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... :)
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 quadruple 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.
