NBA Triple-Double Records

Published April 18, 2026 · Updated April 23, 2026 · By The Basketball Fans Editors

A triple-double, in the NBA’s official record book, is a single game in which a player records double-digit totals in three of the five standard box-score categories: points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks. In practice, nearly every triple-double in league history has been points-rebounds-assists; the occasional exception (usually a big man with points, rebounds, and blocks) is rare enough to be separately cataloged. The career triple-double record was held by Oscar Robertson for fifty-two years. Russell Westbrook passed it on May 10, 2021. The single-season triple-double average, held by Robertson from 1961–62 to 2016–17, has been surpassed by Westbrook four times and by Nikola Jokić zero times despite Jokić’s MVP seasons. The statistic has become, in the twenty-first century, a contested measure of ball-dominant guard play, and its cultural weight has risen accordingly.

What counts as a triple-double

The five standard box-score categories (points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks) are the eligible categories. A game with 10 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists is a triple-double. A game with 10 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 blocks is also a triple-double, though this combination has been recorded fewer than twenty times in league history. Points-rebounds-assists triple-doubles make up roughly 95 percent of the all-time total.

The official statistical tracking of steals and blocks began in 1973–74, which is why pre-1974 triple-doubles (including most of Oscar Robertson’s career) are exclusively points-rebounds-assists. Basketball-Reference and NBA.com’s historical databases use league-audited box scores going back to 1946 for the first three categories.

The Oscar Robertson standard (1960–1974)

Oscar Robertson finished his fourteen-year NBA career with 181 regular-season triple-doubles. His 1972 autobiography, retold in full in The Big O: My Life, My Times, My Game (Rodale, 2003), covers the Cincinnati Royals era and the context behind those rebound totals in his own words. He averaged 30.8 points, 12.5 rebounds, and 11.4 assists per game across the 1961–62 season, the only full-season triple-double average in NBA history until Westbrook in 2016–17. Robertson’s 41 triple-doubles in a single season (1961–62) was also a single-season record that stood for fifty-five years.

Robertson’s career split: he averaged a triple-double across his first five NBA seasons combined (30.3 points, 10.4 rebounds, 10.6 assists) from 1960–61 to 1964–65, a five-season stretch that no other guard has approached. The rebound totals were not a fluke; Robertson was 6’5”, played on a Cincinnati Royals team that did not produce elite rebounding, and was often assigned defensive rebounding duty to trigger the fast break.

Russell Westbrook passes Robertson

Russell Westbrook’s full biography here. In 2016–17, playing for the Oklahoma City Thunder in the season following Kevin Durant’s departure to Golden State, Westbrook averaged a triple-double (31.6 points, 10.7 rebounds, 10.4 assists) and won the regular-season MVP. He averaged a triple-double again in 2017–18, 2018–19, and 2020–21, the only player to do so in multiple seasons.

On May 10, 2021, playing for the Washington Wizards in a home game against the Atlanta Hawks at Capital One Arena, Westbrook recorded his 182nd career triple-double. Robertson was in attendance and presented the commemorative ball. Westbrook has continued to add to the record since the 2021 milestone; his career total was 201 triple-doubles through the end of the 2023–24 season.

Career triple-double leaderboard

The all-time career triple-double leaderboard, as of the end of the 2023–24 season:

1. Russell Westbrook: 201
2. Oscar Robertson: 181
3. Nikola Jokić: approximately 140 (active, rising)
4. Magic Johnson: 138
5. LeBron James: 113 (active, rising)
6. Jason Kidd: 107
7. Wilt Chamberlain: 78
8. James Harden: approximately 75 (active, rising)
9. Larry Bird: 59
10. Draymond Green: 40

Jokić’s rate of triple-doubles per game (approximately 28 percent of his games from 2020 onward) is the highest sustained rate in NBA history.

Single-game and single-season records

• Highest-scoring triple-double: Luka Dončić’s 73-point, 10-rebound, 13-assist game against the Atlanta Hawks on January 26, 2024 is the highest-scoring triple-double in NBA history. Dončić’s story here.
• Quickest triple-double: Nikola Jokić recorded a triple-double in 14 minutes and 33 seconds against the Los Angeles Clippers on February 6, 2018.
• Most triple-doubles in a single season: Russell Westbrook, 42 in 2016–17.
• Youngest player with a triple-double: Markelle Fultz, at age 20 years 317 days, on April 11, 2019.
• First rookie triple-double: Oscar Robertson, in his first NBA game on October 19, 1960.

Playoff triple-doubles

LeBron James holds the NBA career playoff triple-double record. He passed Magic Johnson’s 30 during the 2020 playoffs and has continued to add to the total. The playoff leaderboard’s top five:

1. LeBron James: 32 (through 2024)
2. Magic Johnson: 30
3. Nikola Jokić: approximately 15 (active)
4. Russell Westbrook: approximately 12 (active)
5. Wilt Chamberlain: 11

Nikola Jokić’s 2023 Finals Game 3, 32 points, 21 rebounds, 10 assists against the Miami Heat, is one of the most-cited Finals triple-doubles. Jerry West’s 1969 Finals triple-double average (30.0 points, 11.3 rebounds, 11.0 assists across the seven-game series against the Celtics) is the only Finals triple-double average in NBA history; West was Finals MVP despite the Lakers losing.

The historiographical issue

The modern triple-double statistic is complicated by two phenomena. First, usage-rate inflation: high-usage ball-dominant guards in the Westbrook era posted rebound numbers (by deliberately rebounding their own teammates’ available rebounds) that have raised the question of whether a triple-double represents the same kind of all-around contribution it once did. Second, the Jokić center-triple-double era has flipped the statistic’s traditional association; the highest-rate current-era triple-doubler plays center, not point guard.

The NBA has, as of 2026, not separated the triple-double statistic into weighted or context-adjusted categories, despite several analytics-committee proposals. The stat remains, for now, a single counting number. The record book shows what happened on the floor.

Gear

Read the man who held the record for 52 years, and collect the era.

*The Big O* by Oscar Robertson (Rodale, 2003) →

Panini NBA Hoops Blaster Box →

Sources

• Basketball-Reference, career triple-double leaderboard (updated through each season)
• NBA.com, official triple-double game-by-game archive
• 2023 NBA Finals Game 3 box score (Jokić 32-21-10, Denver vs Miami)
• January 26, 2024 Dallas vs Atlanta box score (Dončić 73-10-13)
• May 10, 2021 Washington Wizards vs Atlanta Hawks box score (Westbrook 182nd triple-double)
• 1961-62 Oscar Robertson full-season statistics