NBA Bar Races: How Russell Westbrook became the all-time triple-double leader

By securing a triple-double Monday, his fifth in a row and his eighth in his last nine games, Russell Westbrook became the NBA’s all-time triple-double leader with 182 in his career.

No. 2 on the list now, of course, is Hall-of-Famer Oscar Robertson, a 12-time All-Star in his heyday and an 11-time All-NBAer, who had 181 triple-doubles in his career, and is the only other player, along with Westbrook, to average a triple-double for a full season.

Westbrook has averaged a triple-double four times in his career, including this season where he’s putting up 22.0 points, 11.6 rebounds and a league-leading 11.5 assists, while Robertson did it over a full season just once, in 1961-62, when the legend put up an unreal 30.8/12.5/11.4 stat line over 79 games.

Besides the two triple-double legends, only two other players in league history have over 100 career triple-doubles, Magic Johnson (138) and Jason Kidd (107), though a third player should be joining that club relatively soon, LeBron James, who has 99 career triple-doubles so far.

Other active players high up the list in career triple-doubles include James Harden (58), Nikola Jokic (56), Luka Doncic (35) and Ben Simmons (32), who all have plenty of time to fly up the list as their careers progress.

Regardless, Westbrook likewise has a ton of time to accumulate more triple-doubles.

Considering in four of his last five seasons, Westbrook has posted 42, 25, 34 and, this season, 36 (and counting) triple-doubles, the nine-time All-Star should cross the 200 triple-double threshold in 2021-22, barring something completely unforeseen happening.

Still 32 years old and showing little sign of slowing down, the super energetic Westbrook is going to have a stranglehold on the triple-double record by the time his playing days end, which likely won’t be for years down the road.

And for how contentious debates about how effective Westbrook truly is get, the UCLA product has put those discussions to bed this season, as the Washington Wizards, after a slow start, are 17-8 over their last 25 games, fighting their way into the playoff picture when most expected them to be in the lottery in early March.

Over that stretch, Westbrook is putting up an unreal 22.6-point, 14.1-rebound, 13.2-assist stat line to go with a +3.8 stat line.