The NBA truly is where amazing happens. That’s not just a motto but a reality, as the greatest athletes in the history of the world never cease to amaze us with the way they play the game and what they’re able to accomplish.

We’ve seen impressive records being taken out almost on a daily basis right now. Either because younger players make it to the league, because the game is played at a different pace right now, or simply because their preparation is different nowadays.

However, there are a lot of records that aren’t likely to be broken any time soon, and today, we’re going to tell you all about them. Buckle up, as we’re going to review the top 25 most incredible records in NBA history:

25. Worst Record To Make The Playoffs

The Bullets played in the ABL, BAA, and NBA from 1947-54 - Getty

The 1952-53 Baltimore Bullets don’t have much to brag about. They managed to win just 16 out of their 54 games (.229 winning percentage) and ranked dead last in defensive rating and points allowed per game that season.

However, there were only 10 teams in the league back in the day and somehow, the Philadelphia Warriors got an even worse record, so they made the playoffs but lost in the Eastern Division Semifinals vs the New York Knicks.

24. Most Points Scored In A Quarter

Thomspon has won 3 championships - Getty

We all knew Klay Thompson could get hot in the blink of an eye, but no one -not even him- saw what was coming vs the Sacramento Kings on January 23rd, 2015; when he scored 37 points in the third quarter.

Thompson also broke the record for most field goals made on a single quarter with 13 and led the Warriors to a 126-101 win over the Kings. He finished the night with 52 points, which was a career-high for him back then.

23. Most Three-Pointers In A Game

Klay holds a 41% average from three over his career - Getty

Klay Thompson is one of the greatest shooters in the history of the game. He’s the kind of player that doesn’t even need to dribble the ball but could still light you up for 30 points any given night.

That’s exactly what happened when he faced the Chicago Bulls on October 29th, 2014; when he knocked down 14 of his 24 three-point attempts. The Warriors won the game 149-124 and Thompson scored 52 once again.

22. Most Points Scored In A Game

Wilt Chamberlain holds 72 records in NBA history - NBA.com

Wilt Chamberlain still holds most NBA records up to this day. He was so dominant that the league actually had to change several rules in order to make the game more difficult for him. Needless to say, that didn’t work.

Wilt ‘The Stilt’ has the record for the highest-scoring performance in NBA history with 100 points vs. the New York Knicks since 1962. That’s a record that’s unlikely to be taken down.

21. Most Field Goal Attempts In A Game

Chamberlain dominated in the paint - Getty

Obviously, you have to take a lot of shots if you want to score a lot of points, so Wilt Chamberlain didn’t shy away from the challenge and pretty much hog the ball throughout the entire game vs the Knicks.

He managed to take 63 field-goal attempts en route to his historical 100-point outing, which is something we have never seen again. Not even Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, or James Harden could shoot the ball that many times.

20. Most Missed Three-Pointers In A Game

Harden has led the league in scoring twice - Getty

Shooters shot. And great scorers always have that kind of mindset. Regardless of how many times they’ve missed, they’re going to continue to take their shots, as it’s going to start falling rather sooner than later.

However, James Harden should just stop taking that many threes from time to time, as he’s had four games of 16 missed three-pointers throughout his career. Damon Stoudamire also missed 16 once.

19. Most Missed Free-Throws In A Game

Drummond is a career 46.1% shooter from the free-throw line - Getty

Most big men are terrified of going to the free-throw line. They just struggle to score from there, so opposing defenses try and stop them by just smacking them down low to force them to earn their points the hard way.

That’s what the Houston Rockets did to Andre Drummond on January 20th, 2016, when they sent him to the line 36 times. Obviously, that strategy worked, as Drummond missed 23 of those attempts, although the Pistons ended up winning the game 123-114.

18. Most Rebounds In A Game

Russell and Chamberlain dominated the league in the 60s - Getty

Back in the day, Bill Russell was a bit of Wilt Chamberlain’s nemesis, at least when it came to winning championships. That’s why Wilt was always extra motivated to stick it to him when they faced off.

So, Chamberlain grabbed 55 boards vs. Bill’s Celtics on November 24th, 1960. He also scored 34 points and 4 assists and outplayed Russell, but Boston hung on to a 132-129 victory anyway.

17. Most Assists In A Game

Skiles averaged 6.5 assists per game over his career - Getty

We don’t find many pass-first kinds of point guards nowadays. The league has changed and so has the point guard position. However, when we think about historically great point guards, we don’t usually mention Scott Skiles’ name.

Still, he put on a hell of a show when his Orlando Magic hosted the Denver Nuggets on December 30th, 1990, when he dished out 30 assists to go along with 22 points, 2 steals, and just 4 turnovers.

16. Most Blocks In A Game

Smith led the league in blocks in 1974 - Getty

Elmore Smith only played in the NBA for 8 seasons but he managed to write his name in the history books through eternity, as his 17 blocks in a game are something that’s never going to be matched.

Smith was all over the paint during the Lakers 111-98 triumph over the Portland Trail Blazers on October 28th, 1973. He played all 48 minutes and also chipped in with 12 points, 16 rebounds, and just 4 personal fouls.

15. Most Minutes Played In A Game

Ellis scored 19,004 career points - Getty

Dale Ellis proved to be a superhuman back on November 9th, 1989; when the Seattle Supersonics squared off vs the Milwaukee Bucks on a game that lasted 73 minutes due to five overtimes.

Ellis played for 69 minutes and scored 53 points with 7 rebounds, but the Bucks won 155-154 thanks to Ricky Pierce’s 36 points on the longest game in NBA history since the shot-clock era. Talk about load management.

14. Highest Scoring Average For A Season

Chamberlain was also a professional volleyball player - Getty

There was just no stopping Wilt Chamberlain, especially during the earlier days of his career. Back in the 1961-62 season, he scored an average of 50.4 points per game, which is the highest in NBA history by a long stretch.

He also broke the records for most points scored in a season with 4,029, most 50-point games (45), and most 40-point games (63). That’s just incredible, especially considering there wasn’t even a three-point line back then.

13. Best Free-Throw Percentage For A Season

Calderon has won 3 Olympic medals - Getty

Good scorers work on their craft, skills, movements, and whatnot. But great scorers also put a lot of work on their fundamentals, and free-throw shooting is one of those. Still, it’s extremely difficult to knock down most of them during an NBA season.

Jose Calderon may not be the greatest scorer, but he sure knew how to make the most of his trips to the line, as he knocked down 151 of his 154 free throws in 2008-09, which is good for 98.1%. If we talk about career average, Steve Nash holds the record with 90.43%.

12. Highest Rebounding Average For A Season

Chamberlain averaged 22.9 rebounds per game over 15 seasons - Getty

There are thousands of stories about how incredibly athletic Wilt Chamberlain was. They even said he enjoyed jumping over the rooftops just to prove he could do it, so it wasn’t a surprise to see him destroy most of his rivals.

Chamberlain was the lone owner of the glass during the 1960-61 season, as he grabbed an average of 27.2 rebounds per game. To put this in context, the highest-rebounding team in the league nowadays grabs 51.7 boards a game. He did more than half of that on his own.

11. Most Blocks Per Game For A Season

Eaton finished his career with 3,064 blocks - Getty

Mark Eaton was one of the most dominant defenders and rim protectors of the 80s. He spent his entire 11-season career with the Utah Jazz and won two Defensive Player of the Year Awards.

His best season came in 1984-85 when he averaged an absurd 5.7 blocks per game. He also led the league in swats 4 times and ended up with an impressive career average of 3.5 blocks a game and never averaged fewer than 1.2.

10. Most Triple-Doubles In One Season

Russell Westbrook did what everybody thought was impossible during the 2016-17 season: average a triple-double for an entire year, something that hadn’t been done since Oscar Robertson in 1962.

Westbrook was playing with a chip on his shoulder since Kevin Durant left the Oklahoma City Thunder and knew he had to do it all for his team. He ended the season with 42 triple-doubles and then became the only player to average a triple-double more than once on his career.

9. Most Seasons In The NBA

Carter has played for 8 teams over 22 years - Getty

Vince Carter was taken with the 5th overall pick of the 1998 NBA Draft and announced that he was retiring after the 2019-20 season, making him the longest-tenured player ever with 22 seasons in the league.

Carter is also the only player in NBA history to play in four decades (the 90s, 00s, 10s, and 20s) and even though he never won a championship, he’s still a lock to make the Hall of Fame after such an impressive career.

8. Longest Streak Of Games Played

Green won 3 championships with the Lakers - Getty

AC Green was a true Iron Man. He played in 1,192 straight games and holds the record for most consecutive games in ABA and NBA history, something that’ll never be matched due to the load management trend and how players take care of their bodies nowadays.

He only missed three games throughout his 16-year career in the NBA, all of them during his sophomore season. He helped the Los Angeles Lakers win 3 championships and averaged over 28 minutes per game over his career.

7. Longest Streak Of Regular-Season Games With At Least One Three-Pointer

Curry was the first unanimous MVP in NBA history - Getty

Stephen Curry is considered to be the greatest three-point shooter the game has ever seen, ahead of legends like Regie Miller, Ray Allen, or Larry Bird, so it’s not crazy to see him hold most of the three-point related records.

The Golden State Warriors’ legend knocked down a three-pointer in 178 straight regular season games between 2018 and 2022, breaking his own previous record of 157 consecutive games that went from 2014 to 2016.

6. Most Scoring Titles

Jordan never played a Game 7 in the NBA Finals - Getty

We can’t talk about greatness and records unless we mention Michael Jordan’s name. His Airness holds one of the most impressive and unbreakable records in NBA history with 10 scoring titles, three more than Wilt Chamberlain.

Jordan led the league in scoring in 10 of the 13 seasons he played with the Bulls. He won 7 straight scoring titles before his first retirement and he also holds the highest points-per-game average in NBA history with 30.12.

5. Highest Scoring Average In The Playoffs

He also holds the record for the most Finals MVPs with 6 - Getty

Michael Jordan also holds the highest scoring average in NBA playoffs history with 33.45 points, meaning he was actually even more prolific and dominant in the postseason, as opposed to most players.

He played 175 games with 8 50-point outings, 38 40-point performances, 109 30-point games and is the only player in NBA history to score at least 15 points in all his playoff games. On a related note, he has the highest scoring average in NBA Finals history with 41.0 points per game.

4. Youngest Player To Score 1,000; 5,000; 10,000; 15,000; 20,000; 25,000; And 30,000 Points

James scored his 30,000th career point vs the Spurs - Getty

LeBron James made it to the league straight out of high school in 2003 with just 19 years old and he hasn’t taken his feet off the gas ever seen. He’s never averaged less than 20.9 points per game on a season, yet people don’t think of him as a scorer.

James’ durability and consistency over his fantastic career made him the youngest player ever to score 1,000; 5,000; 10,000; 15,000; 20,000; 25,000; 30,000 career points and he’s the only one that surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s 38,387 points to become the league’s all-time leading scorer.

3. Worst Record In NBA History

The Bobcats lost their last 23 games of the season - Getty

The 2011-12 season was cut short due to the lockdown, so teams played 66 games instead of 82 and if you were a fan of the Charlotte Bobcats back then, you must’ve been grateful to see the season come to an early finish.

The Bobcats won just 7 games, which would be good for a winning average of .106. To make things even worst, they didn’t end up with the 1st overall pick, which turned out to be Anthony Davis. Instead, they used the 2nd pick in Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. Yikes.

2. Longest Regular-Season Home Winning Streak

Steve Kerr holds a 70.9% winning percentage with the Warriors - Getty

Steve Kerr completely turned the Golden State Warriors’ franchise around. He took a team full of talent and took them a step forward to build one of the strongest dynasties in the history of the game.

The Warriors were just unbeatable in the Oracle Arena from 2015 to 16, as they won 54 straight regular-season games on their own turf. They also won multiple championships under Kerr.

1. Most Rings

Auerbach, Russell, and the Celtics won 11 straight titles - Getty

There have been more than 70 NBA championships. Phil Jackson has 13 of them (11 as a coach, 2 as a player), as well as Bill Russell (11 as a player, 2 as a coach). However, Red Auerbach holds the record with 16 rings (9 as a coach, 7 as an executive).

That means Auerbach has more rings than 29 franchises, while Jackson and Russell only trail the Celtics (17) and Lakers (16). Put together, they hold 42 rings, which is just absurd. You can’t write the history of basketball without talking about them.

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25 incredible NBA records unlikely to be broken