John Stockton, Magic Johnson, Oscar Robertson, and Bob Cousy are widely considered the greatest ever at delivering assists in the NBA. Stockton holds the record for most total assists in a career, with 15,806. Behind him is Mark Jackson, whose 10,334 assists are a distant second to Stockton's total. Magic Johnson holds the record for most average apg for a career with 11.2, Stockton is second with 10.5. Stockton holds the most per season with 14.5. Stockton, Jackson, and Johnson were all point guards. Oscar Robertson had 9,887 career assists at a time when assists were only awarded for field goals made without a dribble. He was the first player to average more than 10 assists per game in a season, and led the NBA in assists six times. Cousy led the league in assists eight straight seasons. The NBA single-game assist record is 30, held by Scott Skiles of the Orlando Magic against the Denver Nuggets, on December 30, 1990.
WOW, I had no idea that they actually didn't count an assist for a single dribble. I wonder what the leaders would actually look like if the rule was the same for Cousey and Robertson, as it's been for today's players, or the other way around. Anyways, it's certainly seems unfair that they count the assist differently all of a sudden, and it just makes it look like players lacked passing fundamentals or something, when in fact that was not the case. So when Chamberlain led the league in assist with 8.6 apg, it probably was closer to 11-13 by today's count? The year before he had 7.8apg, which was good 3rd in the NBA. Considering that the 1967-68 76ers scored 122.6ppg, something tells me he definitely was able to get more than 10apg two seasons in a row. So maybe he was the first, and only ever to have 2 triple doubles?
Discuss.
