Pistons’ Jalen Duren beats Wilt Chamberlain to seize all-time NBA history originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Detroit Pistons earned the top seed in the Eastern Conference for a lot of different reasons.
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One of the main ones is that center Jalen Duren blossomed into one of the best centers in the NBA.
Duren finished the season averaging 19.5 points, 10.5 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game. He shot 65% from the floor.
He’s actually only the second player in NBA history to average 19 points in a season while shooting at least 65%, according to Pistons podcaster Keith Black Trudeau. The only other was Wilt Chamberlain in 1967.
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And if you add in Duren’s free throw percentage (74%), he beats Wilt — no player has ever had those three stats together in the league’s history.
It’s incredibly rare for modern players to ever find themselves in the same mention as Chamberlain. That inherently makes this an incredible feat for Duren.
It’s especially impressive given that in his first three NBA seasons he averaged 9.1, 13.8 and 11.8 points per game. He upped his scoring considerably this season while maintaining high-level efficiency.
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To be fair to Chamberlain, his numbers were a bit bigger in that 1966-67 season. He averaged 24.1 points, 24.2 rebounds and 7.8 assists per game while shooting 68.3% from the floor. His free throw shooting was ghastly, though, just 44.1%.
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This all can be framed in multiple ways. Clearly, Duren had a special season, but also clearly, he’s not Wilt Chamberlain.
It’s just one more way to capture all the good things that are happening in Detroit, and the Pistons will hope this continued growth can carry into the playoffs for a potential deep run in the postseason.
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