Kevin Love has showed us all season long that the age of big-time rebounding is far from over.  On Monday, he took over first place for most consecutive double-doubles since the NBA/ABA merger with 51.  Of course, Elvin Hayes rattled off 55 straight in 1973-1974 (his rookie season, by the way), and Wilt Chamberlain had a streak of 227 consecutive double-doubles over the course of his statistically dominant career.

Good luck touching that one, Kevin.

Regardless of that impressive feat by so young a player, the really nice thing about Love is the fact he’s leading the league in rebounds with almost 16 boards a night.  Of all the players that have led the league in rebounding since Dennis Rodman left the Bulls in 1998, only one other guy has averaged more than 15 rpg (Ben Wallace).

It’s good to know that the era of big rebounding isn’t over, but it does bring to mind some of the great rebounding seasons of the past.  Let’s have a look at the top rebounders of all time and wonder privately whether Kevin Love will someday be among them…

#5 – Elvin Hayes – Hayes won two rebounding titles, but the fact he’s fourth in career rebounds with 16,279 and a top-fifteen guy for boards per game (12.5) shows that he did it over the entire course of his career.  He has the highest-ever average for defensive rebounds per game (at least since statisticians started differentiating between defensive and offensive rebounds) with 13.7 per game in 1973-1974, and he holds the record for most offensive rebounds in an NBA Finals game with 11.  Those records combined with this long, hard career as a rebounder is what sneaks him into the top five ahead of guys like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Nate Thurmond, and Wes Unseld.

#4 – Moses Malone – We know that, other than Kevin Love, no modern hoop star has ever had more consecutive double-doubles, but that particular record was really just a footnote in Malone’s impressive rebounding resume.  He led the league in boards for five years straight in the ’80s, but the really amazing thing about Malone as a rebounder was his ability to haul in offensive boards; he led the league in those nine times.  While he’s only 15th all-time on the career rebounds-per-game list, some of those numbers are skewed by later seasons in which his averages dipped quite a bit.  Despite that, he’s fifth all-time in career rebounds with 16,212.  To put that into perspective, that’s over 300 more than Shaquille O’Neal has in his career.

#3 – Dennis Rodman – The Worm’s stretch of seven straight rebounding titles is a league record, but it was the artistry with which Rodman hauled in those boards that really makes him one of the best rebounders ever.  There might not be another player on this list other than Ben Wallace who was so incapable on the offensive end and so dominant on the other end, but his monster rebounding numbers and defense were always enough to keep him on the floor in crunch time.  His 18.7 rebounds per game in 1991-1992 is the highest single-season rebounding average ever by someone not named "Russell" or "Chamberlain," and his career average of 13.3rpg makes him the only player in the top ten of that category to have played in the 1990s or later.  As far as modern era rebounders go, he’s the best.

{AUTHOR_BOX}#2 – Bill Russell – There was a stretch in NBA history where the league leader averaged 20 or more rebounds per game for 12 straight years, and every single one of those league-leaders was either Wilt Chamberlain (see below) or Bill Russell.  To further emphasize the ridiculousness of that stat, nobody had averaged 20rpg before that point, and no other player has come even close to that number since.  Russell holds the record for most rebounds in a half (32), most rebounds in a quarter of a playoff game (19), most career rebounds in the playoffs (4,104), most rebounds in an NBA Finals game (40, which he did twice), and led the league in rebounding four times.  That final number no doubt would’ve been astronomically higher had Wilt never existed, but Wilt most certainly did exist.  Did he ever…

#1 – Wilt Chamberlain – It’s almost impossible to begin explaining what a ridiculous rebounder Wilt Chamberlain was over the course of his career.  I suppose we can start with all the records he holds, which include most rebounds in a single game (55), most rebounding titles (11), most rebounds per game in a single season (27.3rpg), most rebounds per game for a career (22.9rpg), most career rebounds (23,924), most consecutive double-doubles (227), and most consecutive triple-doubles (9).  The man was an overpowering beast when it came to hauling in boards, and his obsession with amassing statistics made him that much determined to get it done.

Honorable Mention:

Nate Thurmond – 5th career rpg (15), 8h career rebounds (14,464)
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar – 1 rebounding title, 23rd career rpg (11.2), 3rd career rebounds (17,440)
Wes Unseld – 1 rebounding title, 6th career rpg (14), 10th career rebounds (13,769)
Bob Pettit – 1 rebounding title, 3rd career rpg (16.2), 15th career rebounds (12,849)
Jerry Lucas – 4th career rpg (15.6), 14th career rebounds (12,942)
Walt Bellamy – 7th career rpg (13.7), 9th career rebounds (14,241)
Kevin Garnett – 4 rebounding titles, 28th career rpg (10.8), 16th career rebounds (12,671)
Dikembe Mutombo – 2 rebounding titles, 18th career rebounds (12,359)
Ben Wallace – 2 rebounding titles, 33rd career rebounds (10,196)

By the time their careers are all over, we’ll probably be able to include guys like Dwight Howard, Blake Griffin, and of course Kevin Love in this discussion, but the fact remains modern-era rebounders simply haven’t been as productive statistically as those from yesteryear.  Love and his contemporaries are trying to change that, but a 51-game double-double streak is just a small dent in getting it done.

Until he (or somebody else) averages 20+ boards per game, though, the conversation here seems pretty much closed.  Nobody will ever be as good as Bill Russell or Wilt Chamberlain.