We might never see players like LeBron James or Wayne Gretzky again . and they’re not the only ones who have put up records that seemingly can’t be broken.
LeBron James passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar last season to become the NBA’s all-time scoring leader, topping a record that stood for almost 40 years. Now he has added to his record total in epic fashion.
James dropped the 40,000th point of his career on Saturday night against the Denver Nuggets. He’s the only player in NBA history with 40,000 points in the regular season. By comparison, Kevin Durant — the next-highest active player — has only 28,342 points, nearly 12,000 behind James‘ mark. Durant is also only four years younger than James, giving him a nearly impossible mountain to climb to make up that deficit.
That got us thinking about other sports records that are seemingly unreachable, whether it’s because of the way the game has changed since they were set, the absurd talent of their holders as compared to the rest of the league or a mixture of both. Here’s a short list of records you’ll probably never see broken — at least not in our lifetimes.
Active leader: Derrick Henry (9,502)
Dallas Cowboys great Emmitt Smith broke Chicago Bears legend Walter Payton’s all-time rushing record of 16,726 yards in 2002. Of course, Smith wasn’t quite finished yet; he played for 2½ more seasons, winding up with 18,355 rushing yards.
This is a milestone that is unlikely to ever be broken. For one thing, it’s Emmitt Smith we’re talking about. The man rushed for 1,000-yard seasons like clockwork basically forever. But the NFL also has changed quite a bit since then. Offenses don’t focus on running backs like they used to, and playing as long as Smith did as a ball carrier is seemingly impossible.
Active leader: Julio Jones (13,703)
Rice had an incredible 14 seasons with 1,000 or more receiving yards, including three with more than 1,500. A big part of this was his incredible durability; he only played fewer than 16 games two out of his 21 years. Rice also had the good fortune of going from one Hall of Fame quarterback (Joe Montana) to another (Steve Young). But let’s be real: Rice was more or less uncoverable for two straight decades all on his own.
