Triple-Double Toil and Trouble

My quixotic quest to catalog every triple-double in NBA history.

Aug 30, 2024

Russell Westbrook was the spark that ignited the fire. In 2016-17, Westbrook captivated the NBA world with his triple-double exploits, recording them at a rate that had not been seen since Oscar Robertson in the 1960s. He ended the season with an NBA-record 42 triple-doubles, breaking Robertson’s mark of 41 set in 1961-62. Westbrook also joined Robertson as the only players in league history to average a triple-double for a full season (31.6 PPG, 10.7 RPG, and 10.4 APG), a feat he would repeat three more times over the next four seasons.

Westbrook’s historic performances magnified how difficult it was to do research on triple-doubles using public-facing data. For example, at the time Basketball-Reference.com (a site I created but no longer run) only had complete* player game logs dating back to the mid-1980s. That gave researchers about 40 seasons of data to work with, which was nice, but left out some of the all-time triple-double machines like Robertson and Wilt Chamberlain.

* The word “complete” meaning all official statistics for all players. Note that some websites (and my own personal database) have field goals made, free throws made, and points on a game-by-game basis for all players dating back to the NBA’s first season.

And so seven years ago I set out on a quest that only Don Quixote could love: I wanted to catalog every triple-double in NBA history. The period from 1983-84 to present was easy, because several websites have complete player game logs for that period. Then the real work started.

Some cities (e.g., Philadelphia) had newspapers that did a great job covering their local team, routinely printing box scores that included rebounds and assists. However, other city’s newspapers (e.g., Detroit) did not do such a thorough job with their coverage, providing only the basics such as field goals made, free throws made, and points. In the latter cases, I could only hope that the game story provided details about rebounds and assists for notable players.

In the course of doing this research, I was able to fill in many, many holes in my personal database. For example, here’s a summary of the coverage I currently have for rebounds and assists on a game-by-game basis for the 1960s and 1970s:

+---------+----------+---------+
| Season  | Rebounds | Assists |
+---------+----------+---------+
| 1959-60 |     71.8 |    39.8 |
| 1960-61 |     74.0 |    38.7 |
| 1961-62 |     81.6 |    58.6 |
| 1962-63 |     80.4 |    62.1 |
| 1963-64 |     85.9 |    67.3 |
| 1964-65 |     87.5 |    79.9 |
| 1965-66 |     93.6 |    89.5 |
| 1966-67 |     89.4 |    82.4 |
| 1967-68 |     95.5 |    92.4 |
| 1968-69 |     96.8 |    93.1 |
| 1969-70 |     98.4 |    95.6 |
| 1970-71 |     98.6 |    96.8 |
| 1971-72 |     99.3 |    99.0 |
| 1972-73 |     99.5 |    98.6 |
| 1973-74 |     99.0 |    98.0 |
| 1974-75 |     99.3 |    99.0 |
| 1975-76 |    100.0 |   100.0 |
| 1976-77 |    100.0 |   100.0 |
| 1977-78 |    100.0 |   100.0 |
| 1978-79 |     99.9 |    99.9 |
+---------+----------+---------+

Let me decipher one of those lines for you. In the 1969-70 season, I have rebounds recorded for 98.4% of all player-game records and assists recorded for 95.6% of all player-game records

As you can see, my game-level coverage gets spottier the further back in time you go, but from the mid-1960s forward it’s pretty solid. I didn’t list the 1980s above, but from the 1979-80 season forward I have 100% game-level coverage for both rebounds and assists.

Although I don’t have complete game-level coverage for steals and blocks dating back to 1973-74 (the first season the NBA tracked those statistics), I do have a record of all games in which a player recorded double figures in one of those categories. Thus, all triple-doubles that involved steals or blocks have been accounted for.

To date, I’ve been able to catalog over 3,200 triple-doubles in the regular season and postseason combined. Am I missing some? Without a doubt. In fact, here are some cases where I know a player recorded at least one triple-double in the regular season but have been unable to identify the exact game(s):

Bob Cousy is missing two triple-doubles from the 1950-51 season; one from 1951-52; five from 1952-53; one from 1954-55; three from 1955-56; and one from 1957-58. I know none of them occurred versus the New York Knicks.
Bill Russell is missing one triple double from the 1962-63 season. I know it did not occur versus the New York Knicks or the San Francisco Warriors.
Jerry Lucas is missing one triple-double from the 1968-69 season. I know it did not occur versus the New York Knicks or the San Francisco Warriors.

I should note that even though I am missing some games in which Cousy, Russell, and Lucas recorded triple-doubles, my season and career totals for those three have been verified by other sources.

There are also several players for the Detroit (nee Fort Wayne) Pistons who are missing at least one triple-double, but I haven’t pinpointed the exact season in which they occurred:

Gene Shue (recorded four, missing two)
Dick McGuire (recorded two, missing one)
Mel Hutchins (recorded one, missing one)
Fred Schaus (recorded one, missing one)

Finally, there are some games where I have deduced a player recorded a triple-double, but I’m missing one of his components:

Bob Cousy recorded a triple-double on Nov. 1, 1953, but I don’t have his rebound total.
Maurice Stokes recorded a triple-double on March 12, 1958, but I don’t have his assist total.
Dave DeBusschere and Johnny Kerr each recorded a 30-point triple-double in the same game on Dec. 14, 1965, but I don’t have a rebound total for either player.
John Havlicek recorded a triple-double on Feb. 26, 1968, but I don’t have his assist total.

There may also be some false positives in the data, i.e., games that I’ve marked as a triple-double that weren’t actually a triple-double. That’s just something you have to accept when you’re using imperfect sources.

All in all, though, I’m quite pleased with the results. I’ve compared the season and career counts my research has produced to the limited season and career counts the Elias Sports Bureau has published and, aside from the exceptions noted above, they match. Again, that doesn’t mean my work is perfect (it’s not), but it’s a sign that I’ve done something right.

If you can help me fill in any of the gaps in my research, I would greatly appreciate it. Feel free to use the comments section below, or, if you receive this newsletter via email, just hit reply and type your message.