Serge Ibaka is the only player in NBA history to reach 500 threes and 1,500 blocks

BarDown Staff

Serge Ibaka , The Canadian Press

Three-point shooting and rim protection are two of the most valuable skills in basketball right now, and players that can do both are hot commodities. It’s hard enough to find ‘3-and-D’ players on the wing, much less among big men.

Serge Ibaka might just be the prototype. After draining a trio of three-pointers against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday, he became the first player in NBA history to reach 500 made threes and 1,500 blocks in his career, with totals of 502 and 1,657.

A complete list of NBA players to reach career totals of 500 3-pointers made and 1,500 blocks:

1️⃣ Serge Ibaka pic.twitter.com/k7cETR8ihl
— Justin Kubatko (@jkubatko) January 31, 2020

These days, just about every team in the league is looking for a player that checks off the two boxes that Ibaka does, and even while coming off the bench in his age-30 season, Ibaka is actually averaging a career-high in scoring this year with 15.3 points per game.

There are more players in the NBA that shoot threes and defend the rim these days than there were when Ibaka came into the league — guys like Myles Turner, Jaren Jackson Jr., Brook Lopez and Marc Gasol come to mind — but Ibaka was one of the first to do it, and becoming he first to this rare threes/blocks statistical milestone is a neat feather in his cap.

Maybe Collin Sexton didn’t get the memo: Ibaka’s got the range.