About Borko Bariæ Expertise I am a big fan of NBA basketball, especially its history, so I have pretty good knowledge of the past players, teams and stats.
Experience You should have asked me 5 years ago. I was a real nut back then... :)
Do you have the full list of instances when a player got 10 steals?
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Followup To
Question -
I was wondering if any nba players have notched a triple double, with steals being a double-digit category. I know alvin robertson had it as part of his quadruple double, but could not find info on triple doubles. I would think prime candidates would be michael jordan, john stockton, gary payton, etc.
Answer -
The data on triple-doubles of retired players is pretty hard to come by, but I did find that there have been only 13 players who have swiped 10 or more steals in a game, with Alvin Robertson doing it 4 times (steals were not recorded as an official statistic until the 1973-74 season). Michael Jordan was one of them (vs. New Jersey 1/29/88), John Stockton's and Scottie Pippen's career high was 9, and Payton's is 8.
What I do know for a fact is that on November 1st, 1996, Clyde Drexler had 25 points, 10 rebounds, 10 steals and 9 assists (I think Sam Mack missed the 3-pointer in waning seconds that would have brought Drexler a tripple double).
So, the simplest answer to your question would be: yes.
As for how many times in the rest of the aforementioned 15 instances was also a triple-double achieved, unfortunately I don't know.
Answer This is the list as of 1994-95 season (sorry, that's as recent as I was able to find):
Jerry West, L.A. Lakers vs. Seattle, 12/7/73
Larry Steele, Portland vs. L.A. Lakers, 11/16/74
Fred Brown, Seattle vs. Philadelphia, 12/3/76
Eddie Jordan, New Jersey vs. Philadelphia, 3/23/79
Johnny Moore, San Antonio vs. Indiana, 3/6/85
Lafayette Lever, Denver vs. Indiana, 3/9/85
Clyde Drexler, Portland vs. Milwaukee, 1/10/86
Alvin Robertson, San Antonio vs. Phoenix, 2/18/86
Alvin Robertson, San Antonio vs. L.A. Clippers, 11/22/86
Ron Harper, Cleveland vs. Philadelphia, 3/10/87
Gus Williams, Seattle vs. New Jersey, 1/29/88
Michael Jordan, Chicago vs. New Jersey, 1/29/88
Alvin Robertson, San Antonio vs. Houston, 1/11/89
Alvin Robertson, Milwaukee vs. Utah, 11/19/90
Kevin Johnson, Phoenix vs. Washington, 12/9/93
Of course, the record for steals in a game is 11, achieved by Larry Kennon on 12/26/76 and then duplicated by Kendall Gill on 03/04/99.
To this list you can add the aforementioned Drexler's triple-double, and the fact that Allen Iverson achieved a playoff record with 10 steals in Game 3 of the first-round playoffs vs. Orlando on 05/13/99.
