National Basketball Association all-time rebounding leaders 1946-2025

Wilt Chamberlain is the all-time rebound leader of the National Basketball Association with a total of 23,924 rebounds in his career. Meanwhile, the highest ranked player still active in the NBA is LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers, who had a total of 11,661 rebounds to his name as of March 2025.

Basketball legends

In basketball, a rebound is defined as a player either retrieving the ball after a missed field goal or free throw or tipping in a missed shot on an offensive play. Wilt Chamberlain is the undisputed king of the rebounds, having racked up almost 24 thousand in his 14-year career as a center in the NBA. Chamberlain spent the last five years of his career with the Los Angeles Lakers. However, the honor of being the Lakers’ all-time rebound leader does not belong to Chamberlain, but rather to Elgin Baylor. The small forward spent his whole career, 13 seasons in total, with the Lakers and amassed 11,463 rebounds. The remaining top five in the list of Lakers rebound leaders is made up of other legends of the game - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kobe Bryant, and Magic Johnson.

All-time scoring leaders

The aforementioned legends of the game also all make it onto the list of NBA all-time scoring leaders. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar topped this list for over 30 years, coming close to breaking the 40 thousand point threshold before retiring in 1989. This record was finally broken in February 2023, when LeBron James scored 38 points in a game against Oklahoma City Thunder.