Nikola Jokić set to become 1st player in NBA history to lead league in assists and rebounds per game

Rarely in the 53 years since he performed his ultimate NBA game has Wilt Chamberlain been talked about as continuously as he was in 2025-26.

A month in the past, Miami’s Bam Adebayo sparked all kinds of media mentions of Chamberlain’s legendary 100-point efficiency by scoring 83 against Washington. Two nights later, Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored greater than 20 factors in his 127th consecutive gamebreaking Chamberlain’s file of 126 units from 1961 to 1963.

Then there may be the present Rookie of the Year raceas hotly contested as any in latest reminiscence, pitting Charlotte’s Kon Knueppel vs. Dallas’ Cooper Flagg. The former Duke roommates are competing for, after all, the Wilt Chamberlain Trophy that accompanies the media-voted award to high newcomers.

Now, with the season’s statistical books set to shut Sunday, there’s yet another Wilt connection: Denver’s Nikola Jokić is about to become the primary player in NBA history to lead in each rebounds per game (12.9) and assists per game (10.9).

The solely time even a variation of that occurred got here in 1967-68 when… watch for it… Chamberlain led the NBA in each complete rebounds (1,992) and complete assists (702).

Totals carried extra weight again then, with many gamers striving to seem in most or all of their groups’ video games. For the file, Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson averaged essentially the most assists (9.7) in 1967-68 however performed solely 65 video games for Cincinnati to Chamberlain’s 82. He totaled 633 assists, 69 fewer than Wilt.

Notice too that whereas Robertson was the scoring champ at 29.2 ppg, he actually was by no means given credit score for being the primary player to high the NBA in scoring and assists in the identical season. That acclaim went to Nate “Tiny” Archibald in 1972-73, when the Kings’ slick level guard checked all 4 bins: complete factors, complete assists, factors per game and assists per game.

Chamberlain in 1968 checked three of 4: complete rebounds, rebounds per game (23.8) and complete assists. Jokić can also be on observe to get three: rebounds per game, assists per game and complete assists (696). Karl Anthony-Towns (879), Rudy Gobert (872) and Donovan Clingan (869) all have extra boards than Jokić (828) heading into the ultimate weekend.

The Denver heart’s statistical feat and the Nuggets’ energetic 11-game profitable streak – they’re 14-2 since March 11 – ought to increase his case for Most Valuable Player the best way he has helped increase his group in the West playoff seedings. How a lot stays to be seen: Averaging a triple-double final season, from the middle place, solely received the three-time MVP up to second in the voting final spring.

Some historic context is in order right here: Through the 1965-66 season, solely two facilities, Chamberlain twice and Boston’s Bill Russell as soon as, ever averaged as many as 5.0 assists in a season. Jokić, by comparability, hit 6.1 in his third season, has averaged 7+ assists for the previous eight years and has a profession common of seven.5. This is his second season in a row averaging a triple-double, with 34 of them in 64 appearances to this point.

There have been different large males adept at delivering the ball. Among them: Bill Walton, Arvydas Sabonis (and his son Domantas), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Alvan Adams, Vlade Divac, Tom Boerwinkle, Marc Gasol.

But Wilt’s shift from essentially the most dominant scorer the NBA has ever seen to a high assists man was seismic. As he as soon as mentioned, bemused together with his personal versatility: “It’s like Babe Ruth leading the league in sacrifice bunts.”

How it occurred: Chamberlain had been traded from San Francisco to Philadelphia the earlier season. His outdated Warriors coach, Alex Hannum, had the large man’s utmost respect. And vice versa. Hannum knew what buttons to push with Wilt and challenged him to put particular person stats apart in pursuit, lastly, of a championship.

Hannum later informed writer Terry Pluto for his ebook “Tall Tales: The Glory Years of the NBA,” which Wilt recommended a brand new focus. “[He] said, ‘You know, I can pass the ball as well as anyone in basketball,’ I said, ‘Fine, let’s see it’”

Together, they determined to transfer Chamberlain to the excessive publish. That approach, teammates equivalent to Hal Greer and Billy Cunningham had room to assault the basket. And the large man might flex his ability at setting them up.

“We’d pass the ball to him and cut past him,” Cunningham informed Pluto. “Some of the plays were like the old Globetrotters routines where Wilt would stick the ball in your stomach… but then he’d pull the ball away and pass it to an open man under the basket. He did it all with his one huge hand.”

Said Hannum: “Wilt handled the basketball like you or I would a grapefruit. He had tremendous court vision and timing with his passes.”

That formulation helped the 76ers produce one of many biggest single seasons in NBA annals. They went 68-13, setting a file for victories, and breezed to the 1967 championship with an 11-4 playoff file. For the primary time since he entered the league in 1959, Chamberlain wasn’t the scoring champ. He averaged 24.1 factors, 15.5 off his profession common. He went from taking 24% of Philadelphia’s pictures the earlier season to 14%, however his assists rose to 7.8, greater than doubling his profession mark via seven seasons.

In 1967-68, he raised his assists to 8.6 per game, principally to present that he might.

Said Chamberlain: “The way I passed the ball in those years may have been the thing of which I am most proud, because people said, ‘Wilt Chamberlain was selfish, Wilt Chamberlain was one-dimensional.’ When the truth was that Wilt Chamberlain was finally with a team where he was allowed to show he could pass the ball.”

Jokić has demonstrated his imaginative and prescient and his willingness to share the ball from the beginning. His single-season excessive of 19.5 field-goal makes an attempt per game, from final 12 months, ranks tied for 473rd ever. Only Dwight Howard (12,016) has taken fewer pictures whereas scoring at the very least 17,000 factors than Jokić (12,262).

Earlier this season, Jokić’s eleventh in the league, he broke the file for assists by a middle, a file that took Abdul-Jabbar (5,660) 20 seasons to set. Fellow Nuggets get suggested after they be part of the group to at all times maintain their palms up, anticipating passes that perhaps solely Jokić can see. Even after they’re no-look.

Teammate Bruce Brown informed The Athletic a couple of years again: “He threw two nook passes to me, and I used to be not prepared. I fumbled them out of bounds. And I used to be like, ‘Oh, s—, you actually have to be prepared always since you simply by no means know with him.’

The Nuggets may not at all times know when it is coming however they know effectively from whom.

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Steve Aschburner has written concerning the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him herediscover his archive here and follow him on.