NBA FOUNDATION PACK — SOURCES & NOTES (Verification Trail)

Companions: nba-rafters-championships.md (The Rafters) · nba-records-leaders.md (The Records). Compiled October 19, 2026.

Method

• House law applied throughout: no number from memory alone. Every printed total was corroborated by two independent sources actually fetched during the research session (October 19, 2026). Where two sources disagreed, both numbers are printed in the Disputes Register below — never silently resolved. Where a figure could not be corroborated, it is not printed as fact in the deliverables.
• Snapshot: Records totals are frozen through the end of the 2025-26 regular season (the 2026 Finals concluded June 13, 2026; the bet365 corroborating list is dated October 14, 2026 and billed as "stats entering the 2026-27 season," matching the freeze). Live mid-stream crawls of leader pages were checked for staleness before use — see D-2.
• Independence standard: Basketball-Reference data reaching the pack through a BRef page was always paired with a genuinely separate second source (StatMuse's independent database, NBA Hoops Online, league/team-tier reporting, or a published list from a separate compiler). No figure rests on one publisher's family alone.
• Basketball-Reference combined-table hazard (standing caution): most BRef leader pages carry an "NBA & ABA combined" table above the NBA-only table. Combined tables were used only where the printed board is unaffected by ABA entries or after documented removal of ABA splits (D-8). ABA entries that sit inside combined tables (e.g., Charlie Scott's 2,637-point 1971-72 ABA season, Spencer Haywood's 1,637-rebound 1969-70 ABA season) were kept out of every NBA board.

Two-source coverage

Headline rate: 100% of printed table rows are two-source corroborated. The only constructed figure in the pack is Moses Malone's NBA-only points total (D-8), flagged inline (⚠) where it prints.

Source log

Championships

• [S1] NBA Hoops Online — "NBA Champions by Year" (nbahoopsonline.com/History/Champions.html) — complete BAA/NBA roll: champion, opponent, series, Finals MVP, plus the site's own notes (MVP award from 1969; West only losing-team MVP; BAA 1946-47–1948-49). Primary for Rafters §1. One misprint found (D-1).
• [S2] NBC Sports Boston / Philadelphia — "Here is every NBA Finals MVP in league history" — complete MVP list 1969–2024. Cross-check for every MVP row in that span; full agreement with [S1].
• [S3] TopEndSports + SportsBrackets — Finals MVP winners lists (1969–2026) — extend the MVP cross-check through 2025 (Gilgeous-Alexander) and 2026 (Brunson); full agreement.
• [S4] Wikipedia — List of ABA champions — ABA roll 1968–1976 with series scores and team totals. Primary for Rafters §2 (shared with [S5]).
• [S5] Remember the ABA — ABA champions roll; full agreement with [S4] on all nine rows.
• [S19] Fox Sports — NBA champions list — agreement with [S1] across 1999–2025, including the 2025 Finals (Oklahoma City def. Indiana 4–3, MVP Gilgeous-Alexander).
• [S20] USA Today + ESPN — 2026 Finals reporting (June 13, 2026) — New York def. San Antonio 4–1; Game 5, 94–90 at San Antonio; Brunson Finals MVP (45 points in Game 5). Third leg: StatMuse's game log.
• [S21] 1957 Finals corroboration set — Wikipedia (1957 NBA Finals: Boston def. St. Louis 4–3; Game 7, April 13, 1957, 125–123 in double overtime — the only 2OT Game 7 in Finals history); NBC Sports Boston (Game 7 history); SportsCasting (Celtics championship-history feature); FanSided (every Finals Game 7). Used for D-1.
• [S24] DocSports — early champions list — agreement with [S1] across 1946-47–1971-72 except the single D-1 cell, where it agrees with [S21] (4–3).

Records

• [S6] Basketball-Reference — career & single-season Points leaders (NBA & ABA combined tables, crawl Oct 17, 2026) — basis for the points boards after documented NBA-only derivation (D-8); single-season table is identical on the NBA basis at the top (no ABA season reaches the Top 10).
• [S7] bet365 News — all-time scoring list (Oct 14, 2026, "stats entering the 2026-27 season") + Top10Grid / Wikipedia scoring list — independent Top-10 agreement with the derived NBA-only points board (James 43,440; Abdul-Jabbar 38,387; Malone 36,928; Bryant 33,643; Durant 32,597; Jordan 32,292; Nowitzki 31,560; Chamberlain 31,419; Harden 29,339; O'Neal 28,596).
• [S8] StatMuse — leader query tables (independent database) — career steals (complete Top 25), career per-player totals (assists, rebounds, blocks, 3PM, triple-doubles), and single-season tables for points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, 3PM. The pack's most-used second source.
• [S9] NBA Hoops Online — career leader pages — rebounds Top 30 and blocks Top 30 on an explicitly NBA-only basis (ABA excluded by the compiler); 2008-vintage steals list (retired-player values, unchanged since publication). Primary for the rebounds and blocks career boards.
• [S10] iWeblists — all-time single-season rebounds table — full table; agreement with [S8] on all ten printed rows.
• [S11] Basketball-Reference — career Assists leaders (NBA table, live fetch at compile) — primary for the assists career board. See D-2 on the stale crawl of the same page.
• [S12] JRANK — John Stockton biography — narrative cross-check: Stockton's 1,164 (1990-91) as the single-season record and "seven of the nine seasons of 1,000 or more assists in league history."
• [S13] Fadeaway World — career steals ranking — agreement with [S8] on overlapping rows (Stockton 3,265; Kidd 2,684; Robertson 2,112 via [S9]'s vintage list).
• [S14] SportsNerdy + Sportskeeda — career blocks top-five lists — agreement with [S9] (Olajuwon 3,830; Mutombo 3,289; Abdul-Jabbar 3,189; Eaton 3,064; Duncan 3,020).
• [S15] Bolavip — "Most blocks in an NBA season" — full single-season blocks list; agreement with [S8] on all ten printed rows; one season label misprinted (D-4).
• [S16] Basketball-Reference — career Three-Point leaders — primary for the 3PM career board, with [S8]; the page header itself states the basis (3PFG since 1979-80 NBA / 1967-68 ABA).
• [S17] Basketball-Reference — Triple-Doubles leaders, career & single season (NBA tables) — primary for both TD boards; the site's own caveat ("a small number may yet be unaccounted for but we're confident in the completeness of the list") is carried into the Records file's basis note. The combined regular-season + playoffs companion table reconciles with the regular-season table (e.g., Jokić 2025-26: 34 + 2 = 36).
• [S18] Athlon Sports (Aug 2, 2026) — career triple-doubles, "through 2025-26, per Basketball-Reference" — full agreement with [S17] on the printed Top 25 (Westbrook 209; Jokić 198; Robertson 181; Johnson 138; James 125; Kidd 107; Dončić 90; Harden 82; Chamberlain 78; Sabonis 68…). Dunkest's career list agrees as a third leg.
• [S22] Guinness World Records — Chamberlain's 2,149 rebounds (1960-61) as the standing single-season record.
• [S23] 20 Second Timeout — Moses Malone combined NBA+ABA rebounds, 17,834 (the printed ABA note in Records §2).
• [S25] Wikipedia — "Steal (basketball)" — steals first recorded in the NBA in 1973-74; Robertson's 301 (1985-86) as the single-season record. Era basis for Records §§4–5.

Disputes register (printed, not resolved silently)

• D-1 — 1956-57 Finals series score. [S1] prints Boston def. St. Louis 4–2. [S21]'s four sources and [S24] print 4–3 (Game 7: Boston 125, St. Louis 123, 2OT, April 13, 1957). Printed: 4–3, flagged ⚠ in the Rafters roll. [S1] is otherwise reliable and remains the §1 primary; this is its only known error in the roll.
• D-2 — Career assists, stale-crawl trap. A ~70-day-old crawl of [S11] circulates lower totals for active players (e.g., Chris Paul 12,370; Russell Westbrook below his final figure). The live fetch at compile prints Paul 12,552, LeBron James 12,016, Westbrook 10,351 — and [S8]'s fresh totals agree. Printed: live values. Active-player boards must always be read off a live fetch, never a cached crawl.
• D-3 — ESPN/apex triple-doubles list (stale; REJECTED as a board source). The ESPN-carried list (Mar 23, 2026) prints a career leaders list that omits Nikola Jokić (No. 2, 198), LeBron James (125), Luka Dončić (90), and James Harden (82) entirely — it is years out of date while wearing a 2026 dateline. [S17] + [S18] + [S8] + Dunkest all agree on the printed board. The apex page's narrative facts (Westbrook's record-breaking 182nd on May 10, 2021) are correct and are the only part used.
• D-4 — Manute Bol's 345-block season label. [S15] prints "1983-84" for Bol's 345 with Golden State. [S8] and Wikipedia's single-season blocks-per-game list agree the season was 1988-89 (Bol was not in the NBA in 1983-84). Printed: 1988-89. All ten totals in the board agree across [S8] + [S15].
• D-5 — nbanewsplus Finals table (mislabeled; REJECTED). Its "Recent NBA Finals Results" table prints the 2024 result (Boston def. Dallas 4–1, MVP Jaylen Brown) under the year 2025. Correct 2025: Oklahoma City def. Indiana 4–3, MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander [S1][S3][S19]. The page was not used for any row.
• D-6 — gridironhoops.com triple-double figures (REJECTED). Prints rounded/invented career values (Jokić "150+", James "120+") contradicted by [S17]/[S18]. Not used anywhere.
• D-7 — Dunkest prose error (noted; its table is fine). Dunkest's article text dates Oscar Robertson's 41-triple-double season to "1960/61." [S17] prints 1961-62 — the season Robertson averaged a triple-double (30.8 / 12.5 / 11.4). Printed: 1961-62. Dunkest's career table agrees with the printed career board and is counted as a third leg there.
• D-8 — DERIVED figure: career points, NBA-only basis. [S6]'s headline table is NBA & ABA combined. The printed board removes the six players whose combined totals include ABA seasons, on their documented league splits: Julius Erving 30,026 = 18,364 NBA + 11,662 ABA; Dan Issel 27,482 = 14,659 + 12,823; George Gervin 26,595 = 20,708 + 5,887; Rick Barry 25,279 = 18,395 + 6,884; Artis Gilmore 24,941 = 15,079 + 9,862; Moses Malone 29,580 = 27,409 NBA + 2,171 ABA. Only Malone's NBA-only figure enters a printed board (No. 12, flagged ⚠ at point of use); it matches the standard published NBA-only scoring list, and the board's Top 10 is independently corroborated by [S7]. Erving's combined-vs-NBA-only contrast is the printed ABA note in Records §1.

Basis decisions (compiler, Oct 19, 2026)

• B-B1 — BAA counts as NBA. The 1946-47–1948-49 championships were BAA titles; the BAA became the NBA in 1949 and the league counts those titles as its own. Printed in the main roll, marked (BAA).
• B-B2 — Franchise lineage across moves. Titles follow the franchise: Minneapolis Lakers → Los Angeles Lakers (17 total, 5 in Minneapolis); Syracuse Nationals → Philadelphia 76ers; Philadelphia Warriors → Golden State Warriors; Seattle SuperSonics → Oklahoma City Thunder (one line, split stated in the table).
• B-B3 — The two Baltimore Bullets are different franchises. The 1947-48 champion Baltimore Bullets folded in 1954. The later Baltimore Bullets (1963-73, today's Washington Wizards) are a separate franchise (born as the Chicago Packers, 1961). Their titles are never combined; the 1948 title is not credited to Washington.
• B-B4 — ABA separation. ABA championships, totals, and statistics are printed in their own sections and never merged into NBA rolls or boards, per the commission. Where a combined total would change a famous ranking, the effect is printed as a note (Erving's points, Records §1; Malone's rebounds, Records §2).
• B-B5 — Regular season only; frozen snapshot. All Records boards are regular-season, through the end of 2025-26. No partial 2026-27 figures exist at compile (the season had not begun) and none will be interpolated later — the boards move only on a recompile.

Era flags carried into the deliverables

• Steals & blocks: official only from 1973-74 [S25]. Printed on both boards. Consequences: no Chamberlain/Russell block totals exist (any printed anywhere are fabrications); Abdul-Jabbar's blocks exclude 1969-73; all pre-1973-74 steal totals are unrecorded.
• Three-pointers: NBA line from 1979-80 only [S16]. The ABA's line (from 1967-68) is not merged.
• Rebounds: official from 1950-51; offensive/defensive split from 1973-74 (not used).
• Triple-doubles: unofficial statistic throughout; counting basis printed in Records §7 (double figures in three of PTS/REB/AST/STL/BLK, regular season). Pre-1973-74 entries rest on PTS/REB/AST only, with Basketball-Reference's completeness caveat carried verbatim in substance.
• Finals MVP: award begins 1969; pre-1969 rows show —. Jerry West (1969) is the only winner from a losing team [S1][S2].

Deliberately not printed (UNVERIFIED / nonexistent)

• Any career or single-season block totals for Wilt Chamberlain or Bill Russell — never recorded; no such figures exist to verify.
• ABA Finals MVPs — the ABA made no such award on the NBA model; none invented.
• Pre-1950-51 rebound figures — the statistic did not exist.
• Chris Paul's and other active players' 2026-27 running totals — outside the frozen snapshot by design (B-B5).