Triple Crown Score

Measuring proficiency in points, rebounds, and assists in a single season.

In Major League Baseball, a batter is said to have won the Triple Crown if he leads his league in batting average, home runs, and runs batted in. Likewise, a pitcher can claim the Triple Crown by pacing his circuit in wins, strikeouts, and earned run average. The last batter to achieve the feat was Miguel Cabrera in 2012, while the last pitcher to do so was Shane Bieber in 2020*.

* The 2020 season was condensed to 60 games due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The last pitchers to achieve the feat in a full season were Clayton Kershaw (National League) and Justin Verlander (American League) in 2011.

If such a thing existed in the NBA, it would likely consist of points, rebounds, and assists. The main reason it doesn’t exist is fairly simple: no one has ever done it. However, I thought it might be fun to come up with a Triple Crown score to see which players have come the closest to leading the league in all three categories.

I calculated a score for each player in each category by taking their season total, dividing by the league-leading total, and multiplying by 100. In other words, I’m just looking at each statistic as a percentage of the league leader’s figure. The Triple Crown score is the geometric mean of those three values.