Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
At one point, triple-doubles were few and far between, but a sharp rise in triple-doubles has taken a lot of the luster out of the feat. The same can’t be said with the quadruple double. Only four players in NBA history have ever recorded a quadruple-double: Nate Thurmond, Alvin Robertson, Hakeem Olajuwon, and David Robinson. Not only that but it’s been 28 years since the last one, further proving how difficult it is to achieve.
Doing so requires a versatile skillset that only a few players have, and even then, most are never able to actually accomplish the feat. That begs the question: which current player will be the next to join the NBA’s most exclusive stat-based group? Let’s look at three players who can record a quadruple double.
NBA Player #3: Dejounte Murray
After not recording a triple-double for the first three seasons of his career, Dejounte Murray has really made up for the lost time. In the last two seasons, he’s recorded a staggering 18 triple-doubles (including one in a play-in game). In fact, he had already secured the San Antonio Spurs’ record by surpassing Robinson in that category before being traded to Atlanta.
Murray excels as a rebounder and has made incredible strides as a passer, finishing fourth in assists last season. That, combined with his improvement as a scorer and his defensive prowess, gives him the chance to record a quadruple-double. Since the fourth statistical category is always the most difficult, and Murray has points, rebounding, and assists down pat, he’ll have to record 10 steals in a game too.
That is incredibly difficult to do, considering the record is 11 and only 21 players have ever recorded 10 steals in a game. Fortunately, Murray is one of the only active players capable of doing it, as evident by him leading the league in steals last season and his career-high being eight.
Another thing that works in his favor is that now that he’s in Atlanta, he won’t be the number one option and can focus more on other facets of his game besides scoring. He’s already one of the best rebounding guards in the NBA and can rack up assists as the second offensive option or as the primary option when not playing with Trae Young. He can also focus more on defense too, thus making the possibility of recording 10 steals, and by extension, a quadruple-double, a real one.
