Each week during the 2024-25 NBA season, we will take a deeper dive into some of the league’s biggest storylines in an attempt to determine whether trends are based more in fact or fiction moving forward.

[Last time: Domantas Sabonis is The Biggest Snub of the 2025 NBA All-Star Game]

Fact or Fiction: Nikola Jokić is enjoying the greatest statistical regular season ever

Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokić, who has won three of the NBA’s past four MVP awards, is enjoying the best statistical season of his career. He is on pace to become the first center to average a triple-double.

It is the sort of season that will force the MVP voting panel to reckon with possible fatigue. Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the biggest threat to Jokić joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell, Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain and LeBron James as the sixth player ever to win four MVPs.

There is no statistical argument for Gilgeous-Alexander, whose 32.6 points per game are leading the league but who is scoring less efficiently than Jokić and averaging significantly fewer assists and rebounds.

It is wild that Gilgeous-Alexander’s season, which marks the 20th-best Player Efficiency Rating in NBA history (31.0), according to Basketball Reference, pales in comparison. But Jokić’s PER (33.4) is the highest ever. Which begs the question: Is Nikola Jokić really enjoying the greatest statistical regular season in history?

We searched far and wide — sorting through the most impressive advanced statistical campaigns of the best players in NBA history — to find the other greatest statistical regular seasons ever and narrowed the list down to six: Chamberlain’s 1961-62 season, Jordan’s 1987-88 season, James’ 2008-09 season, Stephen Curry’s 2015-16 season, Giannis Antetokounmpo’s 2021-22 season and Joel Embiid’s 2022-23 season.

That list covers a lot of ground. It crosses every positional group (guards, swings and bigs) twice. It is, perhaps, overrepresented by the modern era, though the current style of play in the 3-point era — high usage, high efficiency and fast pace — is a breeding ground for incredibly productive statistical seasons.

Coincidentally or not, Jokić, Chamberlain, Antetokounmpo, Jordan, James, Curry and Embiid have combined to produce 21 of the 22 highest single-season PERs in history. Gilgeous-Alexander is the only other player to crack that list. And those aforementioned seasons represent each player’s highest PER.

We understand that advanced statistics are not an exact science. We should also not discredit a statistic that yielded the two seasons that immediately jump to mind when we are discussing history’s greatest — the campaigns in which Chamberlain averaged 50 points per game and Jordan won both MVP and DPOY.

We had to trim the list somehow. Apologies to Oscar Robertson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, David Robinson, Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden. Each won MVPs. Each produced incredible statistical seasons. None of them deserved to crack this list of six.

Let Jokić take on the rest, one by one.

Joel Embiid, 2022-23 vs. Nikola Jokić, 2024-25

In retrospect — and in real time — Jokić deserved the MVP award in 2023. He scored more efficiently, averaged more rebounds, assists and steals, and edged Embiid in most advanced statistical categories.

And Jokić is better this season in every regard than he was two years ago.

In addition to his advantage in efficiency, Jokić’s 29.8 points and 10.3 assists have yielded 53.7 points per game this season. Two years ago, when Embiid secured his MVP, his 33.1 points and 4.2 assists produced 43.7 points per game. If my math is right that is a difference of 10 points a night.

Advantage: Jokić

Giannis Antetokounmpo, 2021-22 vs. Nikola Jokić, 2024-25

Here is a wild stat: Jokić has almost already amassed as many win shares at the All-Star break than Antetokounmpo did in his most recent MVP season. Antetokounmpo did not even lead the league in PER that season. You know who did? Jokić, in a preview of the dominance he has displayed for five years.

Advanced stats not your bag? Antetokounmpo in 2022 and Jokić this season are all but a wash in scoring, rebounds and combined steals and blocks. Look at those assists, though. In 49 games so far, Jokić has logged 100 more assists than Antetokounmpo did in 67 games of his MVP campaign.

Advantage: Jokić

Stephen Curry, 2015-16 vs. Nikola Jokić, 2024-25

What a season that was for Curry — the greatest long-distance shooting season in NBA history. Jokić is essentially scoring at the same rate and same efficiency as Curry did in 2016. That in itself is incredible.

Theirs are the most efficient high-volume scoring seasons ever.

What’s more: Jokić could not register another assist or rebound for the remainder of the season and still average as many or more than Curry did in his unanimous MVP campaign. What’s most surprising is how easy this argument is, because, man, that Curry season was something to behold.

Advantage: Jokić

LeBron James, 2008-09 vs. Nikola Jokić, 2024-25

Take a look at James’ best statistical season when he was a Cavalier. (Not his best season. 2012-13 was his absolute apex.) Now take another look at Jokić’s 2024-25 campaign. He is better in every regard but blocks. And I do not consider James’ edge in blocks enough to negate Jokić’s advantage in points, rebounds, assists and steals.

If anything this should be your reminder that, yes, Jokić deserves to be mentioned alongside the greatest to ever play the game, and, yes, he deserves to join anyone who has won four MVPs.

Advantage: Jokić

Michael Jordan, 1987-88 vs. Nikola Jokić, 2024-25

The arguments are starting to get a little bit harder. Jordan’s 1987-88 season was the gold standard for guards, as he captured both MVP and Defensive Player of the Year honors. But here’s the thing: As Tom Haberstroh discovered for Yahoo Sports this past summer, Jordan’s steals and blocks that season were overinflated at home, and perhaps he did not deserve that DPOY. But that is not germane to this debate.

We are talking about stats, and Jokić has almost doubled Jordan’s rebounds and assists in 1988. That is more impressive than Jordan’s (overinflated) edge in steals and blocks. Consider Jokić’s average finish across those four statistical categories (even given his low placement in blocks): 18th. And Jordan’s: 30th.

As for the scoring, well, Jordan attempted 24.4 field goals per game. Jokić takes 19.7. If he took as many shots as Jordan did then, statistically, Jokić would average 36.9 points per game. His edge in efficiency is that significant. As it is, and as we have mentioned before, Jokić’s 29.8 points and 10.3 assists yield 53.7 points per game. Jordan’s 35 points and 5.9 assists in 1988 generated 47 points a game.

Advantage: Jokić

Wilt Chamberlain, 1961-62 vs. Nikola Jokić, 2024-25

Oh, boy. How are we going to argue our way out of this one? I mean, 50 points and 26 rebounds a game. Good Lord. Chamberlain was a beast. Consider this, at least: Chamberlain was 7-foot-1, competing in a league that featured a single other regular who was within three inches of him (a rookie Walt Bellamy).

If that does not explain the difference in rebounds, maybe this will: The league-average field-goal percentage in 1962 was 42.6%; it is now 46.6%. There was an average of 123.6 missed shots per game in 1962, as opposed to 95.2 today. If Jokić had as many available rebounds to grab, based on his rebounding percentage (19.2), he would be averaging 23.7 rebounds per game. Now imagine he is the only 7-footer.

Granted Chamberlain’s 50.4 points and 2.4 assists produced 55.2 points per game for the Philadelphia Warriors, slightly more than the 53.7 figure for Jokić. Chamberlain’s 55.2 points produced 46.5% of a team’s per-game average that season. Jokić’s 53.7 are 47.4% of the league average for a team this season. Not convincing enough? Well, Chamberlain attempted 39.5 field goals and 17 free throws per game in 1962 — more than twice as many as Jokić. If Jokić took that many shots, he would, statistically, be averaging 61.4 points per game.

Efficiency is real. Wilt’s true-shooting percentage in a season in which he scored 50.4 points a game would rank 168th this season — equal to Keegan Murray, Sacramento’s fifth option.

Advantage: Jokić

Determination: Fact. Nikola Jokić is enjoying the greatest statistical regular season ever.