Every sports fan is familiar with the saying, “that records are made to be broken”. In most cases it is true, but I can think of several sports records that will NEVER be broken. No one will win 511 games as an MLB pitcher like Cy Young.  (Walter Johnson is SECOND with 417.)  No one will get 4256 career hits like Pete Rose. (Ty Cobb is second with 4189.) The way the MLB pitching staff’s are currently being used; it doesn’t seem likely that many players will even get to the coveted 3,000 career hits. (They see 5 different pitchers in a game.) Wayne Gretzky’s career point total of 2,857 seems unapproachable. As does Jerry Rice’s career touchdown record of 208. There are a few other records in major sports that seem unreachable. Here are some NBA records that I think are out of reach. 

To no one’s surprise that has followed the NBA for any period Wilt Chamberlain is the proud owner of many of these records. I will begin with one of the more obscure records that Wilt owns. In the 1961-62 season he averaged 48.5 minutes PER Game. The games are only 48 minutes long, but Wilt played every second of every game except for the 8 minutes and 33 seconds he missed when he got ejected for committing his second technical foul in a game against the Lakers. (Add in overtimes during the season and you get an average of 48.5.) The league leaders in that category in the last 13 years, don’t even get to 40 minutes per game. 

Wilt averaged 50.4 points a game during the 61-62 season as well as averaging 25.7 rebounds. In the 77-year history of the NBA, the 2nd highest average is 37.1 by Michael Jordan. 

In his second year in the NBA, 1960-61, Wilt led the league with an astounding 27.2 rebounds per game. Only Russell, Lucas, and Thurmond have averaged 20 rebounds a game for a season. Wilt did it 12 times. 

Wilt Chamberlain corralled 55 rebounds in a single game on Nov. 24, 1960, against the Celtics in a LOSING cause. The Celtics, even with the great rebounder Bill Russell, had a TEAM total of 59 rebounds. 

Finally, Wilt played in the NBA for 14 years and still holds over 70 NBA records. Perhaps the most known is the night in Hersey, Pa. in 1962 when he scored 100 points against the Knicks. Kobe Bryant scored 81 in a game against the Raptors in 2006. I think that this record could be challenged in the future with the 3-point shot gaining more and more significance in the way the game is played. I wouldn’t bet my house on it, BUT just saying. 

Bill Russell has 11 NBA Championship rings, enough said. 

AC Green played in 1192 CONSECUTIVE games. Only 53 players have even played in 1192 NBA games. 

John Stockton is the career assists leader with 15,806. Jason Kidd is second with 12,091. (3,715 fewer and he played for 19 years in the league.) To beat that record, a player would have to average 10.5 assists a game for over 18 years, WITHOUT missing a game. 

A more undesirable record that will never be broken is Rasheed Wallace’s 41 technical fouls in a season. In today’s game a player gets suspended after his 16th tech and continues to get an additional suspension for every 2 technical fouls.  

Finally, I couldn’t finish this post without mentioning all the career record possibilities that LeBron James has before him. IF he stays healthy and plays out his two-year contract, he will establish records that, like Wilt, will be talked about 50 years from now.