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Stats are a crucial aspect of basketball, just like any other sport, but achieving a feat such as a quadruple-double is far from easy. Throughout the history of the NBA, very few players have achieved this in a single game, although it is an astonishing spectacle to witness when it happens. Let’s break down what exactly a quadruple-double in basketball is and which NBA players have achieved this famous feat.
In professional basketball, the “double” refers to achieving double-digits in a certain statistical category, which can include points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks. Reaching 10+ blocks or steals in a game is very rare though (in the NBA especially), which is why triple-doubles can be commonplace for a player having an extremely good game, as a triple-double can be achieved with 10+ points, 10+ rebounds and 10+ assists in a game. A quadruple-double would mean that a player not only has 10+ points, 10+ rebounds and 10+ assists, but a fourth category as well, such as steals, which is very difficult to pull off on its own even without the traditional three.
Nate Thurmond would be the first of just four players in NBA history to achieve a quadruple-double, which happened on October 18, 1974. At the time, Thurmond played for the Chicago Bulls, and in his very first game for the team, he faced the Atlanta Hawks and finished with 22 points, 14 rebounds, 13 assists and 12 blocks. Part of why Thurmond was able to achieve these record-breaking debut stats was due to the game heading to overtime, but still, he’d accomplish the first official quadruple-double in NBA history.
Alvin Robertson of the San Antonio Spurs would be the next player to accomplish a quadruple-double on February 18, 1986. After nearly a decade of no further quadruple-doubles, Robertson would score 20 points, get 11 rebounds, put up 10 assists and commit 10 steals against the Phoenix Suns, putting him up as the second player in history to get a quadruple-double, and the first to do so in regulation. Not only that, but to this day, Robertson is the only guard in NBA history to record a quadruple-double.
Proving how rare quadruple-doubles are in the NBA, it’d take another four years before Hakeem Olajuwon of the Houston Rockets would do the unthinkable. Similar to Robertston, Olajuwon would play the Bucks and finish with 18 points, 16 rebounds, 11 blocks and 10 assists, giving him the third recorded quadruple-double in NBA history. Unfortunate for Olajuwon is the fact that he could’ve been the first player ever to record two quadruple-doubles, as earlier that month he finished a game against the Warriors with 29 points, 18 rebounds, 11 blocks and 9 assists, coming up just one assist short.
The last accomplished quadruple-double to date came from David Robinson of the San Antonio Spurs, where he put up 34 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists and 10 blocks all within regulation against the Detroit Pistons. While plenty of triple-doubles have appeared since, it has now been 30 years since a quadruple-double took place in the NBA.
Ricky Rubio of the Minnesota Timberwolves would come close to achieving a quadruple-double against the New York Knicks on December 16, 2015, but finished with nine points, 10 rebounds, 12 assists and eight steals.
Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors would also come close to a quadruple-double on February 10, 2017 against the Memphis Grizzlies, where he put up four points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists, and 10 steals.
Interestingly, Victor Wembanyama was one of the closest modern NBA players to achieve a quadruple-double in recent years. Out of the four players we’ve mentioned who have accomplished a quadruple-double, two of them (Robertson and Robinson) played for the Spurs. Wembanyama nearly became the third Spurs player in history with a quadruple-double against the Boston Celtics on April 2, 2024, where he put up 42 points, 11 assists, nine rebounds, and eight steals.
Liam has been a major sports fan and soccer player for over a decade, with a particular focus on major top-level soccer leagues, including the EPL, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and MLS. He has written numerous promotional articles for various top sportsbooks and continues to publish historical and factual sports articles covering the NFL, MLS, NHL, MLB, EPL and more.