Ranking LeBron James’s 10 most unbreakable NBA records

LeBron James has appeared in 1,610 regular-season NBA games. That means when he next takes the court, he will be playing in his 1,611th regular-season game, tying him with Robert Parish for the most in league history. Soon after, he will claim the record for himself. It won’t be his first.

Just how many NBA records does LeBron James hold? That’s not really an answerable question. Earlier this month, Fadeaway World’s Gautam Varier claimed that he has 43 major NBA records. If you search for James on the Wikipedia page for NBA regular-season records, his name comes up 82 times, not including photos or citations. Add another 37 for the playoff page. Depending on how specific and obscure you’re willing to get, the real number could get a whole lot bigger.

As the headline suggests, we’re ranking the most unbreakable of his many, many records. But considering we don’t really know how many records he actually holds, we’re going to have to take some steps to trim the list before we really begin. So here’s how I did so:

• Records relating to age are off-limits. James has a number of records in which he was the youngest player ever to do something. Well, he jumped from high school straight into the NBA and that isn’t allowed anymore. Those records can’t be broken. As far as instances in which he was the oldest player to do something, they’re just a bit boring. It basically amounts to someone being very good very late in their career, and predicting that doesn’t seem especially interesting as medical science improves.
• Records that combine multiple statistics are off limits. James is the only player with 10,000 points, rebounds and assists, for instance, but I’d categorize that as less of a “record” and more of an achievement. A record, for our purposes, has to involve leading a specific category.
• No records that only certain players can reach. For example, James is the only player to win Finals MVP for three teams. I doubt anyone ever matches this feat. But some Finals MVPs spend their entire careers with a single team, so they literally can’t win it for three of them. For a record to be worth chronicling, it has to be feasibly available to anyone.
• Where there is overlap, I made judgment calls to combine certain records. For example, James holds the record for most All-NBA and All-Star selections. These are separate records, but generally speaking, if a player makes All-NBA, he probably made All-Star as well. They function similarly as measures of excellence, even if one is slightly more meaningful than the other. So they’re combined. The same broadly applies to minutes, games and seasons, all James records. They are all, functionally, playing time records. In these instances, the record listed will be the most impressive within the category. For this reason, we will be choosing only a single playoff record as his most unbreakable playoff record.

So where does that leave us? James holds lifetime records in three box score statistics. Then, there are six broad categories in which James holds multiple records: “playing time,” “mid/end-of-season honors,” “advanced stats,” “playoffs,” “streaks” and “volume scoring.” In these categories, I picked what I considered to be the most unbreakable record of the set. Finally, there is one record that I consider remarkably impressive, but couldn’t really categorize. It arguably falls into one of our forbidden categories, but I’ll justify its inclusion when we get there. Conveniently, that allows us to rank a top 10.

10. Most opponents against whom he has scored 40 points (30)

This is our immediate miscellaneous record. I didn’t know how to categorize it, but it felt wrong not to acknowledge the absurdity of a single player having a 40-point game against all 30 teams at some point in his career. Bill Russell, the greatest player of his generation, never scored 40 even once.

Now, your likely question here is why this doesn’t fall into the “only certain players can break this record” category? After all, a player who spends his entire career with a single team can’t score 40 against all 30 NBA teams. The counter here is the same reason this record ranks last on our list: expansion. There is a good chance the NBA soon will have 32 teams. If that’s the case, a star who spends his entire career on a single team could still score 40 against the other 31, technically breaking this record. If that player moves, he could even get all 32.

Because of expansion, this is a record that’s theoretically meant to be broken. Michael Jordan scored 40 against 27 teams. There were only 29 teams at most in the league during his heyday, and he never got 40 against the Raptors or Grizzlies, both of whom joined the league near the end of Jordan’s Chicago run. Kobe Bryant got to 29, but obviously never did it against the Lakers. So I imagine this record will be broken if the league expands. For now, it’s still a remarkable rarity.

9. Most turnovers (5,615)

Hey, not all records are positive. James has played so long and handled the ball so much that this record almost became an inevitability. Whether or not this record is breakable, I believe, comes down to playing style trends over time.

The five highest single-season turnover totals in NBA history have come within the past decade. All of them belong to two players: James Harden and Russell Westbrook, with Westbrook ranking second in league history in total turnovers. This makes a bit more sense in light of the ways the game changed throughout James’ career. When he arrived, traditional point guards were still common. Thanks in part to his ability to run an offense as a bigger forward, more teams started building pick-and-roll-heavy, heliocentric offenses around their best scorers. Players like Westbrook and Harden aren’t traditional point guards, but they racked up so much usage at their peaks that they could accumulate massive turnover totals.

At the moment, thanks to teams like the Thunder and Celtics, the NBA is prioritizing winning the turnover battle. Offenses aren’t as heliocentric as they were a decade ago, so I don’t know if anyone will approach this record in the near future. But playing style trends come and go, and they’re often based on a few outlier players. If another Harden or Westbrook comes around, I could eventually see someone challenging this record. I just don’t view it as immediately likely.

8. Most 20-point games (1,316)

James holds the records for 10-, 20- and 30-point games, but 20 is the most impressive of the three. He only recently passed Michael Jordan’s 562 30-point games, so that figure (576) seems pretty gettable considering how little breathing room James has. The 10-point record, meanwhile, feels akin to the games played record. If someone is ever good enough to play as many games as James, they’re probably going to score 10 points in most of them. As you’ll see, games played is not the playing time record we chose.

To put this record into perspective, there are 1,312 games across 16 82-game seasons. Therefore, you’d have to at least play into your 17th season while scoring 20 points every single night to challenge this record. More likely, with injuries, off-nights, age-related decline and bad luck, this is a 20-season or more endeavor. I have a hard time imagining this one breaking. The only thing that gives me pause is the fact that individual scoring, between increased spacing, a faster pace and a number of other playing style trends, is a bit easier now than it was when James arrived. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander just broke the record for most consecutive 20-game streaks, so if the right scorer stayed healthy long enough, this one might be feasible.

7. Most regular-season points (43,210)

This is probably the most famous of James’ record and maybe even the most notable. It doesn’t quite hold the same gravitas, but it functions similarly to Major League Baseball’s home run record. “Who scored the most points” is the quickest, simplest measure of excellence. It just isn’t necessarily the most accurate.

The sport changes so much over time that whenever this record is broken, it’s done so in pretty drastically different ways. Wilt Chamberlain held it before Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did, but he played against less athletically gifted competition at a much faster pace. That’s part of what made Abdul-Jabbar breaking the record so notable. He did it under more difficult circumstances. James, on the other hand, probably had it a bit easier because he had access to the 3-point line.

But this is what makes the record somewhat vulnerable. James has never been an especially prolific 3-point shooter. What if someone matches his durability, but does so as an elite scorer both inside and outside of the arc? Or, if we’re willing to get a bit more creative, what if the NBA ever adds a 4-point line? That’s not exactly likely, but given some of the complaints about today’s 3-point-heavy style and how much better shooters are getting over time, it can’t be ruled out. James should hold this one for a long time, but I’d stop short of calling it unbreakable.

6. Most VORP (158.68)

James is the all-time leader in Win Shares as well, but his VORP (Value Above Replacement Player) lead is the most impressive of his advanced statistical records. Here’s the easiest way to look at it: Michael Jordan is second all-time in VORP at 116.05. For his career, Isiah Thomas had a VORP of 41.59. That essentially means if you combined the regular-season careers of Michael Jordan and Isiah Thomas in this particular metric, you’d get LeBron James. Nikola Jokić has led the NBA in VORP six years in a row, and he’s only about halfway to LeBron. I have a very hard time seeing this record getting broken. It would require Jokić either extending his prime deep into his 30s or playing into his 40s.

5. Most minutes (60,672)

James set the all-time record for seasons played this year at 23, but Vince Carter just reached 22 less than a decade ago. Players last longer today than they once did. James may play next season, but the notion that someone might suit up in 25 different NBA seasons, while not exactly likely, seems somewhat plausible. The games played record is similarly attainable. James will pass Robert Parish, but remember, Parish played decades ago. If he could last as long as he did, I have to imagine a younger player could as well under the right circumstances.

But the odds of someone playing as many minutes as James has seem minuscule. There are only 11 active players who have played half as many minutes as James has. Some of that is longevity, of course. James holds the minutes per game record for 37, 40 and 41 year olds. Some of that is quality. You have to remain very good for very long to rack up this many minutes. But the kicker here is how the league is changing. Tyrese Maxey leads the NBA with 38.3 minutes per game this season. He would have ranked 18th in LeBron’s rookie year of 2004. Players simply don’t play as many minutes as they used to. For someone to realistically play the number of minutes James has, they’d have to play substantially more games than him. Considering that’s a record he’s about to own, the odds don’t feel great.

4. Most field goals (15,889)

So, remember the logic we used in arguing for the all-time points record as plausibly breakable? It was dependent on 3-pointers. Someone could outscore James by taking different shots. But if you’re only counting the number of shots a player makes and not considering where they came from, things get a whole lot harder.

Case in point: James broke Abdul-Jabbar’s scoring record years ago, but he didn’t break his field goal record until two weeks ago. Kareem racked up his points without shooting 3s. James shoots enough 3s to have caught him in points years ago, but even if 3s are more efficient, they don’t go in the basket nearly as often as layups and skyhooks. This is the problem any modern record-chaser is going to face. If you’re scoring at a LeBron-level rate at this point in league history, you’re probably doing it by shooting more 3s than he does, which means you’re probably missing more shots than he was even if you’re scoring at an overall more efficient rate. 

At his peak, James made 748 2-pointers in a season. Can you guess the last player not named Giannis Antetokounmpo to do that? It was Dwyane Wade… in 2009. To break this record, you’d likely have to score most of your points the way Antetokounmpo does, but also be more durable than Antetokounmpo has been. Good luck finding a player like that who’s racking up field goals into his 40s.

3. Most playoff points (8.289)

Here’s where you start to venture into well and truly unbreakable territory. LeBron James has more playoff points than Stephen Curry and Larry Bird combined. He has more playoff points than his three most notable playoff sidekicks, Dwyane Wade, Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis, combined. The gap between James and No. 2 playoff scorer Michael Jordan is bigger than the gap between Jordan and No. 18 Magic Johnson… and he can still add to it before he retires.

You just need so many things to go right to realistically challenge for a record like this. James holds the all-time playoff games played record (292) while ranking sixth in playoff points per game (28.4). This essentially means that you have to be an all-time scorer, yes, but you also need to be on a team that’s consistently winning three playoff series in order to maximize the number of playoff games you’re able to participate in. James has made the NBA Finals 10 times. That took individual greatness, historic durability and a pretty weak Eastern Conference. Someone might match him on one front. There’s an outside chance someone matches him on two. I can’t imagine someone matching him on all three.

2. Most consecutive 10-point regular-season games (1,297)

This is a tricky record because of that regular-season distinction. If you include the playoffs, James lost his streak in the 2011 NBA Finals and then again in the 2014 Eastern Conference Finals. With the playoffs included, Michael Jordan’s 1,045 consecutive 10-point games beat LeBron’s 865-game high. But we’re not here to rank how impressive these records are. We’re here to rank how unbreakable they are, and even if Jordan has a claim to the 10-game streak record, the regular-season record does technically belong to James at just below 1,300.

That record, on its own, is basically unbreakable. It’s not just the scoring in and of itself. It’s the consistent minutes. Breaking this record means never suffering a first-quarter injury across 16 seasons worth of games. Twist your ankle once and the streak is gone. Get called for two quick technical fouls and the streak is gone. James has a lot of streak records, but the mere fact that he was never pulled out of a game before losing this record for so long is what makes it untouchable. This streak would be so obscenely easy to lose and yet, for nearly 16 seasons, James never did.

1. Most All-NBA selections (21)

LeBron James has been selected as a First-Team All-NBA player 13 times. Only five players — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Karl Malone and Shaquille O’Neal — have been elected to more overall All-NBA teams. Speaking of which, James has been elected as either a Second-Team or Third-Team choice eight more times. Only 37 players in history have made eight All-NBA teams of any variety. Put those two numbers together and James has made six more All-NBA teams than any other player. People make the Hall of Fame for far less than six All-NBA teams. Kawhi Leonard has made six All-NBA teams.

Now, could you argue that James’ 22 All-Star selections are just as unreachable? Sure. But here’s the difference: to make an All-Star Team, you can only be selected by fans and bypass quality checks, but you only have to be great (or, more realistically, healthy) for half of a season. To make an All-NBA team, you now need to play at least 65 games. And here’s the kicker… no player in NBA history, not even LeBron James, has played 65 games (or the shortened-season equivalent) 21 times. Putting aside greatness, this record would require either a rule change that does not appear imminent or longevity and durability that even LeBron James didn’t have. It’s never happening. This record will live forever, or at least until they allow robots to play in the NBA.