- A triple-double is a game in which one player reaches 10 or more in three of five categories: points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks.
- Almost every triple-double is made of points, rebounds and assists.
- Russell Westbrook has the most in NBA history, with 209. Nikola Jokic is second with 198.
- Only three players have averaged a triple-double for a whole season: Oscar Robertson, Westbrook and Jokic.
Every NBA game produces a table of numbers called the box score. It lists what each player did: how many points he scored, how many rebounds he grabbed, how many passes led straight to a basket.
A triple-double is what happens when one player fills three of those columns with double figures on the same night.
The definition
There are five main counting stats in basketball: points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks. Reach 10 or more in three of them in one game and you have a triple-double. Reach 10 in two and it is a double-double, which is far more common.
In practice, nearly all triple-doubles are points, rebounds and assists. Ten steals or ten blocks in one game is a huge number, so those two categories almost never take part.
Why it is hard
The three skills usually belong to different players. Rebounds tend to go to the tallest men on the floor, who stand near the basket. Assists tend to go to the guards, who handle the ball and set up their teammates.
A triple-double means one player did both jobs and scored as well. It has become shorthand for a complete game.
Where the name came from
Players were doing this long before it had a name. The term is usually credited to Bruce Jolesch, a publicist for the Los Angeles Lakers, who used it in the early 1980s to describe the all-around games of Magic Johnson.
The name stuck, and statisticians went back through old box scores to count the ones nobody had labeled.
The career leaders
These are regular-season totals through the 2025-26 season.
| Player | Triple-doubles |
|---|---|
| Russell Westbrook | 209 |
| Nikola Jokic | 198 |
| Oscar Robertson | 181 |
| Magic Johnson | 138 |
| LeBron James | 125 |
| Jason Kidd | 107 |
| Luka Doncic | 90 |
| James Harden | 82 |
| Wilt Chamberlain | 78 |
| Domantas Sabonis | 68 |
Robertson's total of 181 was the record from 1974 until Westbrook passed it on May 10, 2021. Jokic moved past Robertson into second place in 2026.
A whole season of them
The rarest version is to average a triple-double across an entire season. Oscar Robertson did it first, in 1961-62, with 30.8 points, 12.5 rebounds and 11.4 assists a game.
Nobody did it again for 55 years. Then Westbrook did it in 2016-17, when he also set the record of 42 triple-doubles in one season. He went on to do it in four different seasons.
For 55 years nobody matched Oscar Robertson. Then it happened six times in 10 seasons.
Jokic became the third member of the club in 2024-25 and the first center, with 29.6 points, 12.7 rebounds and 10.2 assists. He did it again in 2025-26.
Youngest, oldest and rarest
The youngest player with a triple-double is Josh Giddey, who was 19 years and 84 days old when he got one in January 2022.
The oldest is LeBron James. On February 12, 2026, at 41 years and 44 days, he had 28 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds. The record he broke had belonged to Karl Malone, who was 40.
One step up is the quadruple-double: 10 or more in four categories. The NBA has recorded only four of them, by Nate Thurmond in 1974, Alvin Robertson in 1986, Hakeem Olajuwon in 1990 and David Robinson in 1994. Steals and blocks were not counted before the 1973-74 season, so earlier ones may have gone unrecorded.
Why there are more than ever
Seven of the 10 names on the list above played in the last 20 years. The game has moved in the triple-double's favor.
Teams play faster, so there are more shots and more rebounds to collect. Many of those shots are three-pointers, which bounce far from the rim and into the hands of guards. And most teams now let one star handle the ball on nearly every play, which piles up assists.
That has led to an argument. Some fans think the stat has lost its meaning, and that players chase the 10th rebound instead of the win. Others answer that doing three things well in one night is still doing three things well.
For the biggest scoring nights the league has seen, read the highest-scoring games in NBA history.