THERE’S so much talk about triple-double performances by a player in the NBA this season.
Since 1990-91, the NBA has averaged around 35 triple-double games per season. However, this year’s list has already reached the 40 mark even as the league has only completed 45 percent of the 1,230-game schedule.
For the uninitiated, a triple-double is achieved when a player is able to collect at least a 10 in three different statistical categories. It can be in points, rebounds, assists, steals or blocked shots. A negative stat such as turnovers (or errors) is not included.
Likewise, the NBA documented only points, assists, field goal percentage and free throw percentage when it opened shop in 1946-47 as the Basketball Association of America. It was only in 1950-51 when rebounds were recorded and only in 1973-74 when steals and blocked shots were compiled.
That’s why it was highly probable that all-time NBA greats and Hall of Famers such as centers Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain would have accumulated a lot of T-Ds if shot blocks were already being counted during the mid-1950s and entire 1960s when the two mastodons were banging each other every so often.
Russell and Chamberlain might have even made it to the quadruple-double list (double digits in four statistical categories).
For the record, the league’s four documented Q-Ds were registered by Chicago’s Nate Thurmond (Oct. 18, 1974), San Antonio’s Alvin Robertson (Feb. 18, 1986), Houston’s Hakeem Olajuwon (March 29, 1990) and San Antonio’s David Robinson (Feb. 17, 1994).
Except for Robertson, a guard, the others played the center slot.
Some of the memorable triple-double performances so far this season include the following:
* It will be Oklahoma City at Houston on Jan. 6 (Manila time). It will also be a showdown between two early NBA Most Valuable Player contenders and the league’s 1-2 triple-double performers in Russell Westbrook (the NBA scoring leader) and James Harden (the NBA pacesetter in assists).
* Houston star James Harden knocked in 23 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in the Rockets’ 101-91 win over the visiting Washington Wizards Jan. 2 for his third consecutive triple-double effort and ninth overall (second most in the NBA) this season.
Earlier, Harden, the NBA assists leader, collected 53 points, 17 assists and 16 rebounds in a 129-122 home win over New York on New Year’s Eve to become the first player in NBA history with a 50-15-15 game. He also tied Wilt Chamberlain for most points in a T-D and set career highs for points and three-pointers with nine and matched his career best for assists.
Harden also had 30 points, 13 boards and 10 assists in Houston’s 140-116 home rout of the LA Clippers on December 30.
* Oklahoma City wunderkind Russell Westbrook owns averages of NBA-leading 30.9 points, 10.7 assists and 10.5 rebounds after 35 games (January 2) this season.
This is the farthest any NBA player has taken those season averages since Oscar Robertson of the Cincinnati Royals in 1963-64.
That season, The Big O normed 31.4 points, 11.0 assists and 9.9 rebounds in 79 games, falling just seven rebounds short of another triple-double season average that he accomplished earlier in 1961-62.
* Oscar Robertson owns the most number of triple-double games in NBA regular-season history with 181. Earvin (Magic) Johnson, the all-time LA Lakers great, is second with 138.
Robertson also holds the all-time league record for most triple-double games in a single season with 41, turning in the trick with the Cincinnati Royals in 1961-62 when he AVERAGED 30.8 points, 12.5 rebounds and 11.4 assists in 79 games. No other NBA player has ever averaged a T-D for an entire season.
The late Wilt Chamberlain has the second most number of T-D games in a single campaign with 31, accomplishing the feat with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1967-68.
Chamberlain also owns the all-time NBA record for most consecutive triple-double games at nine. The 7-foot-1 mastodon turned in the trick with the Philadelphia 76ers from March 8 to March 20, 1968.
The second-longest streak of seven straight T-Ds, is shared by Oscar Robertson (1961-62 with the Cincinnati Royals), Michael Jordan (March 25-April 6, 1989 with the Chicago Bulls) and Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook, who did it from November 25 to December 9, 2016.
Westbrook’s previous career streak was four, set during the 2014-15 season when he totaled an NBA-best 11 overall.
* The fastest player to register a triple-double game, in terms of minutes played, is Jim Tucker of the Syracuse Nationals (the forerunners of the Philadelphia 76ers). On Feb. 20, 1955, Tucker, then in his rookie season, netted 12 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists in just 17 minutes during the Nats’ 104-84 win over the New York Knickerbockers.
* The fastest player to register a triple-double game, in terms of games, is Oscar Robertson, who produced a T-D in his first-ever NBA contest in 1960-61 as a rookie pro with the Cincinnati Royals, the predecessors of the Sacramento Kings.
Other men to collect a T-D with the fewest NBA career games include Arthur (Hambone) Williams, four games, San Diego (now Houston) Rockets, 1967-68; Earvin (Magic) Johnson, five games, LA Lakers, 1979-80; Cornelius (Connie) Hawkins, five games, Phoenix Suns, 1969-70 (although he started his pro career in the old ABA); John Wall, six games, Washington Wizards, 2010-11; and Guy William Rogers Jr., six games, Philadelphia (now Golden State) Warriors, 1958-59.
* There has never been a 30-point, 20-rebound, 20-assist triple-double effort in NBA history.
Only once has a player posted a 20-20-20 T-D in an NBA game. The double triple-double league record belongs to Wilt Chamberlain, who collected 22 points. 25 rebounds and 21 assists for the Philadelphia 76ers in their 131-121 home win over the Detroit Pistons on February 2, 1968.
That season (1967-68), the high-scoring Chamberlain topped the NBA in assists (at the time, the assist leadership was based on total, and not on average as it is now).
The most recent player to come close to Chamberlain’s feat was Rajon Rondo, who chalked up 18 points, 20 assists and 17 rebounds for Boston in the Celtics’ 115-111 overtime success against the visiting New York Knicks on March 4, 2012. Rondo is currently in the first year of a two-year deal with the Chicago Bulls.