Carrying the Load
Players who accounted for the largest percentage of their team's total in the five major statistical categories.
As a follow-up to last week’s post on One-Man Bands (i.e., players who led their team in points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks), I decided to look at players who accounted for the largest percentage of their team’s total in each of the five major statistical categories.
Points
Wilt Chamberlain scored an NBA-record 4,029 points in 1961-62, accounting for 40.15% of the Philadelphia Warriors’ team total. He recorded 45 50-point games that season, 14 more such games than the career total of any other player in NBA history (Michael Jordan, 31).
Chamberlain’s season high was 100 points versus the New York Knicks on March 2, 1962, while his season low was 26 points against the Boston Celtics on Feb. 24, 1962. The 1961-62 season opener marked the start of a 106-game streak in which Chamberlain scored at least 25 points, the longest such streak in NBA history by a whopping 59 games.
The 1961-62 Warriors finished second in the Eastern Division with a record of 49-33. In the playoffs, they lost in the Eastern Division Finals to the Boston Celtics in a tense 7-game series.
This was the third of seven consecutive seasons in which Chamberlain led the NBA in points, tied with Michael Jordan for the longest such streak in NBA history. It was also the third of four straight seasons in which Chamberlain was the league leader in both points and rebounds. No other player in NBA history has even done that in back-to-back seasons.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Statitudes to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.