For the first time in NBA history, a single athlete is poised to top the league in both average assists and rebounds.
In the 53 years since Wilt Chamberlain concluded his NBA career, his name has seldom been invoked with the frequency it has seen during the 2025-26 season.
Just a month prior, Miami’s Bam Adebayo garnered significant media attention by scoring 83 points against Washington, evoking comparisons to Chamberlain’s legendary 100-point game. Two nights later, Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander surpassed Chamberlain’s record of 126 consecutive games with over 20 points, a streak Wilt achieved between 1961 and 1963, by reaching his 127th straight.
Adding to the buzz is the current Rookie of the Year competition, one of the most fiercely contested in recent memory, featuring Charlotte’s Kon Knueppel and Dallas’ Cooper Flagg. These former Duke teammates are vying for the prestigious Wilt Chamberlain Trophy, awarded by media votes to the league’s top newcomers.
Now, as the statistical records for the season draw to a close this Sunday, another link to Wilt emerges: Denver’s Nikola Jokić is on the verge of becoming the first NBA player ever to lead the league in both rebounds per game (12.9) and assists per game (10.9).
A similar achievement, albeit with a slight variation, occurred only once before, in 1967-68, when… you guessed it… Chamberlain paced the NBA in both total rebounds (1,992) and total assists (702).
At that time, total statistics held greater importance, with many players aiming to compete in most, if not all, of their team’s matchups. For the record, Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson led in average assists (9.7) in 1967-68, but he only played 65 games for Cincinnati compared to Chamberlain’s 82. Robertson finished with 633 assists, 69 fewer than Wilt.
It’s also worth noting that while Robertson claimed the scoring title with 29.2 ppg, he was never officially recognized as the first player to lead the NBA in both scoring and assists in the same season. That honor was bestowed upon Nate “Tiny” Archibald in 1972-73, when the Kings’ brilliant point guard achieved all four distinctions: total points, total assists, points per game, and assists per game.
In 1968, Chamberlain accomplished three of these four feats: total rebounds, rebounds per game (23.8), and total assists. Jokić is also projected to achieve three: rebounds per game, assists per game, and total assists (696). Heading into the final weekend, Karl Anthony-Towns (879), Rudy Gobert (872), and Donovan Clingan (869) all have more rebounds than Jokić (828).
The Denver center’s impressive statistical accomplishment, coupled with the Nuggets’ active 11-game winning streak—they’ve gone 14-2 since March 11—should significantly bolster his MVP candidacy and their playoff positioning in the Western Conference. How much impact this will have remains to be seen; last season, averaging a triple-double from the center position only secured him second place in the spring’s MVP voting.
Some historical perspective is necessary here: Up until the 1965-66 season, only two centers, Chamberlain twice and Boston’s Bill Russell once, had ever averaged at least 5.0 assists in a single season. In contrast, Jokić reached 6.1 assists in his third season, has maintained an average of 7+ assists for the past eight years, and holds a career average of 7.5. This marks his second consecutive season averaging a triple-double, with 34 such performances in 64 games thus far.
Other towering players have also shown remarkable passing prowess. These include Bill Walton, Arvydas Sabonis (and his son Domantas), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Alvan Adams, Vlade Divac, Tom Boerwinkle, and Marc Gasol.
However, Wilt’s transformation from the NBA’s most dominant scorer to a premier assist man was truly groundbreaking. As he once remarked, amused by his own versatility: “It’s like Babe Ruth leading the league in sacrifice bunts.”
The Genesis of the Shift: Chamberlain had been traded from San Francisco to Philadelphia the season before. His former Warriors coach, Alex Hannum, commanded Wilt’s utmost respect, a feeling that was mutual. Hannum understood how to motivate Wilt and challenged him to set aside individual statistics in pursuit of, finally, a championship.
Hannum later recounted to author Terry Pluto for his book “Tall Tales: The Glory Years of the NBA” that Wilt proposed a new strategy. “[He] said, ‘You know, I can pass the ball as well as anyone in basketball,’ I said, ‘Fine, let’s see it.’”
Together, they decided to position Chamberlain in the high post. This allowed teammates like Hal Greer and Billy Cunningham ample space to attack the basket, while the big man could showcase his skill in setting them up.
“We’d pass the ball to him and cut past him,” Cunningham shared with Pluto. “Some of the plays resembled old Globetrotter routines where Wilt would feign putting the ball in your stomach… but then he’d snatch it away and pass it to an open man under the basket. He executed all of this with his enormous hand.”
Hannum stated: “Wilt handled the basketball as easily as you or I would a grapefruit. He possessed incredible court vision and precision with his passes.”
This tactical approach helped the 76ers achieve one of the greatest single seasons in NBA history. They finished 68-13, establishing a new record for victories, and effortlessly clinched the 1967 championship with an 11-4 playoff record. For the first time since entering the league in 1959, Chamberlain was not the scoring leader. He averaged 24.1 points, 15.5 below his career average. He reduced his share of Philadelphia’s shots from 24% the previous season to 14%, but his assists surged to 7.8, more than double his career average through seven seasons.
In the 1967-68 season, he further elevated his assists to 8.6 per game, largely to demonstrate his capability.
Chamberlain reflected: “The way I distributed the ball in those years may be what I’m most proud of, because people often claimed, ‘Wilt Chamberlain was selfish, Wilt Chamberlain was one-dimensional.’ When the reality was that Wilt Chamberlain was finally on a team where he was permitted to display his passing abilities.”
Jokić, from the outset, has consistently showcased his vision and willingness to share the ball. His personal best of 19.5 field-goal attempts per game, set last year, places him tied for 473rd all-time. Only Dwight Howard (12,016) has attempted fewer shots while accumulating at least 17,000 points than Jokić (12,262).
Earlier this season, in his 11th year in the league, Jokić broke the record for assists by a center, a milestone that took Abdul-Jabbar (5,660) 20 seasons to establish. New Nuggets players are advised to always keep their hands ready, anticipating passes that perhaps only Jokić can foresee, even when they’re no-look.
Teammate Bruce Brown once told The Athletic a few years ago: “He threw two corner passes to me, and I wasn’t prepared. I fumbled them out of bounds. And I realized, ‘Oh, s—, you literally have to be alert at all times because you simply never know what he’s going to do.’”
While the Nuggets might not always predict the timing of his passes, they certainly know their source.
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Steve Aschburner has covered the NBA since 1980. You can reach him via e-mail here, view his past articles here, and follow his updates on X.