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Nikola Jokic Broke a Record Long-Held By One of the Greatest Players Of All Time
Nikola Jokic broke Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's record for the most assists in NBA history by a center on Thursday night. The Nuggets center broke the record during a 126-115 win over the Orlando Magic. Jokic finished with a triple-double that included 23 points, 11 rebounds and 13 assists.
In the process he moved past Abdul-Jabbar for 50th all-time on the NBA assists list. After the game he was asked about the milestone and said that it was the kind of thing he'd someday look back at after he retired while sitting on his porch drinking a beer and telling lies to his children.
— Moonball (@moonball30) December 19, 2025
Abdul-Jabbar played 1,560 games in his 20-season career and finished with 5,660 assists. Jokic, in his 11th season, has played in 771 games. John Stockton, the league's all-time leader in assists, played in 1,504 games and had 15,806 assists.
While there's no chance Jokic or anyone else will ever catch Stockton, he should be in the top 20 within a few seasons and then it's just a matter of how long he wants to play. With 29 more assists he'll pass Larry Bird.
Wherever he ends up, Jokic has proven time and again that not only is he one of the best, most skilled passing big men of all time, he's also one of the best ever without the positional qualifier. He's efficient and spectacular and often makes it look effortless at the same time you're wondering how in the heckdid he do that?
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Stephen Douglas is a senior writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has worked in media since 2008 and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Douglas spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and previously wrote for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.