Photo Credit: Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images
Quadruple-doubles are among the rarest achievements in the NBA. The league has officially recognized only 4 quadruple doubles. Nate Thurmond, Hakeem Olajuwon, Alvin Robertson and David Robinson are the only players to be listed as players reaching this rare feat.
But, there are more than four. Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell have done it numerous times, but unfortunately for them, the league only started counting steals and blocks as official stats in 1973.
However, we’re not going to talk about the times Wilt and Bill had quadruple doubles, because 20 years ago today, Tim Duncan also was robbed of a quadruple double.
In Game 6 of the 2003 NBA Finals, Tim Duncan officially recorded a triple double by having an insane statline: 21 points, 20 rebounds, 10 assists and 8 blocks.
If you take a closer look, you’ll see that Tim Duncan actually recorded 10 blocks and therefore was robbed of a quadruple double. Two clear blocks, one at the 5:38 mark of the video and one at the 5:55 mark, weren’t counted.
The league did not count the first as a block, but as Duncan swatting the ball out of bounds, although you can clearly see that the player went for a shot and not a pass, even though it wasn’t a traditional “shot”. Therfore it should have counted as a block.
In the second scene, a block was officially recorded, but the league gave the block to David Robinson instead of Tim Duncan, who, if you look closely, was the player blocking the shot. With these two additional blocks, Tim Duncan would have ended the game with a statline of 21 points, 20 rebounds, 10 assists and 10 blocks – in a Finals clinching game. What an amazing performance.
