The NBA's most unbreakable records: John Stockton will never be dethroned

As the cliche goes, "records are meant to be broken," but sometimes, records are impossible to break. Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a game on March 2, 1962, and the closest we've seen a player come close to that was Kobe Bryant scoring 81 on January 22, 2006. With the modern reliance on the three-point shot, it's become more likely that a player could break Chamberlain's record.

On December 8th, Chris Paul dished 10 assists against the New Orleans Pelicans and officially became second on the NBA all-time assists list. Currently sitting on 12,120 assists, Paul is still 3,686 assists behind John Stockton, who leads the NBA with 15,806 career assists.

Stockton is regarded as one of the best passers ever, and many fans consider him the second-best passer behind Magic Johnson. Due to his longevity, Stockton holds what might be the most unbreakable record in the history of the NBA.

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What would it take to break John Stockton's assist record?

Stockton played a total of 1,504 games during his career. He played 19 seasons, and in 17 of those he played every single game (16 seasons were 82 games, and the 1999 season had 50 games) while missing just 22 games throughout his career.

He has the second-highest assist per-game average at 10.5 per game. From the 1987-88 season to the 1995-96 season, he led the league in assists, averaging 13.1 per game during that stretch. That includes the single-season assist record with 14.5 per game and 1,164 total in a season.

Chris Paul, who is second all-time in total assists, is in his 20th season but has the fifth-highest assist per game average at 9.3 and has played in 1299 games. At this point in his career, he won't play long enough to beat Stockton's record. If he wanted to, and kept his career average of 9.3 assists, he would have to play in 397 more games or five more seasons.

What exactly does a player have to do to beat his record? If a player were to average 10 assist per game for their entire career, they would have to play in a total of 1,581 games. That is the equivalent of playing in 19.3 seasons or playing in 20 seasons without missing more than 59 games.

Trae Young is currently third all-time in assist per game at 9.7. Through his first seven years, he's played in 434 games and has 4,198 assists. Stockton during his first 434 games had 4,284 assists but did that at the beginning of his sixth season. During his first seven seasons, Stockton had 6,239 assists. For Young to match Stockton's total through his first seven year, he would have to play the remaining 54 games and average 37.8 assists per game to catch that pace.  

If Young kept his pace of 9.7 assists, he would have to play in 1,197 games. Meaning if he played the remaining 54 games, he'd have to play 14 more seasons, putting him in his 21st season at 40 years old. He would also not have to miss a game for the rest of his career.

What makes Stockton's record so unbreakable is that he played longer than most players, was healthy enough to rarely miss games, had Karl Malone for 18 of those seasons, and had the second highest scoring assist record. With the current state of the NBA, no player will be healthy enough to accumulate as many assists as Stockton did. This record is safe.