Podium Points
Applying standard track meet scoring to NBA league leaders.
At a standard track meet, points are awarded to the top eight finishers in each event. The process is pretty simple:
The winner earns 10 points.
The runner-up earns 8 points.
Third through eighth places earn 6, 5, 4 ,3, 2, and 1 point, respectively.
I thought it would be fun to apply this scoring system to NBA season leaders, focusing on the five primary statistics: points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks (both totals and per-game averages). A career score can be obtained in each category by summing the player’s season scores.
Points
The top eight scorers for points are:
Michael Jordan, 110
LeBron James, 98
Karl Malone, 92
Wilt Chamberlain, 82
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 80
Kobe Bryant, 77
Bob Pettit, 65
Kevin Durant, 65
Michael Jordan led the NBA in points 11 times, four more than any other player. In fact, those were the only seasons in which he placed in the top eight. Jordan’s ranks in his four other seasons were 191st (1985-86, broken foot), 192nd (1994-95, came out of retirement late in the season), 34th (2001-02), and 18th (2002-03).
LeBron James, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, paces all players with 15 podium finishes, two more than Karl Malone. He’s only led the league in points once (2017-18), but has eight runner-up finishes.
Points Per Game
Rather than go through the various qualification changes that have been made over time, I used the current minimum of 70% of team games played. I applied this standard for all of the per-game statistics that follow.
That said, here are the top eight scorers for points per game:
Michael Jordan, 108
Kobe Bryant, 86
LeBron James, 85
Karl Malone, 81
Wilt Chamberlain, 79
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 79
Allen Iverson, 76
Kevin Durant, 68
Michael Jordan once again paces all players, this time with 10 first-place finishes. Although he led the NBA in total points in 1984-85, his rookie campaign, Jordan finished third in scoring average behind Bernard King and Larry Bird.
Karl Malone never led the league in points per game, but he finished second five times and third four times. His 13 appearances in the top eight tie him with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Kobe Bryant for second overall, one shy of LeBron James’ total.
Rebounds
I should note the NBA began tracking rebounds in 1950-51, the league’s fifth season. Here are the top eight scorers for rebounds over that period:
Wilt Chamberlain, 126
Bill Russell, 105
Dwight Howard, 97
Moses Malone, 85
Dikembe Mutombo, 75
Bob Pettit, 66
Tim Duncan, 63
Dennis Rodman, 62
Andre Drummond, 62
Wilt Chamberlain had 11 first-place finishes, five more than any other player. He placed in the top two in 13 of his 14 seasons, the lone exception being the 1969-70 campaign, when he only appeared in only 12 games due to injury.
Chamberlain, Bill Russell, and Dwight Howard tied for the most seasons in the top eight, each doing so 13 times. Howard ranks second behind Chamberlain with his six first-place finishes.
Rebounds Per Game
On a per-game basis, the top eight scorers in rebounds are:
Wilt Chamberlain, 126
Bill Russell, 98
Moses Malone, 93
Dwight Howard, 92
Dikembe Mutombo, 74
Andre Drummond, 64
Bob Pettit, 62
Charles Barkley, 61
Kevin Garnett, 61
I should note the NBA has a provision that says if a player would have led the league in a given category had he played the required number of games, then that player would be considered the league leader. I did not apply this provision, mainly because I didn’t want to do the extra programming (don’t judge me, this is a free post).
I’m bringing this up now because it affects Dennis Rodman, among others. For example, in the 1994-95 season he had 823 rebounds in 49 games, an average of 16.8 per game. Giving him nine games of zero rebounds (to get him to 58 games) would bring that figure down to 14.2 RPG, which would still be higher than any other player. But once again, I didn’t do this. Sorry, Dennis.
Wilt Chamberlain placed in the top eight 13 times, one more than Bill Russell, Moses Malone, and Dwight Howard. Chamberlain never finished lower than second (11 firsts and two seconds), while Russell never ranked lower than third (four firsts, five seconds, and three thirds).
Assists
The top eight scorers for assists are:
John Stockton, 125
Bob Cousy, 111
Oscar Robertson, 98
Jason Kidd, 92
Chris Paul, 90
Steve Nash, 85
Magic Johnson, 82
Guy Rodgers, 73
The durable John Stockton played 19 seasons, placing in the top eight in assists in 17 of them. His nine first-place finishes are one more than the runner-up (Bob Cousy) and occurred in consecutive seasons (1987-88 to 1995-96).
Guy Rodgers ranked either first or second in assists for eight consecutive seasons (1959-60 to 1966-67). Upon his retirement following the 1969-70 season, Rodgers ranked third in NBA history in assists behind Oscar Robertson and Bob Cousy (he’s now 23rd).
Assists Per Game
Below are the top eight scorers for assists per game:
John Stockton, 123
Bob Cousy, 111
Chris Paul, 111
Oscar Robertson, 107
Jason Kidd, 106
Magic Johnson, 90
Steve Nash, 79
Guy Rodgers, 72
As with assists, John Stockton finished in the top eight in assists per game in 17 of his 19 seasons. He leads all players with nine first-place finishes, once again one more than Bob Cousy.
Magic Johnson placed either first or second in 10 of his 11 qualifying seasons. The lone exception was his rookie campaign, when he ranked seventh. He averaged at least 10 APG for nine straight season (1982-83 to 1990-91).
Steals
The NBA began tracking steals and blocks in 1973-74. The top eight scorers for steals over that span are:
Chris Paul, 85
Michael Jordan, 68
John Stockton, 66
Alvin Robertson, 58
Mookie Blaylock, 57
Jason Kidd, 56
Allen Iverson, 49
Doug Christie, 46
Chris Paul led the NBA in steals a record five times, one more than Michael Ray Richardson. Richardson doesn’t appear on the list above, but his 43 points are good for 10th place. He would almost definitely rank higher, but Richardson was banned for life by then-NBA-commissioner David Stern following the 1985-86 season after his third positive drug test in three seasons. He was only 30 years old at the time.
Some of Jordan’s steal numbers have been called into question. Tom Haberstroh first examined this for Yahoo Sports, which inspired me to take a closer look at some extreme home/road splits. For example, after adjusting for playing time, Jordan had a home/road differential of plus-74 steals in 1987-88, easily the highest such figure in the period I examined.
Steals Per Game
Here are the top eight scorers for steals per game:
Chris Paul, 98
Mookie Blaylock, 70
Alvin Robertson, 65
Michael Jordan, 64
Allen Iverson, 62
John Stockton, 60
Jason Kidd, 53
Michael Ray Richardson, 46
Chris Paul once again takes the top spot. The difference between Paul and runner-up Mookie Blaylock (28 points) is as large as the difference between Blaylock and ninth-place Maurice Cheeks.
Jason Kidd never led the league in steals per game, but he placed in the top eight 14 times, two more than any other player. His last podium spot was an eighth-place finish in 2010-11, a season in which he turned 38 years old.
Blocks
The top eight scorers for blocks are:
Hakeem Olajuwon, 85
Dikembe Mutombo, 83
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 76
Mark Eaton, 73
Rudy Gobert, 60
David Robinson, 58
Shawn Bradley, 54
Tim Duncan, 53
Dikembe Mutombo was the league leader more times than any other player (five), but he was edged out for the top spot by Hakeem Olajuwon. Olajuwon placed in the top eight 14 times (tying him with Tim Duncan for the most ever), including 11 top-four finishes.
Blocks were not recorded in Abdul-Jabbar’s first four seasons. He finished second to Elmore Smith in the first season they were tracked, which started a run of 11 consecutive seasons in which he ranked in the top eight.
Blocks Per Game
Below are the top eight scorers for blocks per game:
Hakeem Olajuwon, 82
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 79
Dikembe Mutombo, 78
Mark Eaton, 70
Alonzo Mourning, 61
David Robinson, 57
Tim Duncan, 56
Marcus Camby, 54
Anthony Davis, 54
Mark Eaton placed either first or second in this category for seven consecutive seasons (1982-83 to 1988-89). He holds the NBA records for highest blocks per game average in a season (5.6, 1984-85) and a career (3.5).
Although he never led the league, Tim Duncan ranked in the top eight 15 times, two more than any other player. His best showing was a second-place finish in the 2004-05 season.