Wilt Chamberlain wasn’t just a scoring champion. He topped the rebounding leaderboards, too, and took the league’s crown in 11 of his 14 seasons, often averaging by himself what an entire frontcourt does in the modern NBA. But the 42 boards he gobbled up 50 years ago Thursday in an overtime win over the Boston Celtics represent his most relevant rebounding feat viewed from today’s context.
Chamberlain’s besting of Bill Russell on the boards wasn’t just the most recent 40-rebound game; it was the last. As in, final; complete; etched, essentially, with chisel in stone.
The modern game has caused records to fall and statistical outliers to erupt at the same frenetic pace as its games are played. Russell Westbrook will average a triple-double over a full season for the third time in a row. James Harden can’t stop climbing historical leaderboards. Klay Thompson set a record by sinking 14 3s in a game, just two years after teammate Steph Curry set the record with 13. Anthony Davis and Jusuf Nurkic posted quintuple-nickels (five each of points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks) just six weeks apart. Two of the 10 records Bill Simmons detailed in his Book of Basketball as the most unbreakable have fallen in the past four years.
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