Joel Embiid’s 70-point outburst against Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs further solidifies his back-to-back MVP claim. The leading NBA scorer has been shattering record after record. And what better way to affirm the legendary status than one-upping the king Wilt Chamberlain’s stats, who nabbed numerous records for the 76ers too? During the 1961-62 season, then Philly Center Chamberlain notched numbers that remain unparalleled to the day.
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He played a mind-boggling 48.5 minutes per game in all the possible 80 games and tallied 50.4 points and 25.7 rebounds per game on 50.6%. In terms of points per minute, the number is 1.04. Meanwhile, midway into the season, Joel Embiid is lodging 36.1 points per game in 34.2 minutes while grabbing 11.6 rebounds and dishing 5.9 assists a game. In terms of points per minute, the number is 1.05.
This minute difference of 0.01 with around half of the season left, gives Joel Embiid the all-time highest points per minute rating of 1.05 for a season. To get ahead of the 76ers Chamberlain in a metric like this is indeed praiseworthy. When the Center learned that he eclipsed his GOAT choice in this metric, he was in utter disbelief.
If we look at the points-per-minute list, Joel Embiid’s last season’s scoring average of 33.1 PPG in 34.6 minutes per game also makes an appearance. The 0.96 rating during his MVP season is the sixth-best in all-time points per minute history. If he continues to dip numbers as he has done thus far, he can claim the top spot in the storied list. One notable aspect about Chamberlain is that he played all the possible 78- 80 games during his points-per-minute records.
Meanwhile, Embiid played 66 games last season and has missed 10 out of the 42 possible games thus far. It means he is on pace for another 66-game season. At any rate, his achievement establishes him as one of the best scorers in the history of the league.
The points-per-minute list is dominated by the post-2015 performances
Apart from Embiid and Wilt, Harden’s appearance is prominent too. The former Houston Rockets guard is third on the list for his 2018-19 scoring average of 36.1 points per game in 36.8 minutes per game. This rating of 0.98 points per minute is exceptional for a guard. This was the season following his 2017-18 MVP campaign.
Meanwhile, Giannis Antetokounmpo figures twice in the list, back-to-back as the fourth and fifth highest. His rating of 0.97 is identical in both cases.
The first one came during the 2019-20 season when he tallied 29.5 points per game in 30.4 minutes per game. The other one is from his 2022-23 season when he registered 31.1 points per game in 32.1 minutes per game. Perhaps the most attention-grabbing aspect of the list is that seven of the top points-per-minute performances come from 2018 to 2024.
If we go down the list, such a trend continues or is even more prominent. It proves that scoring averages have significantly increased in recent years. Arguably the rule changes past the 2000s have made the game more scoring-friendly. Taking into account the three-point scoring revolution coupled with rule changes, in this ball-handling big-men era, teams now pose threats from all areas in a distance of 40 feet.
