With roughly 115 minutes left in his regular season, Russell Westbrook achieved what most believed was a mere fantasy at the start of the campaign, joining all-time great Oscar Robertson as the only players to ever record a triple-double for an entire NBA season.
Westbrook clinched the record with his sixth assist of the game at the 10:36 mark of the third quarter of Oklahoma City‘s game against the Phoenix Suns.
The All-Star point guard took a quick outlet pass from Taj Gibson and fired it up-court to a racing Victor Oladipo, who finished the transition layup while getting fouled in the process.
The dime marked the 820th of his impressive 2016-17 campaign, clinching the company of basketball royalty and likely a plaque in the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame as only one of two players to ever do it.
The Long Beach native is also in line for his second scoring title, leading the league with a 31.8 points per game average. This is the highest scoring mark of Westbrook's career, to go along with other career highs in rebounding (10.7) and assists (10.4).
“No, no it wasn't,” Westbrook said earlier this week when asked if he had a goal of averaging a triple-double prior to the start of the season. “I just play, man, honestly. It definitely wasn't a goal, just going out and trying to win. Leadership to me was more important than averaging points or field goal percentage or whatever, because I think that's what gets us the furthest and helps us win a championship.”
The 6-foot-3 point guard tied Robertson's all-time mark of 41 triple-doubles in a season on Tuesday against the Milwaukee Bucks, feat that was cheered just as loudly at home as it was tonight at the Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix.
“I'm honored just to be mentioned in a conversation with Oscar Robertson,” Westbrook said. “The different things he did for the game of basketball to allow me to play the game today, I think that's more important. Obviously triple-doubles are a great thing, but the way he played the game, the era when he played the game to allow guys like me to be able basketball and be able to do things like this.”
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