Modern times are the era of triple-double blowouts, SI magazine in 2017 a short article titled "Triple-Double Bubble" summarized: Since the 1990-91 season and the 2011-12 season, the average annual league can play a single triple-double of only 34 times, from the 13-16 season, soaring to an average of 52.3 times a year, and the 17 season, under the leadership of Westbrook and Harden, is expected to approach 140 triple-doubles! (Actually 116 regular season + 9 playoffs). In that year, Westbrook also won the season's regular season MVP by replicating the rare achievement of "Big O" Oscar Robertson's average triple-double per game.
Since then, the total number of triple-doubles in the league has remained high, except for the 92 triple-doubles in the 20-year shrink season. Shortly after the season began, the trio was close to averaging a triple-double per game, with as of March 2: Westbrook (19.7+ 9.8 + 9.9), Doncic (28.5 + 8.4 + 9.0), Jokic (26.7 + 10.4 + 8.5).
As the saying goes, things are rare and precious, and there are so many three pairs that the bubble will naturally burst. Now the average triple-double per game is crazy depreciating, and fans can be seen everywhere laughing: "Wei Shao has three doubles in three years, and the strength of one person has lowered the historical status of Big O." ”
But thinking about it in reverse, the three-double, which almost seems to define the data model of the careers of Big O and Westbrook, does it really have any special significance in itself?
Are the same triple-doubles, Big O's Labor model triple-doubles and magician's all-round triple-doubles the same thing? Are Westbrook's big-win triple-doubles and Kidd's economic triple-doubles the same thing? So many players with different styles and abilities are simply and rudely thrown into the "triple-double" label, as if as long as the triple-double is the level of the same standard line, where does this superstition come from?
To answer this question, we must start from the source of the term "three doubles", but surprisingly, the concept of "three doubles" was actually born very late, and it can even be said that it has nothing to do with Oscar Robertson, who averaged three doubles per game that year
"In the last five or six years, I've only heard people blow up an average of three doubles per game." Oscar Robertson said this in a 2002 interview. "I don't remember when I looked at the datasheet and noticed that every data was double digits. I play that never look at the datasheet."
In his autobiography published the following year, Oscar Robertson simply pushed the concept of "triple-double" forward to the 80s, saying that after the magician tried his best to (brush) but still could not achieve an average triple-double (the closest magician came to the triple-double was the 1981-82 season, averaging 18.6 + 9.6 + 9.5 per game), the media suddenly began to find the concept very interesting and very important, so it turned out from the old paper pile Oscar Robertson's 62 season to blow.
In response, Big O dismissively quoted baseball legend Willie Mays to express his attitude: "I wanted to know that this is a big thing, and I can do it many times." ”
Big O does have the capital to say so, rookie season Big O is only 0.3 rebounds away from the average triple-double, he has four seasons of his entire career data is only less than 1 rebound or assist away from the average triple-double, in the first five years of his career, his average data per game is an outrageous 30.3 points, 10.4 rebounds and 10.6 assists, but only one season has completed the average triple-double, in other words, he did not deliberately brush this data.
So, is the big O's statement true? Is "triple-double" really a concept formed after he retired?
Words in sports magazines of the 80s can provide corroboration for him. For example, in the 1982 finals, the magician won the last game of 13+13+13+4 steals, laying the foundation for the FMVP with all-around performance, but sports illustrated did not appear once in the whole report of the word "triple-double". Instead, he spared no effort to praise his "blue-collar style professionalism", congratulating him on completely washing away the bad reputation brought by coach Westhead this year and winning back the love of fans.
It wasn't until early 1983, when Sports Illustrated wrote a season summary for the NBA, that the term "triple-double" first appeared, and the original text read:
"After eighteen games in rebounds, assists, and steals (the truth was a typo, it should have been a score) reached double digits, the playoff MVP Johnson invented a new statistic: 'triple-doubles.'"
Therefore, we can be sure that the concept of "triple-doubles" actually came from the magician in the mid-80s, and began to be widely popularized through his image, and eventually became the standard for measuring the versatility of other players.
And now (or before Westbrook) the big O, who is synonymous with triple-doubles, has only been alienated after the magician into the so-called "god of triple-doubles" – in fact, few people have noticed that the season in which Robertson snatched the MVP from a large number of Hall of Fame centers was not actually his average triple-double season. In that MVP season, Robertson's data was 0.1 rebounds per game away from averaging a triple-double per game.
Big O plays with a jaw bone fixator, and the teammate next door has blue eyes, which is very classical NBA
So, the career status of big O Oscar Robertson is obviously not from the so-called "miracle" of "averaging three doubles per game", but he really did it in a barbaric era of center, the identity of the defender and the technology played a dominant force beyond the times, you know that in the 15 seasons after Robertson won the MVP, all the MVPs in the NBA are centers (the end of this monopoly is Dr. J in 1981), After Robertson (1.96 meters tall), the first MVP under 2 meters in height had to wait until Jordan in 1988.
Before the age of 30, Robertson averaged 30.3 points and 10.6 assists per game (and of course 9 rebounds), shooting 48.7% of the time guards could not have imagined, and in the absence of enough good teammates for a long time, he led the team to the last minute almost every year with Russell and the Celtics and Chamberlain's 76ers, including in 63 and 66 he was only one step away from beating Russell's Celtics...
Off the court, he led the vicious fight between the players' union and the capital, laying the foundation for the existence of a series of player benefits, including free agent transfers, player pensions, trade veto rights, etc.
And all this will obviously not change in the slightest because someone can brush out three pairs more easily than him in the future.