What Legendary Group Did KAT Join with Elite Statistic?

Aside from hailing from New Jersey, Towns and Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Shaquille O'Neal don't have much in common. While one has four NBA championships and an NBA MVP, the other is still reaching for his first Larry O'Brien trophy. 

However, after Wednesday, perhaps O'Neal will invite Towns out for dinner or at least acknowledge him on TNT's Inside the NBA. 

According to Basketball Reference (thanks to Knicks beat writer Tommy Beer's research), Towns is only the fourth player in the last 50 years to average 25-plus points and 14-plus rebounds over the first 35 games in a season. 

O'Neal is the last player to reach the same milestone, with Houston Rockets legend Moses Malone doing it for two consecutive seasons and Los Angeles Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar doing it for two straight campaigns. 

While accomplishing something in the same vein as O'Neale is one thing, doing anything remotely close to Abdul-Jabbar calls for quite the celebration. 

Abdul-Jabbar is second in NBA history in points scored, with LeBron James passing him during the 2022-23 season. Although Towns is talented, he'll be hard-pressed to find himself in another conversation with Abdul-Jabbar. Considering the legendary group Towns' 2024-25 campaign catapulted him in, the Knicks star merits MVP buzz.