls, and an unstoppable short jump hook, Gilmore was arguably the most efficient offensive player of the 20th century. He has held the career field goal percentage record since 1979 but it won’t last for long, as modern NBA offensive schemes have created hyper efficient centers that consistently shoot above 60%. Gilmore’s 59.9% career shooting mark is technically fifth on the leaderboard right now but the four players ahead of him are all active, so he’s still the all-time leader amongst retirees. He managed to hold off some other recent challengers, with Tyson Chandler finishing his career at 59.7% and Shaquille O’Neal at 58.2%. Gilmore is still one of just eight players in NBA history to shoot 65% or better in a season and was only the second person to pull if off, following Wilt Chamberlain. DeAndre Jordan and Rudy Gobert will likely shatter his record as soon as they retire, but for now we continue to honor Gilmore as the field goal percentage champion.

7) John Stockton (assists, steals)
8) Magic Johnson (assists per game)

In the strikeout shortened ’98-’99 season, during which he turned 37 years old, Stockton averaged less than eight assists per game for the first time since his rookie campaign. It dropped his career average to 11.1 per game, which re-installed Johnson as the all-time record holder, after an interregnum of six years of Stockton at the top. However, the total career assists record that Stockton took over from Johnson during the ’94-’95 season could not be reneged. In a February 1st game against the Nuggets, Stockton needed 11 assists to pass Johnson’s career mark of 9,921 and did so by halftime, with Karl Malone appropriately receiving assist number 9,922. Johnson made a comeback in ’95-’96, joining Stockton as the second ever player to surpass 10,000 career assists, but Stockton was far from finished, winding up with a previously unthinkable total of 15,806 before retiring in 2003. Dating back to the ’49-’50 season, the career assist record has been held by only five players and all of them are Hall of Famers: Andy Phillip, Bob Cousy, Oscar Robertson, Johnson, and Stockton. Unlike Stockton, who was barely halfway through his career when he took the record, Johnson overtook Robertson late his final full season, ’90-’91. Both Stockton’s total assist record and Johnson’s career assist per game record (11.2) feel unbreakable, as does Stockton’s career steals record. He took that over from Maurice Cheeks with his 2,312th steal during the ’95-’96 season and then added nearly 1,000 more to set the stakes at 3,265. Second on the career list for both total assists and total steals is now Jason Kidd.

“On a night when the Hornets honored him at halftime with the tongue-in-cheek gift of a grandfather clock, Parish had one of his better performances of the season, finishing with 14 points and nine rebounds in a win over the Cavaliers.”

9) Hakeem Olajuwon (blocks)

The NBA has been tracking blocks since the ’73-’74 season but only three players have ever held the all-time career blocks record. It started with the Lakers’ Elmore Smith, who was the first player to lead the NBA in total blocks and blocks per game in ’73-’74. He was soon after replaced in the career blocks mark by the man for whom he was traded to the Bucks in 1975. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar became the first player with 1,000 career blocks in ’76-’77, the first with 2,000 career blocks in ’80-’81, the first with 3,000 career blocks in ’86-’87, and retired with 3,189 in 1989. It took Abdul-Jabbar 16 seasons to reach that mark but it took his replacement, Olajuwon, just 12 seasons to break it. On the last day of the ’95-’96 season, Olajuwon recorded his 3,190th block, something he was able to accomplish by averaging 3.5 blocks per game for his career up to that point. He has held that record for over a quarter century and counting now and will seemingly do so indefinitely, as his final mark of 3,830 looms as insurmountable. Kareem is still third on the career list, with Dikembe Mutombo second with 3,289.

10) Moses Malone (offensive rebounds)
11) Kevin Garnett (defensive rebounds)

In the same season the NBA started officially tracking blocks and steals, ’73-’74, it also began splitting rebounding stats into offensive and defensive. This was just in time for Malone, who started his NBA career in ’76-’77. Tenacious, agile (especially for his size), and endlessly studying the shooting habits of his teammates and opponents, Malone was the ultimate offensive rebounding machine. Not only does he hold the career offensive rebounds record by a wide margin with 6,731 (Robert Parish is a distant second with 4,598), he also holds the single season record with 587 and five of the seven greatest single season marks (unsurprisingly, it’s Dennis Rodman with the other two). Malone also has the most offensive rebounds in a single game with 21 but the official NBA record is actually held by Zaza Pachulia with 18 because the league didn’t formally track single game stats until 1983. Malone’s 9,481 defensive rebounds are also eighth all-time but at the top of that list is Garnett, with 11,453. It wasn’t until his final season that he took over that record, passing Karl Malone on the all-time list in December of 2015. Both Malone and Garnett also retired in the top 10 in total rebounds, with Malone fifth and Garnett ninth.

12) Steve Kerr (three-point field goal percentage)

Stephen Curry is now the most prolific three-point shooter of all time but the most efficient of all-time is someone else on the Warriors bench. It’s not Curry’s longtime “Splash Brothers” teammate Klay Thompson but his coach, Kerr. Of course, context matters here. A bench specialist his entire career, Kerr attempted 1,599 three-pointers in 15 seasons, connecting on 726 of them for a percentage of 45.4%. Compare that to Curry, who took more than 1,599 three-point attempts in just the last two seasons alone. In fact, Curry has already made almost twice as many three-pointers in his career than Kerr ever attempted. Even with all those attempts, Curry is currently fourth in career three-point percentage, behind only Kerr, Hubert Davis, and Joe Harris. The current NBA statistical standard is that a player must make at least 250 three-pointers to qualify for the career percentage record. There’s been a call lately for that benchmark to be increased, as numerous players, Curry included, now regularly surpass 250 three-pointers in a single season, let alone career.

13) Robert Parish (games played)

Though he was 42 years old and coming off the worst statistical season of his career by far, Parish opted to return with the Hornets in ’95-’96 with one specific goal in mind. He reached that target on April 6, 1996, playing in his 1,561st career game to break Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s record. On a night when the Hornets honored him at halftime with the tongue-in-cheek gift of a grandfather clock, Parish had one of his better performances of the season, finishing with 14 points and nine rebounds in a win over the Cavaliers. He played in seven more games that season then surprisingly came back again in ’96-’97 with the Bulls, appearing in 43 regular seasons before closing out his career at age 43 with a fourth championship ring and a record 1,611 games played. Abdul-Jabbar is still second on the list, followed by recently retired iron men Vince Carter and Dirk Nowitzki. This is another record potentially within the grasp of LeBron James, though recent injuries and shortened seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic have sullied that possibility.

14) Mark Eaton (blocks per game)

It’s not every day that a player sets an NBA career record almost a full decade after they’ve retired. Eaton first became the all-time leader in career blocks per game in ’86-’87, taking the crown from Tree Rollins. But by the time he retired in 1993, Eaton had relinquished the record to Hakeem Olajuwon. Good things came though to one who waited, as the record cycled from Hakeem to David Robinson to Dikembe Mutombo and then back to Eaton in 2001. At 7’4″, Eaton was a formidable presence in the paint and used it to great advantage, especially at the defensive end. He led the league in blocks per game in four different seasons, and his 5.6 per game in ’84-’85 are by far the all-time record. Eaton’s 3.5 career blocks per game were surpassed as a career record by Olajuwon, Robinson, and Mutombo about as soon as they reached the minimum number of games for eligibility, but one by one they all dropped off the mark the longer they remained in the league. This is a case where Eaton’s brief career, started late at age 26 and then cut short by degenerative back issues, was an asset. His 3,064 total blocks are also fourth all-time. As for Olajuwon, Robinson, and Mutombo, the three defensive legends finished third, fourth, and seventh, respectively, on the all-time blocks per game leaderboard. In second place? The 7’7″ Manute Bol, with 3.34 per game.

15) Karl Malone (free throws)

Not only did Malone last nearly two decades seasons in the NBA, he did so with an almost uncanny degree of reliability. Malone missed more than two games in a season just once in 19 seasons, and averaged 20+ points and eight-plus rebounds per game an incredible 16 times. He is top 10 in NBA history in total points, total rebounds, total field goals, and games played, but Malone only holds one major career record, in free throws. A notably hostile post player who also wasn’t reticent to sell a foul, Malone made it to the charity stripe often throughout his lengthy career. He is not only the all-time leader in free throws with 9,787 but also easily the leader in free throw attempts, with 13,188 (no one else has more than 12,000). That gives him a career free throw percentage of 74.2%, not too shabby for a muscular power forward who often looked nervous at the line, muttering to himself as part of his foul shot routine. Unfortunately for Malone, all his other individual career records are a reminder of his playoffs futility, as he is the all-time leader in postseason points, rebounds, appearances, and games played without a championship.

16) Michael Jordan (points per game)

How is this record not owned by Wilt Chamberlain, the man who once averaged 50.4 points per game in a season and has five of the top seven scoring games in NBA history, including his 100 point performance? Because running antithetical to his reputation, Chamberlain was willing to set aside statistics late in his career for title chances, taking on a tertiary scoring role on the ’70s Lakers, concentrating more on rebounding, passing, and defense. It’s also notable that the pace of the NBA slowed considerably in the late ’60s and early ’70s, contributing to his declining numbers. No matter the cause, Chamberlain’s career scoring averaged dropped from 36.0 points per game in his final season with the 76ers, ’67-’68, to 30.1 per game at the time of his 1973 retirement (his career peak was 42.9 points per game after the ’62-’63 season). This opened the door for Jordan, a player that willed his team to championships and racked up scoring totals along the way. Jordan passed Chamberlain in ’88-’89, when he won his third of seven consecutive scoring titles, peaked at 32.8 points per game following the ’89-’90 season, then retired in 1998 at 31.5. Of course, Jordan couldn’t leave well enough alone, returning in 2001 with the Wizards and ultimately putting his record at risk. In his two seasons in Washington, Jordan averaged just 21.2 points per game, dropping his career average to 30.12, just barely still ahead of Chamberlain’s 30.07. With 32,292 points over 1,072 games, Jordan would have lost his record if he scored just 57 fewer points over those two years with the Wizards. In addition to his points per game title, Jordan is also fifth all-time in career total points, third in career steals, fourth in career steals per game, and fifth in free throws.