Nate Thurmond is number one. Thurmond will be remembered as the first guy to record a quadruple-double, which he accomplished in the first game of the 1974 season, against the Atlanta Hawks. Thurmond finished the game with 22 points, 14 rebounds, 13 assists, and 12 blocks. He's only the second player ever to do so after John Salley in 2002.
Thurmond was born on January 4th, 1952 in Chicago, Illinois. He played high school basketball for Simeon Career Academy in Chicago before going on to play college ball at South Carolina and Cincinnati. After his career at Cincinnati ended, Thurmond joined the NBA draft and was selected by the Portland Trail Blazers with the third overall pick. He immediately made an impact by scoring 22 points, 14 rebounds, and 13 assists in his debut game against the Atlanta Hawks. He went on to have two more seasons with 20 or more points, 10 or more rebounds, and 10 or more assists before finishing his career with averages of 19.0 points, 11.3 rebounds, and 9.4 assists.
Thurmond was named to the All-NBA team twice, in 1975-76 and 1976-77. He also won the NBA Most Improved Player Award in 1975-76 when he had 22.5 points, 11.5 rebounds, and 9.5 assists.
The person, their opponent, the day, and the legacy of the players who accomplished this rare achievement are listed below: Nate "The Great" Thurmond, best known for his 11-year tenure with the Golden State Warriors (1963–1974), recorded his quadruple-double with the Chicago Bulls. He was the first player in history to have a quadruple-double.
That same player (Wilt Chamberlain) has brought down 50 rebounds twice in a game! A player has previously dished out 30 assists. Four quadruple-doubles have been recorded. A quintuple-double has never occurred and has never come close, making it the most difficult stat-based achievement in NBA history.
Only one other player in NBA history has accomplished a quadruple-double since Olajuwon, with David Robinson accomplishing the feat in 1994. The last player to do it before Olajuwon was Michael Jordan in 1990.
A quadruple-double is defined as 10 rebounds, 10 assists, 10 steals and 100 points. There have been several players over the years who have come close, but no one has ever reached all four numbers in one game.
The first player to attempt a quadruple-double was Ralph Sampson of the Houston Rockets. He did it on April 13, 1986 during an opening night match up against the Portland Trail Blazers. The closest anyone has come is Derrick Rose with nine rebounds, ten assists, and ten steals in 2008. The point guard recorded this statistic while playing for the Chicago Bulls.
In addition to being the only person to accomplish this task, Ralph Sampson is also the only player in NBA history to score 50 or more points while grabbing at least 10 rebounds. He achieved this feat three times, all within a six-game period in 1986. The other two players to do so are Michael Jordan and LeBron James.
Having said that, there is one quadruple double that has been "close." Westbrook was like that a few years ago, when he averaged a triple double with 5.4 turnovers a game. It's still a long way from double digits, but the "bad" double of turnovers is the most likely method to get there.
There are two ways to get a quadruple double: 1 Turn the ball over 2 times or more; 2 Score 70 points or more. The first option isn't really possible, as we know that high turnover games tend to end in defeat for the turnoverer. However, the second option is quite achievable, especially these days when so many great players are shooting lights out from behind the arc. In fact, since 2007-08, there have only been five seasons where a player has not gotten at least one quadruple double during the season. Of those five players, three - James, Durant and Griffin - are in the NBA right now. The other two aren't even close to being considered among the best point guards in the league today - Chris Paul and Stephen Curry.
Since 2007-08, there have been 51 quadruple doubles scored in NBA history.
Bill Russell, his adversary, put up one of the most surprising quadruple doubles ever against Wilt in 1961: 15 points, 25 rebounds, 13 blocks, and 15 thefts... not assists but steals. It was also only the third time in NBA history that a player had scored 40 or more points while pulling down at least 20 rebounds (the other two times were by Russell himself).
Now, it's true that Wilt Chamberlain also had a quadruple double that year - however, he had already done so three times before this game (including twice against Russell). Thus, this game is considered by many to be the first of its kind in NBA history.
Furthermore, this game has been cited as an influence on Michael Jordan's own triple double season a few years later. He too had 15 points, 25 rebounds, and 13 blocks during Chicago's playoff matchup with Philadelphia that year.
So yes, Bill Russell did have a quadruple double in 1961. But there's a reason we don't hear about it very often - it wasn't very common back then!
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